"Freedom!"

Hi everyone!
As promised, here is a bit about my weekend in Scotland last weekend.

In Scotland I mostly did a lot of wandering and taking pictures, you can see all of them on facebook if you want. As far as touristy things go, I did a really fun 3 hour walking tour Saturday, and Sunday went to the Museum of Scotland, which was really interesting: each floor corresponded to a different time period in Scottish history. They had lots of artifacts and, believe it or not, Dolly the sheep. It was really creepy, and displayed quite bizarrely: she was in a glass case which spun at a rather quick rate, so she followed you depending on where you walked in the room. I did not approve.
Friday night, upon our arrival at the hostel, I got settled into our huge 10 bed room and went into town. We went to a pub called The Last Drop, which is actually where prisoners were taken for their last pint before execution out in the sqaure. Needless to say, a pub with a lot of history. It was surprisingly cheery dispite its grim past, and had a fantastic student discout: all meals 7 pounds and under were automatically reduced to 4! I enjoyed my first pint of Tenant's and ate vegetarian haggis. I can't say much for the haggis, I think it was the texture moreso than anything that bothered me, but I was glad to give it a shot while I was there. (We actually went back the next day to eat, I had a delicious vegetable casserole. Yum!) That night I went out with my friends Shelly and Lindsay and went dancing at a cool place called Karma. We were quite exhausted from a day of travelling, and dispite getting a bit turned around, we were back in our beds fairly early.

Saturday I went on a three-hour walking tour which took us all around the city and provided us with some pretty cool antecdotes. Greyfriar's Cemetary was really cool, and also where JK Rowling found a lot of her inspiration for Harry Potter (there were characters names on graves everywhere! If you ever go, find Mcgonagall, Thomas Riddlle, and the Potters!) We celebrated my friend Shelly's birthday at a dance club called Hive. We had a really good time mingling with other tourists and dancing to some pretty silly techno music.

Sunday I ate at the Elephant House, where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter. The group of us (Shelly, Lindsay, Jack, and I) did a lot of reflecting there, and had some yummy quiche. After walking around and doing a bit of shopping (I bought a Celtic knot ring and a cheap vintage dress) we developed quite an appetite again and ended up getting nachos at a pub before taking the train back for a gorgeous 4.5 hour ride to King's Cross. There were moments where we were right along the coast, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

So that's basically Scotland in a nutshell! It was never on my list of top 10 places to go, but now that I've been I would go back in a heartbeat. I hope everyone is well, and I would love to hear from you soon!

- Christina