A very interesting Tuesday

A very strange thing happened on Tuesday morning: Mo's lecture and outing lined up! His lecture was coherent and I understood everything he talked about. This week we learned about the British radio. I learned that Britain was really strict about radio broadcasting in its early days. While America chose the commercial exploitation route, using advertisements and sponsored programs, radio was banned for a long time in Britain. Eventually, there became a limited monopoly owned by radio set receiver manufacturers-to fund their production, they would charge a "license to listen" fee when someone bought a radio. Then, the BBC regulated what was actually broadcast over the radio, which meant there were only about 4 radio stations until the 1950s. During the 50s-60s, the regulations loosened a bit and commercials were allowed, but there were still only about 5 legitimate radio stations, but even then, it was mostly talking because music was seen as low culture. It wasn't until 1990 that radio became completely unregulated. I thought this was so interesting, since radio was such a huge part of American life during the 20th century. T.V. was used to broadcast music and more "low culture," but still not to the same degree as in America. Definitely an informative lecture.

For our outing, we went to the London Greek Radio, which is just what it sounds like-a local radio station run by a group of Greeks. Who knew there were 400,000 Greeks in just London? We were given a tour by the DJs of the facility, and we even got to go on air! Everyone at the station was really friendly and happy to have us there. It was a really cool experience, because with big radio stations, you don't usually get to have such an intimate tour. But the REALLY cool thing is, even though they seem like a small station, they have a really large listenership. Good going, Mo!

Our culture by design outing was just as interesting: a shopping mall. This may sound silly, but I miss the mall. It's such an American thing, and there just aren't malls in the city of London. As we walked around the mall, everyone kept commenting on how "at home" they felt. We are such Americans. In particular, Jay wanted us to look at "The Village" part of the mall, aka the designer area. We were told to pay attention to how each store displays their values; how do they show you the company from walking into the store? We went into stores like Miu Miu, De Beers, Dior, Prada, and Burberry in groups of 3. Immediately when we walked into the stores we felt out of place. The associates would greet us, without a smile, and look us up and down before asking if we needed help finding anything. They would then follow us around the store, pretending to fix displays while keeping an eye on us. I've been in designer stores before just to say I have, but I hadn't been paying as close attention to how I was treated. The stores all feel like museums, and I'm afraid to touch anything. We had a really strange experience going into Ted Baker: the alarm went off as we ENTERED the store...so the associate, very condescendingly, asked us to leave the store and come back in individually to find out who set off the alarm. The alarm didn't go off when we did that. Right, because if I had stolen something I would come BACK into the store. It was so weird. Then of course she followed us around the store until we left. Definitely an interesting shopping experience!

Tuesday night we booked Italy things!! Ah! I'm so excited to go to Italy for spring break! We fly into Pisa on Friday, then take a bus to Florence. On Saturday, we're going to Venice for the day. Then we spend Sunday-Tuesday afternoon in Florence, and take a train to Rome Tuesday afternoon. We stay there til Friday evening. Italy was on the top of my list for places to go while in Europe, so I'm unbelievably stoked. 

Wednesday was pretty low key: we learned about WW2 in history and watched a documentary. For art, people presented their midterms and then we went to the Tate Britain. I miss going to the National Gallery, it was so close! The Tate Britain has really cool art, though. We looked at the "sublime" paintings of nature: viewing nature as chaotic and frightening. Not really my taste, but it's still always neat to see famous paintings in real life!

Miss you already, Ireland

Sunday was our last full day in Ireland, and we took full advantage of this by SLEEPING IN. Well, sleeping until 9 that it. We got up and had breakfast at the hostel, showered, and walked around.

We went to Grafton Street, where there is a lot of shopping. There were cool stores, but most of them are in London too. We were looking more for gift or uniquely Ireland shops, and didn't see many. Still a really cool street though!

