Ok, I really need to post more

I really need to post more regularly. I quit because it took too much time, but I really should start. I'm going to do a little catch up, more for myself than anyone else. Weekend trips galore! Then hopefully I'll be able to blog more about the day to day. :)

Edinburgh May 31 to June 2nd
Edinburgh was amazing! Just to say it in one word. Actually, looking at all my trips, it may be the best. At first, I was terrified. The thought of being on my own for a full 3 days in a foreign city... It was just too scary. Then, I came to the realization that it's really quite simple. I had a wonderful room with some great roommates. When I arrived, I bumped into some wonderful girls on the bus over from the airport to downtown who were staying in the hostel as well. we walked over together and it worked out well. I was placed into a random room with a bunch of other people. While there, I was able to chat with the people who work in the hostel and they informed me of all sorts of great places to go.

I ended up staying in the Budget Backpackers in Edinburgh. The hostel wasn't the cleanest of hostels, but it was a lot of fun. I had a great time there and they were really nice to people who were just hanging out on their own.

First off, I went to the Elephant House Cafe, which is where JK Rowling dreamed up Harry Potter. There, I had an fantastic smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich with fresh squeezed orange juice. Yum! Sitting there was very comfortable. After going there, it was off to see the rest of Edinburgh

Edinburgh is truly quite a small city. The city is walkable and it's an easy bus tour to the Scottish Highlands. I went around to Arthur's Seat and around Edinburgh quickly that day. When you go up Arthur's seat, there's a great view of Edinburgh, the castle and also the cool new Parilment building. it's really modern looking compared to the old feautres of Edinburgh.

For dinner, I ended up searching for Indian or Thai food. I was surprised at how long it took. I guess I need to be either less picky or find a local to tell me where to go. I ended up near Edinburgh Castle where I got pad see ew special made by the people in the kitchen. The lady in charge was nice enough to chat with me when she had a spare moment about my time in Thailand.

During dinner, I met this group of students from London who were in Edinburgh for the Edinburgh Marathon. Unfortunately, the girl who was to run hurt her ankle just a few days prior. Another girl in the group was going to perform in what's called the Military Tattoo, which is a huge parade/festival with lots of performances around the castle. The guy in the group was going to UC Santa Barbara for a study abroad. I wish I lived in Europe.....

That night, I got invited out by the guy who worked at the front desk in the hostel to go out with a bunch of other people who were there. There was a group of something like 15 people out drinking that night at some of the main bars near the hostel. It was pretty awesome. I met a ton of people there. There was Derrick, the only other American who was there hanging out and visiting his friend in Glasgow. There was also Alister who was from Australia and played rugby for the University of Edinburgh. Alice was one of the girls I got to know pretty well, who was from Australia, did a tour of Europe but ran out of money in Edinburgh, so just found a job. I would never have the guts to do that.

The next day, I went on the hostel's tour. Alice, the girl I met from the night before, was the tour guide. We started off at the Grayfriars Abby. Supposedly before the black plague, the graveyard was below street level and a small valley in the city. Now, it's a hill up into the graveyard. There's just tons of ghost stories in Edinburgh. Alice told us about George "bloody" Mackenzie who was infamous for torturing people. When all the Covenants were captured after their revolt, they were given into George Mackenzie's care. He kept them in a prison which had no roof in the Scottish winter. It's crazy how they survived. The ones who did were sent on a boat to Australia which sank....

Behind the graveyard is a prep school which supposedly inspired the Harry Potter books. When the school was built, they had really tall walls around the private school for the wealthy children to attend. The poor children used to peer into the school and make up stories that the school was for witches and wizards who flew on broomsticks, so they needed such tall walls. How cute!

She also showed us these really heavy iron cages around graves. Supposedly they were to keep away grave robbers. In a time when autopsies were illegal and cadavers were not available, there were two infamous people who went around killing people and selling them to the doctors to do autopsies on and understand the human body better. When they were caught, they were given the prisoner's dilemma and the person who was caught confessed. The person who was ratted out was hanged and his skin was used to create a business card holder and wallet. It was super gross. We later went to see the business card case in the Police Museum.

