Another week, another story!
Last weekend my friends and I went Edinburgh, Scotland! Now, I know I say this about many of the places I go but holy cow it was so BEAUTIFUL. I have yet to go to Ireland so this is by the far the greenest place I have ever seen. It’s like the grass at golf courses but covering the whole country!
Getting there was an adventure. We took an overnight bus to get there. It’s a NINE hour bus ride. Seriously, longest ride of my life. I mangaged to sleep a little and not get sick but there is really very little movement for that time. I’ve become much better at it though, but these long bus rides really make me appreciate my nice warm bed!
Our hostel was in the old half of the city and overlooked the Edinburgh Castle. It was a pretty awesome site. Prior to arriving in Scotland I had no idea about the country. I knew they were part of the UK and that they are currently fighting for independence. We stayed up there for three days and it was such a quick three days but we definitely did almost everything in two days.
A little piece of advice: always take the free walking tour. Always. We didn’t take ours until Sunday just to kill time and by that time we had pretty much seen everything but now we were getting the history behind it which was really interesting. Our tour guide was awesome (and from Australia) and told us many a story about Scottish history and how and when it intersects with Britain.
There is some beef between England and Scotland! I had absolutely no idea. It goes back yearssssssssssss and there is still a scorned feeling in the Scottish today. Now, I’m not their spokesperson and I’m still totally learning about the situation but it interesting. If you are curious look it up. But let me clarify something: the UK consists of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Wales is somewhere in there too. Ireland is not part of the UK, it might be part of the EU like the rest of Europe.
So I learned a lot on the trip and enjoyed nature but nature did not like us! The whole weekend it was TERRIBLY windy. Like almost blow you down windy. And Edinburgh isn’t that close to the ocean but it was crazy! We climbed a mountain one day (actually an extinct volcano, nbd) and the wind was so strong that we were afraid that we were going to be blown off the mountain! I guess there are worse ways to die right? I think my favorite part of the trip occurred that day at the mountain. My friend has bad knees so she couldn’t climb all the way up but we climbed most of the way and found a grassy valley and watched the others climb all the way up. We lie in the grass and felt the sunshine and listened to the wind. It was pretty awesome! It’s a very different favorite moment from all my other favorite moments in other cities. I’m collecting great memories.
So go to Edinburgh, I demand you! Please.
In other news I also went to a Florence and the Machine concert last night! They were so great live and it was a nice change of events for the weekend. If you can see them live do that as well.
Next 10 day break is just around the corner, about two weeks away. Plan includes Barcelona and four different cities in Italy. I’ll keep you posted!
Cheers,
Paige