Scotland!- Days three and four (January 29th and 30th)

My third day in Scotland was filled with seeing some of the local landmarks, such as Calton Hill and the Scot Monument. But first, the farmer's market! After getting up and eating some cereal, Molly, Swede, and I set off for the farmer's market at the end of Prince's street. It was really fun to look at all of the little booths. There was even a chocolateer there who had all sorts of different chocolates that he makes himself. He even had chocolate shoes. I wish I had gotten a picture because I was rather impressed... I don't know how he did it! The only things that really disturbed me were the butcher shops that had pictures of the animals alive and happy right next to their stands. I don't know... maybe it's just me and how I separate things in my head, but it bothered me.

Scottish-Ameican Soldier memorial

the unfinished monument on top of Calton Hill

After the farmer's market we started towards Calton Hill. We made a couple of stops along the way, one of which was a graveyard. I wanted to go in because it had a statue of Abraham Lincoln peaking out of the top which I thought was bizarre. Apparently the statue was in memory of all of the Scottish-American soldiers who had fought in the civil war. I was not even aware that they had fought in the civil war, but you learn something new every day! Just was not expecting to learn some of my country's history in Scotland. We looked around at some of the graves and we found one that was older than the United States of America. I couldn't read the words as the gravestone had eroded so much that they were illegible, but the date was still clear. It was just amazing to me. Then on to Calton Hill! There were a lot of monuments on that hill, one of which was an enormous, Colosseum-type thing that was never finished because the government ran out of money. Molly and I climbed (with Swede's help..) onto what was there of the monument for some epic pictures and it was a lot of fun posing like goofs... actually we didn't really know how to pose and just kind of stood there as Swede took pictures. The view from the hill was great. You could almost see the entire city! A pink balloon went up into the air and all three of us had our eyes glued to it, trying to see how high it would go. Eventually we gave up and walked around the hill a bit more.

Arthur's Seat off in the distance

Molly and I on the Monument

A shot of Prince's street from the top of the Scott Monument

The Scott Monument

Next was the Scott monument...and that thing is deceptively tall. Also, I think the stairwells were made for really tiny people.. or at least the ones on the top tier. The other tiers were okay. There were four levels on the monument and we climbed up all of those spiral stairs! The more twisting there was the more anxious I became, especially on the way down.... but anyways. The view, of course, was awesome. I snapped a picture of Prince's street with a ton of buses on it. There is seriously no need for cars in that city because there are so many buses and bus stops. Yay public transportation! Can we get some of that in Texas, please? :-) After that the sun started going down and we headed back for the flat for some chill time and to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail while eating banana sundaes! It was pretty awesome.

My last day in Scotland, Molly and I tried to do some shopping. I wanted to find some winter boots, just because I was getting tired of my tennis shoes, and Molly was on a mission for jeans. Molly won her mission. Me? Not so much. But that's okay! We walked back to her flat so I could pack up my stuff and we began our walk to the train station. On the way we stopped in a discount electronics store because I had been in desperate search of a cheap fan (the noise helps me sleep) because the cheapest one in Bangor was 14 pounds (roughly $25) and I did not want to pay that much for a little desk fan. So I found a used desk fan for 5 pounds! I was so excited! But oh, this fan. I carried that thing on 2 trains, a bus, and then another train. And what do I do? Of COURSE I left it on the last train! Go me. But c'est la vie, at least it was cheap... though soon I may break down and go buy the 14 pound fan. Anyways! So after the shop we pop in a couple of Scotland shops- I wanted to find a couple of post cards... mainly one for Collin because he always makes fun of me about thinking cows are cute. So I got him a post card with a hairy coo on it... licking its nose. I thought it was appropriate.

We then headed to the train station. There were hugs and sad faces as I was leaving my friends, but I know I'll see them again soon. Then I boarded the train back to Bangor to start my journey home. When I got off my first train to switch I found two of the other Central study abroad students from Bangor who had also gone to Edinburgh for the long weekend and I was super relieved because there were a lot of train changes and, having very little experience with trains, it was nice to have people with me. So we stuck together for the rest of the trip. For our third "train" the lines were down so they put all of us on a bus. I met a guy named Ben who lived on Anglesey who looked freakishly like my Dad in his 20's... but he was cool so we talked the rest of the way back. Hannah, Meghan (the two other Central students) and I flew off the train and hailed a taxi back to the dorm site. Had it not been 11:30 at night and I hadn't been on a train for 6 hours I probably would have walked, but right then I really was not in the mood to walk up hill in the dark with a heavy bag. So we were back at the dorms by 11:40 and I was in bed shortly there after. All in all it was a very successful trip! I absolutely loved it!

<3 Melissa