Outside of the cemetery is a little statue of a dog called Grayfriar's Bobby. This dog was so loyal it stayed by its master's side even after the master died. The master was an old police officer who guarded the graveyard to keep grave robbers away. They had a cute little dog statue of it. It used to face the graveyard. The owner of a bar in front of the cemetary decided one day it'd be better for business if he turned around the statue, so he got a stonesmith to turn it around and now whenever people take a picture of the dog, there's the bar's name in the background.

After walking around the cemetary, we walked over to the mainstreet. Alice explained that most of Edinburgh was actually sweage and the higher, raised streets were where the regular people lived. If we had time, she suggested we visit the underground of Edinburgh, where the poor used to live. Supposedly it's terribly close quarters in the underground of Edinburgh where thousands of people lived. Also on the main street, there was a bar called Decon Brodie's Tavern. Decon Brodie was a locksmith who loved to drink and spend money. He was also friends with a lot of rich people. He managed to convince all his friends that they should change their locks and saved a copy of all their keys. Then he'd go and steal things in the night. He got away with it too!

Further down the main road, the Royal Mile, is the Heart Of Edinburgh. It used to be a tollbooth where people had to pay their tolls. In protest, peopel would spit on the door of the tollbooth. When they were done, the city officials decided to lay the stones in the shape of the heart. Peopel spit on it still. There was one guy who thought it was cute, then kent down and proposed to his girlfriend at the time on the heart. I guess he'll be washing that set of pants.

After a while on the Royal Mile, we went into a park which looks over Edinburgh. In the park was... a Greek like structure which was called the Nations' Great Disappointment. Edinburgh's supposedly was the Athens of the North at one time. They built this to try and be like Athens, but ran out of money along the way. Also in this park was a tower which used to have a large ball which was dropped at 1PM every day. This caught the light and made a very loud noise so people knew what time it was.

Walking back towards town and to the main shopping street, we saw Sir Walter Scott's Monument. This great spire was built for a poet who was good friends with the government there. Guy's gotta be loaded...

After seeing this, the tour ended at the Edinburgh Castle. During the tour, I became friends with some Canadian guys from Toronto. They went off to lunch, but went to an Italian place! No Italian for me, thank you. I ended up wandering around the university area for about 30 minutes trying to find this Mosque which supposedly had a fabulous kitchen. After asking directions from 5 different people, I ended up at the mosque and had some of the most fantastic chicken curry and nann I've ever had. A tip for those who are going to Edinburgh, go to the Mosque Kitchen!! It's a hole in the wall place, but super delicious.

After lunch, I stopped by the hostel quickly to drop off the left overs of my curry and went to the Edinburgh Castle. The castle used to be a barrack and didn't actually house that many royal people, it seems. I was hoping it'd be more like... a German castle, but it was more like a military fortress. I had a nice tour with a wonderful tourguide who took us around the castle and showed us all the points of interest. I happened to be in Edinburgh right before D-Day, so there were a lot of WWII veterans around who were visiting and paying their respects to their fallen friends. It was quite sad to think of about...

Also at the castle, I found out that Prince Charles was in the Hollyrood palace, so I wouldn't be able to go in. It was kinda cool that the prince was around, though. I wasn't quite planning on going anyways.

That night, I went out on the bar crawl with the group and met a group of Aussies and a group of Irish girls. Irish have really super strong accents... It was a great time overall and I met some wonderful people. Also, the drinks were cheap!

On the last day, before I was supposed to leave, I grabbed lunch at a baked potato shop. In the shop, there was a guy I swear was high. He was really amazed I was from the States and when I said I was from Cali, he commented on how cool it'd be to skateboard down the hills in SF. He was a music electronics major or something of the sort at the university nearby. There was also another guy who was supposedly in a major accident and wanted to be a chef and open his own restaurant. They were great, super friendly people. It's fantastic that there were so many wonderful people in one place! I ended up getting my baked potato and hummus for free too ;)

On the way to the airport, I bumped into the Aussie guys once again on the bus to the airport. They were pretty funny and really hung over from partying the night before.

The plane ride was really uneventful... but at least I got home in one piece and back to work.....