Next we ventured to Temple Bar to take some pictures and maybe find somewhere to eat lunch. Most of the places were pubs and pretty expensive, so we ended up at a place called the Porterhouse about a block off Temple Bar. It was really great food and a cool place. The Ireland vs. Scotland rugby match was that day, so we stayed a watched a few minutes of the game. Rugby is a really strange sport...I'd definitely have to look up the rules because I had no idea what was going on!

The river Liffey

After lunch we walked over to the Guinness Factory along the River Liffey. I was hesitant about going to the factory since I can't drink beer; I was nervous it would be a waste of money. It definitely wasn't. The building is shaped like a pint and is 7 stories tall! It was really cool to see the history of the company and what goes into making beer. We got a little complimentary taste of the beer. I took a few sips and have definitely decided I'm okay with not being able to drink Guinness. It's gross and heavy, and that's really the only way to describe it! The taste reminds me of something, but I can't put my finger on it. At the end, Kara, Lucy, and Fiona got to pour their own pints! I didn't do it because then I'd be stuck with my own pint that I knew I wouldn't drink. I was told I could exchange my drink ticket for a soda. 

The very top floor of the factory is called the gravity bar. It is SO COOL. It's a room with all glass and you get a great 360 degree view of Dublin. It was really beautiful.

No Guinness for me!

We had another early morning the next day to go home, so we hung out at the hostel for a bit before going to bed early. Getting home took no time at all-the security in Europe is so lax! I'm so exhausted but it was definitely a great weekend. I love Ireland!

The Cliffs of Moher

Saturday was another early morning, but not NEARLY as early, thank goodness. Our Paddywagon bus was  leaving at 7:10 at the tourist office about 10 minutes away. We woke up nice and early and made it to the stop with plenty of time. Paddywagon tours are usually in huge green buses, but unfortunately  there were so many tours that day that we had a boring white bus. I was still really tired, so I slept most of the way. We were going completely across Ireland, and our tour guide even said that the tour wouldn't officially start until we got to Galway, which was about 2.5 hours from Dublin. I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that I can't sleep on moving vehicles, however. I dozed off and on on the way to Galway, but nothing substantial. The bus was really cold at first and Matt (our tour guide) played music the whole way. At least he played good music-mostly Irish artists, with some traditional Irish folk music thrown in.

We stopped at Dunguaire Castle first and took a few pictures. It was a little strange, Matt didn't really explain what the castle was or say its name, he kind of just said "okay, we're stopping for 40 minutes, go take pictures." Which we did happily, but it was strange. He was a very funny and informative tour guide otherwise, though.

We hit the west coast next, at Galway. Right before lunch, we stopped at some "mini cliffs."

I hate heights so the cliffs kind of freak me out, but it's just so beautiful. Ireland is absolutely breath taking. It's not as green as Scotland (it's more rocky), but just as overpowering. 

After stopping at a cute pub (where I finally got some good salmon), we went to the real thing! Again, pictures don't do it justice. Even being there I didn't think it was real. There are two ways to up to the cliffs. One way takes to to a O'Brein's Tower (where you pay 2 Euro to see the cliffs from 10 feet higher...uh) and you get a view of the bigger cliffs. We started over here first. Thank goodness it was a lot of walking, we were feeling pretty bad about everything we ate at lunch (a common trend while abroad). 

Then we headed over to the other side. After a certain point, you could go beyond the barricades and pretty much to the edge of the cliffs. This was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. I definitely didn't go all the way to the edge, but I'm glad I went over the barricades. It is literally a straight drop from the green grass to the incredibly blue water below. We were really lucky with the weather we had. Usually wind is a huge problem, but we had barely a breeze. It was pretty cold, but it wasn't raining or anything, just cloudy. At one point, the sun came out! The Cliffs of Moher was definitely my favorite part of Ireland. I would recommended to anyone who goes to Ireland. Absolutely breath taking and worth the $60 ticket. 

