Scotland

View from Calton Hill, Edinburgh

I spent last weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland with 5 friends from my program.  We did so much, hopefully I will be able to remember everything and organize it in a coherent blog post! Here we go:

We left Wednesday night for Scotland on a 10-hour bus ride.  It was exceptionally awful because MegaBus felt the need to have the A/C on all night and I, of course, ended up under the fan.  We arrived in Edinburgh at 7:30 Thursday morning.  I haven't been up that early here yet and was surprised to realize that the sun doesn't rise here until 8:15, makes me appreciate daylight savings.  We walked to our hostel, Edinburgh Backpackers, to drop off our bags and begin our day.  We had breakfast at The Elephant House, which is the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter novel.  Basically, I was on cloud 9!  We could see Edinburgh Castle and Greyfriar's Cemetary from the window.  I ordered a sausage breakfast roll, which was simply sausage on a bun, not my favorite meal.  In the bathroom people had graffiti-ed everywhere.  It was so awesome! So many Harry Potter quotes! I contributed with "Expecto Patronum" (a protective spell and my favorite spell) and my initials next to it. After breakfast we explored Edinburgh. 

At the museum, obviously learning lots

We went to the National Museum of Scotland, which was very nice but I am getting rather sick of museums so we spent most of the time there dressing up in the costumes...for children.  We also went to the University of Edinburgh and saw the oldest student union in Scotland (or maybe its the whole UK).  While half of the group went to the Museum of Childhood, two girls and I went to The Jolly Judge for a drink.  I ordered Tennent's Lager, an authentic Scottish beer. It was very good! That afternoon four of us went to Portabello Beach on the North Sea.  It was gorgeous and so fun.  For dinner we went to a place across from our hostel.  I ordered steak and ale pie, which is essentially a bowl of meat and ale.  It was good, but I'm not much of a meat eater. 

Portabello Beach

Steak and Ale Pie

The Scotsman's Lounge

Friday we spent the day in Glasgow, which is about an hour bus ride from Edinburgh.  If you ever go to Scotland, don't go to Glasgow.  There is really nothing worthwhile there.  We saw Glasgow Tower- basically a pole with an antenna that is completely unidentifiable.  The Glasgow Necropolis was

Glasgow Necropolis

probably the coolest thing we saw.  It's an old cemetery on a hill.  Near the Necropolis is the oldest house in Scotland! It was built in 1471!  It was very interesting.  Lunch was the best part of the day.  We went to an Italian restaurant and I had Caesar salad, spicy penne pasta and ice cream.  After Glasgow we went to a pub up the street from the hostel called the Scotsman's Lounge.  They had a
man singing and playing guitar.  He played everything from U2 to Van Morrison and Mumford and Sons.  We had a lot of fun at the pub!

Saturday was probably the best day we had in Scotland because we finally saw the sun!  We had breakfast at the cutest cafe next to our hostel.  I had eggs Benedict and black coffee, both were amazing!  We spent most of our day on an excellent (and free!) walking tour.  Our tour guide, Fiona,

Edinburgh Castle

was very funny and knew so much about Edinburgh's history!  We saw so many parts of Edinburgh and heard lots of fun stories.  Some of my favorites are:  the origin of the phrase "shitface wasted" comes from the days in Edinburgh when they would have to throw their feces out the window, which happened at 10 pm, the same time that bars closed.  So the drunks would be walking home, hear people yelling above them, look up and get hit in the face with...shit.  We also learned that the phrase the "graveyard shift" comes from when people would sit on their loved ones grave so that the body

Calton Hill, Edinburgh

would not be stolen and sold on the black market!  Another story was about a woman named Maggie Dickson who was sentenced to hang for adultery/hiding a pregnancy.  Somehow, she survived the hanging so they nicknamed her Half-Hanged Maggie, which is where J.K. Rowling got the idea for Nearly Headless Nick (seriously, if you're lost by all these Harry Potter references then watch the movies!!!).  We saw the Edinburgh Castle and got an amazing view.  But the best view was from Calton Hill (a MUST if you visit Edinburgh).  I will just post pictures because words cannot describe it! 



A few words on the great people of Scotland.  Kilts and bagpipes are not just a stereotype.  We heard bagpipes being played all the time, everywhere.  We also saw many people in kilts!  You cannot go one block without seeing a combination of the following: pub/whiskey bar, kilt shop and chocolate shop.  They also drink at all hours of the day, it's a serious hobby (quote from the museum).  They also do not like the British.  Actually, no one really does.  I met lots of Scots who like to get digs in at the Brits and even the Bulgarian cashier at a store had negative opinions of them!  We got called "lassie" a lot, which was great.  And the Scottish are just so nice in general, especially after living in London.  I had a great time and I can definitely say that Edinburgh is one of my favorite cities.

Last night I watched the Superbowl at the Imperial College Union, which started at 11:30 pm here.  I don't really care about the Ravens or 49ers, I was there to see Beyonce perform!  I have to say that B absolutely killed it! She was so amazing!  I left promptly after her performance because it was 1:30 am and I have morning class.

After class today 6 of us went to My Old Dutch, a pancake house, near our flat.  On Mondays certain crepes are only 5 pounds so we obviously had to take advantage of it!  I got a banana, nut and chocolate crepe with ice cream because I was really craving some sweets.  However, about half way through it I decided I had made a mistake.  As I write about it I can feel my stomach turning!  It was so delicious but soooo sweet.  I've decided that next time I will have to go with a "savory" crepe.

Upcoming events: my first 'Fish and Chips' meal on Thursday, Oxford on Friday and Camden/Little Venice on Saturday.  I should also mention that last week I booked a flight to Budapest for February 14-17!  It was a random and spur of the moment decision but I really wanted to take a completely random trip and I think I've made a good choice!