"Give me but one hour of Scotland, Let me see it ere I die."

~William Edmondstoune Aytoun



I am back from Scotland, I did not board any trains in the wrong direction and end up in the highlands or Wales or something like that. The trip was amazing, although the weather was a bit crazy. It was sunny so when the wind would stop it was really warm, than the frigid wind would pick up, it was like an arctic breeze and there was not enough layers in the world to keep me warm. And then it would randomly pour rain, and one moment it hailed like crazy, and then the sun would burst out from behind the clouds in glorious flamboyant streaks of light, and pretty soon it looked like a cloudless summer day, and I wanted to change into shorts and a T-Shirt. And than that dang wind would pick up...

Above are some pretty Scottish flowers, and below is a view from an Edinburgh street. They were taken within minutes of each other.

When we first got to Edinburgh, we went to the Edinburgh Castle, and let me tell you, it was a castle with a view. You could see the city, the rolling green hills of Scotland, the craggy cliffs, and the brilliant blue ocean. I know they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but even so it would take two thousand pictures to even begin to capture the beauty of Edinburgh, I have never been so in love with a city, and never thought any place was so captivating. That evening we went back to our hostel, and had a delicious dinner: Bread, soup, baked potato, and cheesecake! Yum! The hostel was super nice, so it gives me hope for spring break!

Above: Edinburgh Castle.
Below: View from hill that Edinburgh Castle is built on.

David, Me, Kathryn, and Joel chilling in the castle. Literally.

Above: View from a little arrow window- Ready, Aim, Fire!
Below: Another view from the castle, so gorgeous!

The next day we climbed a steep and seemingly never ending hill, but it was worth it, the view was breathtaking, ocean on one side, green hills behind you, than the city landscape, and of course the beautiful Edinburgh Castle. There was tower on top of the hill, and when I climbed to the top of that I literally felt as though I was on top of the world. Then we went to a museum, for about two seconds when the alarm went off, so we made our way to Starbucks, and than an art gallery. Some of the painting were amazing, and I felt fairly cultured as I wandered around listening to classical music on my MP3 player and looked at paintings and sculptures.

Above: Emily, Kathryn, Me, Julia, and Aleah after our climb.
Below: The tower I climbed!

That evening we went a saw a forty person choir sing. If I do things like that enough, maybe I will pick up some Latin! The choir was amazing, plus some of those Scottish choir guys were pretty cute. :)



The next day we went to Scottish Parliament, which is housed in a building that is about ten years old or something like. Sorry to say, I was bored. I guess I am not very up on Scottish Politics, and I really could not muster much enthusiasm for the building, which I did not even snap a single photo of, because I thought it was so ugly. The only ugly thing in all of Edinburgh, I guess every city has to have one blemish it on its otherwise perfect architectural complexion. After that we power walked about a long hill to St. Giles Cathedral, which was beautiful. We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside, but I got a few of the outside. That afternoon we sadly had to catch a train home, and leave Scotland behind, with a little piece of my heart. Just kidding, but I did love it and hope to go back.

Above: St. Giles.
Below: View from train window.

When we got back to King's Cross Station, we darted across to St. Pancras and bought our Eurostar tickets to Paris, France for Spring Break, hopefully we will get to Belgium too, if all goes according to plan! Then we got home, and crashed, the trip was amazing but getting back was amazing too, because I haven't been that exhausted since we flew in!