The tour got back around 7, and we were all pretty tired from the day. We ate at a delicious burger place (just fries for me!), and then went to a bar close to our hostel. A guy stopped me on the way to the bar and asked if I was from Sweden. When I said no, he proceeded to guess essentially every other country in the world where a person with blonde hair and blue eyes could come from. When I finally said I was from American he couldn't believe it. So I suppose I can pass as a European until I open my mouth! The bar was pretty crowded, and the guy and his friend told us that Saturdays are better in Dublin than Fridays. We were bummed, because we planned on heading back early that night. We didn't stay too long, but it was a cool bar, definitely a "natives" place. We've noticed that while Temple Bar is definitely crazy and touristy, Dublin on the whole doesn't feel like a tourist trap. It feels like any other city we've been to, in a good way.

Struggles at Stansted

The weekend trip to Dublin definitely started off on the wrong foot. To begin with, our flight left at 6:30 from an airport an hour away from our house. My roommate Kara and I were both going, so we set our alarms for 3 AM. We went to sleep around 10, so we got less than 5 hours of sleep because we were so excited. We took a cab to a bus station because the tube wasn't open, then a  bus to the airport. The bus was FREEZING! When we got to the airport, Kara had forgotten to get small sized things, so they threw away all of her toiletries. I got through okay, and once that was over, so did Kara. But our friends Fiona and Lucy were in another line. Kara and I went through to the sitting area and waited for about 10 minutes, thinking that was really weird. Turns out (for no apparent reason), when Fiona went through, a security officer took out every single thing in her carry on and checked it. It was ridiculous. Once we were back together, we got a bite to eat and headed to our gate. Once we got to the gate, Fiona realized she didn't have her boarding pass (along with everything else she needed for the rest of the trip paper-wise). She must have left it at security. Luckily, she was able to just have the boarding person print her one, but Kara and her ended up being the last people on the plane.

Everything completely turned around once we got to Ireland. We were surprised to see all the signs in Gaelic (actually called Irish in Ireland) and then in English. All of the airport staff were really nice, and getting through customs took all of 1 minute-the guy literally just stamped our passports without asking questions. Not sure how safe that was, but we weren't complaining. We caught a bus from the airport to the City Center, where we were dropped off by Trinity College. We got a little mixed up, so we went into the tourist center and got directed to our hostel, the Avalon House. It was a little bit away from the main drag of Temple Bar, but it was a nice building.

Our hostel

We couldn't check in until 2 (it was currently 9:30), but we were able to store our bags in the luggage room. We got breakfast at the cafe attached to the hostel and saw there was a free walking tour at 10:30. Our tour guide was an adorable Irish girl, and had bright red hair and blue eyes. She was 22, and really friendly and talkative. We met up with a couple other groups from other hostels and began our tour. 

Dublin was established as a Viking settlement in the 9th century and remained under Viking rule until Norman invasion in the 12th century. The King of Leinster (a province in Ireland) decided he wanted to rule all of Ireland, so he enlisted the help of a man called Strongbow to do so. Strongbow kicked out the Vikings and became king of Ireland, until King Henry II of England decided that he wanted to rule instead. The English ruled in Ireland until 1922, when Ireland gained their independence through the Eater rebellion. Dublin is the capital and most populated city in Ireland!

We went to Trinity College first.

Trinity College was built in 1592 and was the first university in Dublin. Today, the Book of Kells is held in the library. I wish we could have seen it, but you have to pay to do so. The college had really beautiful architecture, especially the arch in the middle. There's a superstition at the college that if a freshman walks under it, they'll fail all of their exams. So if you see people walking under the arch, you know they're tourists.

Next we walked to the Dublin Castle. It was founded in the 13th century after the Norman invasion as a strong hold. Unfortunately, the only original thing from this time period remaining is the large tower.  Until 1922, when the Irish gained their independence from England, it was the center of British rule in Ireland. Today it is used for the Irish government. Usually you can take a tour of the castle, but there is the EU Presidency next year (though I don't really understand what that means). 

