a wee bit o' scotland.

"O ye'll tak the high road and I'll tak' the low road
An' I'll be in Scotland afore ye,
But me and my true love will ne'er meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond."
-Loch Lomond, Traditional Scottish

Alright folks, pictures are finally uploaded, so here's a bit o' Scotland for ye. The trip started at the unimaginable hour of 4:15 AM, when I left my house to catch a bus down the road. The trains don't run early enough to get you into central London by 6, so I had to settle for a combination of buses and the first tube of the day to get myself to King's Cross. Being the only one on the entire tube line is amusing, though! But Sara and I both made it on time to the train, which we thought was quite the accomplishment.

The first city of the trip was Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and the second biggest city. There is a clear divide between the Old Town, which contains Edinburgh Castle, and the New Town, where the main shopping and financial districts reside. Our hostel was just underneath the castle, so we checked in and then set off to explore the Old Town. First stop? The Elephant House! If that doesn't ring a bell...think Harry Potter. Still nothing? It's the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote at least some of the first book, so it's been dubbed the "birthplace of Harry Potter". So of course, it was a necessity to eat lunch there. Then we headed off to the castle to check out the fortress and the crowned jewels. The view from up in the castle is awesome. Edinburgh is in a beautiful location. In one direction, the sea is clearly visible, and in the other, towering cliffs loom over the buildings on the edge of the city. I'd already visited the castle when I was here a couple of years ago, but it was fun to see again, mainly because of our silly antics. We spent some time browsing the souvenir shops (because where else can you find milk chocolate coo pat?) and then walked across to the New Town. This part of Edinburgh doesn't have the glorious architecture that the older part has, but there are still people everywhere in kilts and bagpipers on the streets, so it manages to retain the Scottish charm. A few more shops, a look at the Scottish monument (which is actually quite ugly), and back to Old Town to relax in the hostel for a few minutes. We were put into the Happy Days room, so I was humming that theme song all evening. We then took a "haunted" tour of Mary King's Cross, which is a collection of old streets and chambers that now lie beneath the city. It was mostly historical facts, with stories of people who used to live in these streets, but a few cheesy scary parts were enough to make me grab Sara. It was interesting though, and our tour guide was fun. The last stop of the night was a pub for a late dinner, and then we returned to the hostel and crashed.

The next morning, we took a bus to Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland. It's a more modern city than Edinburgh, with the main part being centered around a business district. It was a bit rainy, so after we met up with Kaitlin, we opted for a bus tour instead of walking everywhere. Our first stop was to the cathedral, which contained the tomb and chapel of St. Mungo. I don't actually have a clue as to who that is, but since the name is used in Harry Potter, I thought it was cool. There is a huge necropolis behind the cathedral, so we hiked up there. Some of the tombstones were beautiful, and once the sun came out, I think I could have sat up there for hours. There were hundreds of graves, and of course many of them were marked by celtic crosses, which are my favorite. But alas, staying in a graveyard forever would be a bit of a morbid life, so I dragged myself away. Our next stop on the bus was the People's Palace, which contained a small museum and gardens in the back. The museum wasn't all that interesting, but I did find the Scottish version of the 10 Commandments, which I thought was pretty entertaining. (I know, I have a strange sense of humour.) By the time the bus came again, we were all pretty cold, so we stayed on the bus throughout the rest of the tour. We drove up into the northwestern corner of the city, where the University of Glasgow is located, and saw some of the university buildings, the "armadillo" hall, the science tower, and a few other interesting things. Then after a quick dinner, we hit up a few pubs and had quite the enjoyable evening.

For our final day, we took a bus tour that went up into the highlands. Our first stop was Loch Lomond, and we then made our way north through the mountains to Glencoe, up to Fort William and Loch Ness, then east to Pitlochry, south through Perth and back to Glasgow. In other words, we covered a huge chunk of the country in just one day. The sights were beautiful, especially when the sun was out, but sadly there was no spotting of Nessie. Our tour guide Karen was a lot of fun, though, she knew just about everything you could know about Scotland's history, the landscape, the making of whiskey, and anything to do with Braveheart. It was a worthwhile trip!

Now that I've finished off a few places in the UK, it's time to hit up the rest of Europe. First stop? Paris! Oui oui!