Scotland!!

On Friday morning I woke up at 4:15 to finish packing and to get ready to leave for Scotland with Sami and Lisa. We had to be at Kings Cross Station at 6:15. We met the tour guide and the rest of the group going on the trip by the information desk there. When our platform was announced we made our way to the train, and Sami, Lisa, and I were able to get a table for the 3 of us to sit there together. We arrived in Edinburgh around noon and we met our tour guide Robin to show us around the city. He was in official Scottish attire with a kilt and everything. While we were off the bus at the first stop at the Holyrood Palace, he played his bagpipe for us while we were walking to the palace. It was cool, but I couldn't help but feel embarrassed because people walking past were just staring at us, and I don't like that sort of attention. He showed us around the city while we were on a coach bus and he pointed places out for us. After the tour the bus dropped us off at our Bed and Breakfast where we were staying for the weekend. Sami, Lisa, and I put down when we signed up for the trip to room together, and our wishes were granted. We got a 5 bed room to ourselves. After putting our things in the room we walked around Edinburgh and got a sandwich from a little shop.  We made our way to Holyrood Park and climbed a hill/cliff type thing. I only went up about 2/3 of the way because it was exhausting, but Sami and Lisa climbed up further. While I waited for them to come back down I sat on a rock on the path and just looked at Edinburgh from high above. It was so pretty and peaceful to just sit there. We made our way back to the city's center to find a pub to eat at and we ended up at a pub called "World's End" or something like that. I got a steak and ale pie, but Lisa ordered haggis, so I tried a bite of hers. The taste wasn't too bad, but the texture of it really threw me off. We made our way back to the hotel after eating. At 8:30 our guide who brought us to Scotland took some of us to a couple pubs and got to know some of the people on the trip.

Saturday morning we all had to wake up early because breakfast was at 7, and the bus would be there at 8 to pick us up to go on our Highlands trip. The bus ride was fine until around after the first or second stop (about 2 hours into the trip) and I started to feel carsick even though I had taken Dramamine before it. I got sick and threw up into a bag that Lisa had, but I felt a lot better after that. The day just dragged on from there though. For lunch we stopped at some place and there was a crabby old lady working. On the menu I saw that they had "Chicken Burgers". I told the lady that I'd have the chicken, assuming she'd know what I meant, but she just yelled at me multiple times saying "WE DON'T HAVE CHICKEN. ONLY CHICKEN BURGERS." So I was like "Yeah, I'll have that." She still didn't understand and continued to yell at me. Eventually Sami had to tell her that I wanted the chicken "burger". When I got my food it was just like a frozen chicken patty on a bun. I don't get why they call that a chicken burger. It is NOT a burger. Stupid Brits. I overheard other people complaining about that lady's crankiness, so I was not the only one who had problems with her. I don't care how old you are or anything, you should not be yelling at your customers. If I were more brave I would've let her have a piece of my mind to tell her what's up. After that we went to Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. It wasn't much of a castle because it was pretty damaged. But it had really pretty views of Loch Ness. After we had a boat cruise to a different part on Loch Ness. We didn't see Nessie though. I was really excited to get back to Edinburgh so we could relax in our room. We turned on the TV and found a music station, and I was dancing to One Direction's music video for One Way or Another, and Lisa was jumping on the bed when there was a knock on our door. It was this guy Scot we met on the trip asking if we had already eaten supper, which we had. It scared us because we were in the middle of our party and he saw Lisa jumping on the bed a bit before she quickly stopped. It was funny. We went to bed around 10-10:30 that night because we were exhausted from being on a bus all day.

Sunday we woke up at 7 because breakfast was being served at 8. Lisa took a half hour long shower, then Sami took a shower, so by the time it was my turn there was just cold water, so I decided I wouldn't shower that day. After breakfast we had until 10 before our guide would stop by to pick us up to go to Edinburgh Castle. We used that time between breakfast and 10 by watching the music channel again. It was rainy on Sunday, so it wasn't as enjoyable of a day. After the castle we walked around and found a pub that Lisa wanted to go to. It was called "Greyfriars Bobby." The service there was horrible. It took the waitress at least 20-30 minutes to even acknowledge us to take our drink orders. Since we had so much time, we picked out what we wanted to eat and ordered that right away too hoping to save time. It took almost an hour for our food to be served. I had a chicken and bacon sandwich and the chicken was more like burnt with a side of chicken. It was gross. After eating there we walked to this other place to get our deep fried Mars bars with ice cream. It was soooooooo good. We ate those quick so we could make it back to the bed and breakfast in time to get our stuff and take a taxi to the train station. On the train Lisa, Sami, Scot and I sat at a table, but then this couple kicked us out because we only had 2 tickets for the table. So then we had to sit in 2 rows instead of at the table together. The couple could've sat in any of our other seats but no, they had to be mean and make us move. On the train ride back it was going smoothly until we got stopped in the middle of no where. We heard over the speaker that a freight train broke down on the track ahead of us, and there was another train behind that that had to stop too. So we were sitting still on the tracks for at least an hour and some time waiting for the freight train to get help to get out of the way. We were supposed to be back in London at 10:04pm but didn't get back until midnight. While we were waiting the four of us were really loopy and we couldn't stop laughing. Even though it sucked sitting there we entertained ourselves so it wasn't too bad.

Although the Highlands weren't the best of times since I got sick and an old lady yelled at me multiple times, the views were beautiful of it. I'm glad I went to Scotland and I think everyone should go there at some point in their lives to Edinburgh. It's such a pretty city but it has a lot of hills and your calves sure do get a workout.