The Dubh Linn Garden used to be a big black lake during the time of the Vikings. Dubh Linn is actually literally translated to "black pool." Now it's a pretty garden!

Next up was Christ Church Cathedral. It's one of the oldest cathedrals in Dublin, along with St.Patrick's Cathedral. The Tom and Jerry cartoon was actually inspired by bones of a cat and mouse found behind an organ in this church!

Eva, our tour guide, took us up to Temple Bar after Christ Church, where we stopped in at a pub for some lunch. We had signed up for a pub crawl through the hostel that morning, and she told us she was running it that night!

We were EXHAUSTED, so we headed back to the hostel and checked in and napped. I don't think we had really thought about how strange staying in a hostel would be. We signed up for a 12 bed room because it was the cheapest. We ended up having a few male roommates-one 40 year old French man and a few from Sweden. It was really bizarre. And everyone on the hall shared the same bathroom. So awkward. Luckily, our roommates were quiet and nice. Another group from JMU came that weekend too, and while their roommates were guys our age, they were really noisy. We're definitely spending a bit more money to have more private rooms in the future. 

We headed out in search of food before the pub crawl and ended up at this great place where I got an awesome salad. They had things all over their menu indicating what allergens were in it! After we finished, we went to Fitzsimons, where the pub crawl was starting. We met up with Eva, who told us that we would be going to 4 pubs, getting a free shot at each, and then ending up at a night club. We started with a shot of whiskey from Fitzsimons and enjoyed the live music at the bar. After a little while, Eva rounded us up and we went to get a free slice of pizza. The second bar we went to was a bit more low key, with a guy playing his guitar. We got a shot of Bailey's here and hung out at a table talking. All 9 of us went on the crawl, and we met quite a few people from Holland! The third bar wasn't as fun, but we got Kamikaze shots which were very tasty. We could definitely tell that we were able to get free alcohol and use the areas we could because we were there much earlier than the usual crowd. It was really fun going with everyone, but it might have been more "real" to go later. The last bar was getting more crowded, and it had more of a "rocker" feel. Here we got free shots of tequila. Finally we ended up at the night club; even though it was already 12, it was  dead. They played some good music, but we had to be up really early for our Cliffs of Moher tour, so we called it a night after about a half an hour. Definitely a fun time at Temple Bar!

Pre-Ireland happenings

I leave for Dublin tomorrow morning (really tonight, we're getting a cab at 3:30, ouch!), so I figured I'd update my blog before I leave!

On Monday I ventured to Whole Foods in Piccadilly Circus. It was actually a really nice day, and it gave me a good excuse to get some fresh air. It is certainly not as big as the one in Richmond, although it is two stories (food downstairs, beauty and health upstairs). They had some things I had been searching for-peach salsa and refried beans, as well as some cool things I wanted to try-a block of fake cheddar cheese. I circled the store about 3 times making sure I saw everything, before unloading about 20 pounds on groceries. Whoops! Probably won't go back there very often, though. I found sunflower seed butter, but was very disappointed-it tastes like dirty sunflower seeds. I worked on a 5 page paper about Romeo + Juliet (the Baz Luhrmann movie) that was due on Thursday, until my flat mate brought me a package!! I was so surprised since the only mail I'd gotten so far was letters from my parents (which are greatly appreciated and are hanging on my bulletin board). It was FOOD from Paige! Yay! She sent me sunflower seed butter, Glutino pretzels, and Martin's blue corn chips. SHE KNOWS ME SO WELL. I've been talking to Paige almost every day, but it's always nice to be surprised by something nice :)

