A Scottish Weekend

The Palace of Holyrood (The Queens official residence in Scotland)

me with a random street performer person

our side of our hostel room!

Me and Alie (friend from Onalaska) with the Tower of Edinburgh behind us

View of the old town from Calton Hill with the castle in the background

Captains Log: Its currently 6:14 PM and am sitting in my room again after dinner...Having hopes to get a few more things done before we celebrate Bank Holiday tonight!

WOW. What a weekend it was. I had started to plan out what time I was going to jump in the shower on Friday morning by telling people that I was going to get in at 6, and they had to plan accordingly around me. I woke up at about 5 30 to people screaming and running through the hallways...I soon found out why they were screaming. Our hot water in the showers had dissapeared and everyone who wanted to take a shower before we left for Scotland was extremely dissapointed.

We left the castle in Alniwck around 7AM and arrived in Edinburgh around 9:30 ish. We first hiked up Calton Hill; where we were able to get a 360 degree view of the magnificent city of Edinburgh. We then trekked back down the hill and got back on the bus for a tour through new town and then was dropped off at the Edinburgh castle (the start of the Royale Mile). We had about an hour and a half to make our way down the Royal Mile and meet at the New Scottish Parliment building. The Royale Mile reminded me a lot of State Street in Madison.

We were able to see the Palace of Holyrood (The Queens offical residence in Scotland)...but we couldnt go in because it was closed for some religous event being held there. We toured the New Scottish Parliment building. It was one of the most modern buildings in the city, and the architecture was very visually appealing. There is a lot of history in this part of the world and many exchanges of territory and deaths of kings and such.

After the Scottish Parliment we got back on the bus and headed back up to the castle. The castle was immense! Significantly a lot more stunning than the one I can call home for 2 months. It was perched high on the hill (bluff) and was definitely a castle used for defense. We were able to walk around and see the castle for about 2 hours. I saw the Crown Jewels of Scotland, and many more unique things historical in Scotland.

Then our day started to get interesting. ... We walked from the castle to our hostel. It was a solid 15 minute walk and we had a map so it wasnt bad. None of us knew what to expect out of our hostel, but the pictures online seemed to portray a reassuring feeling that it was an alright place to stay. There were 3 different groups of us students who stayed in 3 different hostels. Ours was the furthest away, but was only 15pounds for one night. We were worried because we booked 9 beds in an 18 bed room...and when we checked in the front desk man said it was a busy night. We ended up only having two other roommates in our room for the evening (2 brothers our age from New Zealand). After having a couple drinks with them at the bar in the lobby of our hostel, we took a cab to the Grass Market to begin the night. We went to about 4 or 5 different pubs and had a great experience talking with the people of Edinburgh and seeing what the nightlife there was like. I tried a Scottish beer, and probably will never have it again...it was a creamy beer, and was not appealing to me.

We then got up early...what we thought was early to leave the hostel at 11AM. We proceeded to walk towards Princes Street, where all the main shopping was. I was able to meet my friend from Onalaska who had been studying in Steerlings, Scotland for a semester (she was leaving next week). She took us around Edinburgh and showed us the Elephant House Cafe (the birthplace of Harry Potter). Alie and I also grabbed a snack at a small cafe called Chocolate Soup. We then hit us H&M where a bunch of us picked up some pretty sweet deals.

We sat around outside a lot yesterday just enjoying the sunny day, and then I went with Alie to go last minute Souviniour (sp?) shopping. There was one alley way that had 129 steps up it, to get to the Royal Mile, and I had walked them 3 times....I must say if I dont have rockin calf muscules by the end of this trip I might go crazy.

Today my other friend from high school, who was a year ahead of me and actually goes to St. Cloud as well and had been on the same program I am on now, got back into town with her family. She is on a two week European trip with her family and stopped in Alnwick. She is going out with a bunch of us to celebrate Bank Holiday.

Overall my first trip to Scotland was very tiring but we took it all in and I took a ton of pictures.