Scotland!- Day one (Janurary 27th)

Soooo this post is a bit later.. but whatever! Last weekend I had an extended weekend since my only Thursday class didn't start until this last Thursday (Feb 3rd) and we did not have any field trips scheduled
with Tecwyn (our program advisor) so I took the opportunity to hop on up to Edinburgh and see my lovely friend, Molly Miller, who is studying in Edinburgh for the year and has been there since August. I left my flat at 4:30 in the morning to walk down to the train station. I had never been on train before and was not sure how early I had to be there for my train (which did not leave until 5:14). The train station was not too far from my flat, but I kept Collin on the phone with me from the US because I'm not going to lie, an empty town in the dark with strong winds is a bit freaky. So anyways, I was a bit early but that is ok because the train came soon enough.. and I slept for a good portion of the way up. I changed trains in Crewe where, while I was waiting, I saw a guy with a fold-up bike! I didn't even know they made those! Anyways... I got on my next train and was in Edinburgh at 10:21am and when I arrived Molly and her Swede (whose real name is John but is affectionately referred to as Swede) were waiting at the top the stairs.

View of High Street (the ocean is at the end, but hard to see)

We hopped on a bus back to their flat so I could drop off my stuff and then it was off to breakfast. After that we all got back on the bus (a double-decker bus, might I add!) and just looked at the town. We ended up at one of the campus sights for Edinburgh Napier University and it was this really pretty old building with a marble staircase and some pretty nifty rooms. Then we left there and just walked around High Street where we ended up at a chip shop purchasing the delicious monstrosity known as the "fried mars bar". We shared it between the three of us... I honestly do not think I could eat one by myself, but it was yummy. There was also a photo shoot in a red booth- a requirement when visiting the UK, I think.

The fried Mars Bar

Edinburgh Castle

The Ross Fountain (click to see bigger)

By then we were near the castle so we went ahead and walked up there, hoping that the guards wouldn't be there so we could go in for free, but, to our lack of surprise, there they were. So rather than pay the 14 pounds to go in (roughly $22) we wandered around the outside and found entertainment in the gift shop. I have already seen three castles since being in Wales and there are many more on the list so I figured it would be ok if I skipped out on this one. Then we walked down Prince's street and ended up in Prince's gardens. It had a beautiful view of the castle and at the end there was this gorgeous
water fountain sculpted by John Baptise Klagmann in Paris that was shipped over to Edinburgh. There are mermaids at the bottom and the four women on the middle tier represent science, art, poetry, and industry and then at the top a figure is holding a cornucopia (cup of plenty). I wish I had seen it running, but I guess that had the water turned off because of the recent winter storms. It was beautiful nonetheless. But what turned out to be even more exciting than the fountain and the castle? An empty playground nearby that made our inner-children jump for joy. Played on the jungle-gym and this spinning bowl contraption and Swede tried to go down the slide... it didn't work so well but he still had a smile at the end. It was a lot of fun to just let go and goof off.

                                              

Playing in the gift shop

We called it an early night because, well, I had been up since 4:30 in the morning and was extremely tired. We all just chilled at Molly's flat and ate some pizza. Seems silly to go all the way to Scotland and eat pizza, but who wants to follow the rules? There may have been nerf gun fights involved that night as well... I then made myself a little bed on the floor out of an exercise mat and the cushion of a chair and went to sleep, ending my first day in Scotland.

(I was going to make this all one really long post but then it was getting really long so I'm breaking it up into days)

Day two up soon!

<3 Melissa