Tuesday morning in Media and Society, we talked about the recorded media. We actually talked more about newspapers, as our "letter to America" due that day was about print media. Mo talked about the progression of recorded music, from country to modern rock. Our outing was to SoHo. Per usual, most of the places Mo pointed out had nothing to do with the recorded media, but we did go into some cool record shops. The first place he took us was the Hare Krishna temple where we walked into their worship room. It was very strange; I felt like an intruder even though I know they are a very open religion. I just felt like a tourist, and I didn't really like that he made us walk into the room where people were praying. We did see some cool things on the walk, though:

We finished our tour of SoHo at the oldest French bakery in London, Maison Bertaux, where I got a delicious (and over-priced) gluten free macaroon! Culture by Design was cancelled that day because our professor was sick, so we had the rest of the afternoon free! No one knew what to do at first but then the logical answer happened: shopping. Fiona and I hit up Forever 21, where I hadn't been yet, and spent entirely too much money on clothes. The Forever 21 here is more expensive than the one in the States, but the store is much cleaner and the customer service is MUCH better.

After returning home and eating dinner, Kara, Megan, Bronte, and I set off for the Millwall Football Club match our entire group was attending. We left with plenty of time and decided to take the bus instead of the Tube. For reasons unknown to us, the bus randomly terminated at a stop before we had reached our destination (not supposed to happen). 2 more of the same bus route passed, saying they were terminating there too. We waited about 30 minutes total until a bus FINALLY came to take us to the place. Of course this club is in a not so nice part of town and we were a little unsure of where we were going. Luckily, we made it, but we were about 30 minutes late. It was a very different sporting experience from any other I've had, and I'm not really sure why. Yelling at the teams is totally normal, but the English fans were more rowdy and rude. It didn't seem like a social event, just somewhere to go and YELL. Everyone seemed so angry and  every other word out of the people's mouths around us was some curse word. It was definitely a cultural experience. We decided to leave a few minutes before the end of the game to beat the rush out. This didn't really end up happening, but we still made it home okay! I believe Millwall won, so that's good!

Wednesday was history day! We talked about the lovely subject of Hitler's rise to power in European history before walking to the Weiner Library nearby. The Weiner Library is a Holocaust and Genocide research center and museum. Our guide talked to us a little bit about the artifacts they have from the time, as well as a cool exhibit of Stephen Roth's cartoons from the time. It was really interesting to see the humorous take on the events of Nazi Germany. Toby, our guide, showed us a magazine published just last year in Germany that still has Nazi propaganda. I was shocked. How can any one deny the 6 million deaths that occurred during the Holocaust? It was incredible to see this magazine.

In art people presented (including me) about their midterm paintings. We had to choose one painting from Rembrandt and one from Rubens and compare them. I chose a portrait of a woman from each. My Rembrandt is of an elderly lady that is almost monochromatic, while the Rubens is of a young lady with very vibrant colors. I really liked the contrast, and my professor seemed to like my choices too! We then walked to the Wallace Collection, which was like stepping into (what I imagine) Versailles. It was SO Rococo it's ridiculous. So much gold and pastels and cherubs. So over the top, but so beautiful. Definitely something I like to look at, but would never want to live in.

On Thursday, I finished up my film paper in the morning and got some things done to prepare for Ireland. We talked about Pride and Prejudice in film, which was great. While the book is a bit difficult to read, I love the Keira Knightley movie. For film, everyone is going to see "No" tonight, a film about General Pinochet in Chile. Should be heartwarming (not). We're all probably going to go right to sleep afterwards so we'll be slightly rested for our early morning departure for Dublin!

EDINBURGH

Let me start by saying that the Scottish highlands are probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen; unfortunately, my camera was unable to capture their beauty accurately.  But I tried!

Also, a pronounciation lesson: at first I thought Edinburgh was pronounced "EdinBURG," but I was quickly correctly. It is really "Edin-BOROUGH," although the Scottish pronounce it more like "Edin-burra."

