Part 1 of 2!

WELL. A week is a very long time to have to write about, so I’m going to break it into two chunks and do one tonight and then one when I have time. There’s nothing going on in my life at present—just work work work—so living in the past is ok for now.

I left my dorm at 9:15 pm on Saturday night to go print out my bus ticket to Edinburgh, our hostel reservation slip, my plane ticket to Geneva, and my plane ticket back to London when I realized that the library was actually closed and I had nowhere to do the printing… luckily, Neon pulled through and printed it all. She and I met up with Caroline and Devin at 10:30 at Victoria coach station. We ended up getting split up on the bus which made sleeping a little less comfortable—strangers are not my ideal sleeping buddies—and the bus was REALLY cold, which also didn’t help…but I woke up at one point as the sun was rising over the ocean just as we passed into Scotland, so that was pretty cool. An overnight bus ride, which was both cheap AND economical (because it covered both travel and one night’s lodgings), is definitely something I only want to do once, as a student. Next time, I’m flying. We arrived in Edinburgh at 8 AM on Sunday and it was very, very quiet and very, very windy. And we were very, very tired. So we walked up the hill (the Mound, in case you’ve ever been there) towards the Castle where our hostel was located and dropped our bags. The guy at the counter—definitely American—said that we could get into our rooms at 2:00, so we went to find some breakfast. Neon had a cheese and pickle sandwich which she liked but I still think was a weird choice. Anyways, after lunch we went to a museum that we thought was going to be the National Gallery but then ended up being full of dead animals and insects and a crazy Millennium clock that was very focused on death and misery. Definitely not a cheery place, but there were lots of babies around so Devin, Neon, and I were amused. Once we finally left, we walked down the street a bit and thought we had found the real National Gallery so we walked in and this Scottish guide in plaid pants started to tell us about the National Museum of Scotland and pointed through a doorway and there was the Millennium clock staring at us again…we found a room where there was a short video playing about life in Medieval Edinburgh and then we booked it out of there as fast as our tired bodies could take us. We were pretty museum-ed out. We headed back to the hostel at that point and napped for a few hours! It was really nice to actually lie down. We pulled ourselves out of bed at 5:30 and walked down to the Grassmarket and had “American Pizza” which was really, well, relaxing. Sometimes it’s nice to just have a little bit of normal. We wandered a bit and found a pub to hang out in for the evening, with fireworks going off in the background for Guy Fawkes Day all night long.

In the morning, I woke up feeling very, very not good. The girls grabbed breakfast and made me drink some water while I went back to bed for a little bit longer, which helped enough so off we went to the REAL National Gallery of Scotland! It was worth the wait—I enjoyed it! I was especially enjoying the statues for some reason. There was also a really neat textile piece done by a Scottish artist. I got separated from the girls at one point and, when looking for them, accidentally snuck into a paid exhibit. It was pretty intense—lots of dark rooms with big screens and loud black and white clips being played—except for this one room in the back corner with a mirror on the ground that had been shattered by a mangled tree that had landed on it. The roots were still there and dirty and there was another mirror on the wall. It was especially strange because when I walked into the room, a guard appeared out of nowhere and said, “You have now entered the most interesting part of the exhibit. A fallen tree.” And then he walked away again. It was surreal. After awhile, I found the girls again and we went to get lunch. As we were walking down the street, we passed a guitar player and his dog. The dog was sitting about 5 feet in front of him, holding a red cap in its mouth. It was a really picturesque moment, so I, of course, took a picture and then went to give the dog a little money because it seemed only fair. As I reached out to drop in the change, the dog dropped the hat and lay down at my feet. Whoops!

I would like to show you the picture of the dog. But I can’t. Because my camera deleted all the pictures from the week. It’s a tragedy. But I’m trying not to mope about it, so…yeah.
;<br>That afternoon we looked and looked for an internet café where the girls would be able to register the next afternoon. It took us a long time to find one, but we did in the end! So then we got to have dinner and hang out.

The next morning we went to the easyinternetcafe to get them registered! They got their classes, thank goodness, and then we grabbed some bread and cheese and water and walked up to Arthur’s Seat, one of the hills overlooking the city. It was pretty and we got to explore a little bit, though I finally put my foot down when it started to drizzle. We’d luckily made it back down by the time it started to pour. Always trust a nanny when she says it’s going to rain—you’ll be happier. We stopped off in a fudge shop and had some yummy chocolate walnut fudge while we dried off and it stopped raining. That night, we went to a nice Indian dinner and then hung out sleepily in the hostel until bedtime!

Wednesday morning we woke up, packed up our things, had some breakfast, left our bags in the luggage room, and did some last minute site seeing. We went and walked around the front of the Edinburgh Castle a bit and then went into some churches. I really liked Edinburgh—it’s a slower city and it’s manageable, as far as walking around goes. It’s also pretty, with a lot of older buildings and history. It has a funny smell though! I kept my eyes peeled for J.K. Rowling the whole time we were there, but we never saw her! We did walk by the Elephant Café, one of the places she wrote Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone in the early days, which was cool! Getting to the airport was easy as pie, but I’ll write all about Geneva later! I have work to do!