edinburgh

this was a short, yet fantastic trip to scotland. my friends ellie, emily, keith and I took the nightbus thursday just before midnight and arrived in edinburgh at 8:30 friday morning. we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, grabbed sandwiches at a nearby cafe called CQ, and then took advantage of a free walking tour with the hostel guide. we saw the school that hogwarts is based off of, the elephant house where jk rowling wrote the harry potter books, st. giles cathedral, the sir walter scott monument, and other landmarks, then made our way up calton hill for beautiful views of the city. the tour was a great way to briefly get to know our way around the city. we got coffee at the hula cafe, checked into our room at budget backpackers, and were off again to meet up with keith's friend kirsty for lunch. she took us to koko near nicolson square, it was such a fun place and had incredible food.

then we decided to hike up king arthur's seat, the mountain in edinburgh, for some amazing views of the city. we had forgotten that it would get dark early and quickly, but it was supposed to rain the next day so we continued to the top, first on a road, then a muddy grassy trail, then rocky steps, and then just rocks. so there we were, on the top of a mountain in scotland, in the dark, with 20mph winds, scared for our lives. i was literally hugging a rock at one point so that i wasn't knocked over the side of the mountain. i tried taking a few pictures but we just wanted to get down without breaking our cameras or ourselves. we cleaned up a bit then went to frankensteins for dinner and met back at the hostel for a pub crawl. we went to three bars and a club, met up with another friend david, and had a great night, jagerbombs and all.

saturday we all headed to the elephant house for breakfast, where i had the most amazing vanilla tea i have ever tasted, then up to the edinburgh castle, and then down the royal mile for some serious souvenir shopping. we stopped at a place our friend recommended called chocolate soup and it was delicious. i had a tiramisu 'choctail' which emily described as fall and christmas wrapped into a drink. the boys left for the new zealand - scotland rugby match, so us girls walked around for a while through the princes st gardens where we saw the ross fountain. we got tickets for 'due date' because we were so tired and shopped for a bit before it started. i got panda gloves that im actually in love with. the movie wasn't anything spectacular. we sat at pizza hut for a quick dinner, met the boys back at the hostel to get our luggage, and were off to the very long and uncomfortable nightbus once again. i slept for six hours when i finally got home.