DAY ONE! We left bright and early on Friday morning (our train left at 9:30) from Kings Cross Station. We had reserved seats, and I ended up at a table, which was nice. The journey was supposed to be 5 hours, so I settled in with my iPod and slept for a little while. At each stop, a woman would come on the PA and say where we were and our estimated arrival time in Edinburgh. For most of the trip, we were about 20 minutes behind schedule-not too bad. After about 3 hours, I couldn't sleep anymore so I ate my lunch and just looked out the window. Up until this point, the scenery had been pretty, but nothing we hadn't seen before on our previous train rides. Finally I saw green farmland and little Scottish cottages. It was a pretty clear and sunny day, which made it even better.

The coast!

Of course, as we started nearing Edinburgh, we smelled something like burning rubber and our train completely stopped. Thankfully, nothing was wrong with our train, but apparently one up the tracks had broken down. We had to wait for the rails to be cleared, and then we picked up the passengers who had been on that train. By this time everyone was sick of being on a train; it had been the 5 hours our ride was supposed to bed. We ended up pulling into Edinburgh about an hour after we were supposed to. I can't read on the train because I get motion sick, so I was getting pretty bored. We got off the train and walked to our hotel, which was about a 10-15 minute walk away. 

The hotel was cute and pretty nice (if not freezing). Of course, I happened to be on the top floor again, and had to walk up 4 flights of semi-spiral stairs to get to the room. Oh well, I'm used to it now from Madison House. My only real complaint was the fact that both times I showered in the morning, my water was FREEZING. But it got the job done and was a place for us to sleep. We thought for sure all 28 of us would take up the hotel, but there were lots of other people staying there-probably families who we really annoyed, whoops!

After we put our stuff down, we all headed back to Waverley station for a hop on-hop off bus tour of Edinburgh. The sun was starting to set, and it was really quite beautiful. There was some time to kill before our tour started, so I took some pictures of the area. 

Hotel next to Waverley Station

Memorial to the author Sir Walter Scott

Our tour was interesting, but pretty cheesy. We wore headphones and there was a recording of a man and a women explaining each thing we saw, but they had little banter and jokes that Fiona and I kept cringing at. We went on the "Majestic Tour," so we saw the Royal Botanical Gardens, Scottish Parliament, and other royal things. It was starting to get dark, so I couldn't get a very clear view of a lot of buildings. It was still nice to sit and look at Edinburgh, though!

The tour was finished around dinner time, so a group of us set off in search of somewhere to eat. We found a cool place called the Smoke Stack near our hotel that had a dinner special until 6:30; it was 6:20. We rushed inside and ordered our food. Not "authentic" Scottish food, but still very good and the service was great. The deal was you got an appetizer and a main course for the price of a normal main course. I got prawn cocktail and a goat cheese salad. So delicious! We had passed a restaurant advertising deep fried Mars bars on our way to the hotel, so of course we went to check it out for dessert. At this place, Cafe Piccante, you can get any candy bar deep fried. I had a bite and it was deliciously disgusting. Definitely a one time thing. On the way back we also passed a cool store that advertised wheat free and vegetarian food! I popped in and got some snacks for our tours the following days. 

We headed back to the hotel room and got ready to go out. People in our group had heard about this place called the 3 Sisters, so we went there. It was AWESOME. It was a bar but they were playing really great 90s music when we walked in. We met so many people on stag (bachelor) and hen (bachlorette) parties. It was really strange. They would ask us what we were doing in Scotland and we would ask them what THEY were doing! It was really fun to dance and sing all night. We left when the bar closed and headed straight to bed.

DAY TWO! Five hours after falling asleep, I had to wake up for our Scottish Highlands tour. I took a freezing shower then had some breakfast from the hotel, which was actually pretty tasty. Our tour bus picked us up at 9:15 and we headed out to the countryside. I could tell right away that my stomach was not going to be happy with me this day. Not only was I still feeling the effects from the previous night, but the driver drove very fast and, since it was a bus, jerkily. The roads we drove on were very windy; that part of the day was really unpleasant. Our tour guide Patrick was great though. He wore a kilt and the whole get up, and was constantly cracking (lame) jokes, mostly about the English. I don't know how he didn't lose his voice, he talked the entire time, telling us really interesting information about everything we saw. 

But the views were INCREDIBLE. Once we got out of the city, it was all green and flat, with a few rolling hills. I fell asleep for a little bit, but woke up at Doune Castle. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed here! It was a really cool old castle. Patrick our tour guide said it was a "small" castle, so we were given about 45 minutes to explore it. I don't know what a big castle would be, cause this thing was huge! There were so many rooms and little passageways. We went up spiral staircases (which were terrifying) and even got to go to the top of the castle. Everyone was yelling "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberry!" down to the people below.

View from the top!

We continued through the countryside and I continued to feel sicker...Everything was beautiful but I just wasn't feelin it. Finally we stopped somewhere to get lunch and stretch. I got a HUGE baked potato with tuna salad on top. I felt much better after lunch, although everyone was saying how badly they were feeling. We stopped a couple more times on our journey in some really cool little towns. 

I've never seen anything like this scenery. The hills were just straight cliffs, with lochs (lakes) at the bottom. The fog covered half of the mountains, they seemed to go miles into the sky. I've lived in the mountains in Harrisonburg, but this is so different. It was actually breathtaking. 

At one of our stops, I got a clan colored scarf! I had been told two clans (Ferguson and Cameron), and I wasn't totally sure which was more "correct," so I just got the Cameron clan because I thought it was prettier (and my middle name is Cameron!). 

We got back around 7 to Edinburgh, grabbed dinner from Tesco and ate it in our room. Even though I had slept all day, I was still feeling really tired and run down, so I decided to stay in for the night. My roommates went to the same bar as the night before. I on the other hand read Pride and Prejudice and went to bed at 10:30. No regrets!

DAY THREE! Our last day was devoted to Edinburgh Castle and free time. We could sleep in a little bit, and didn't have to meet for our tour til 10. At 10, we walked over to the Edinburgh Castle. There were a few options: wander on your own, buy an audio tour, or wait for a guided tour. Colleen and I decided to do an audio tour. It ended being okay. The information for each location was really long and we were more interested in looking at the views that listening for 5 minutes. I should have done the guided tour because it would have been easier to hold my attention. Oh well! It was still beautiful and very interesting.

It's a miracle the castle is still standing, actually. It's been through many wars and sieges (many by the British), and has undergone a lot of damage. But it's still standing today, a testament to the fighting spirit of the Scottish!

After our tour, we were free to do whatever we wanted. Everyone was starving, so we went to a pub nearby on the Royal Mile. Everyone wanted to try haggis, so an authentic Scottish place was the way to go. The restaurant had lots of vegetarian options of the traditional Scottish food, so I got vegetarian haggis. Not really sure what was in it or how it compares to the real thing, but it was good! It was almost like rice. I think they put nuts and oatmeal in it to make mine. It was served with sweet and white mashed potatoes. Whatever was in it, it was delicious! Our server was really nice too; she was giving us suggestions of where to go and joking with us about the weather (which was awesome).

After filling up at lunch, we decided to check out the shops on the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is three streets, each about a mile long that goes from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace. It it part of Old Town Edinburgh. The streets are old cobblestone and lined with Scottish cashmere shops. Every so often we would hear someone on the street playing bagpipes. Colleen and I wandered into shops buying gifts for ourselves and family. I got a pretty Celtic knot ring on the street (it's sterling silver, so it was only 9 pounds). It was such a great day to be outside: sunny and 50 degrees. Everyone was joking it felt like summer in Scotland! I just spent the day wandering around Edinburgh, which was nice after such a long day on Saturday. 

Our whole group met back at the hotel at 4 to walk back to the train station. Our train left at 5. Thankfully, we got back to London early this time! I was so exhausted, but it was a great weekend. I already want to go back to Scotland!!