So I have a bit of catching up to do on what I've been doing across the pond. First and foremost was my journey to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Honestly, it was love at first sight. The city was absolutely beautiful and it was impossible to capture everything I wanted; plus, pictures don't do justice to how lovely it was. On our first night, we went to a pub and just relaxed after our semi-long bus ride. It was a really cool place, full of young people and a pretty good cover band. The highlight was probably singing along at the top of our lungs to "Hey Jude", (better, better, better, better!) and dancing a little to "Rolling on the River." 
The next morning we had to wake up early to go on our dungeon tour which was exceptionally creepy. It was kinda campy, with live actors telling you gruesome tales from Edinburgh's history. For example, incestuous cannibalistic murderers. Cheery, no? And of course there were plenty of pitch black moments with startling sounds and effects. It reminded me of the Dinosaur ride at Disney World, as in I had my eyes closed for a good portion of the time. After that slightly scarring experience, we were able to wander the city. It was misting pretty heavily --as Scotland tends to do-- so we went into the National Scotland Museum to get dry. The museum was massive! We were in there for about an hour, hour and a half and didn't see even a quarter of the exhibits. You could literally spend a whole day in there, maybe two. One of my friends from high school who is studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh met up with us and showed us around the city. We saw the main campus of the University, which included the student union that had a library bar inside. We sat in the cafe and ate our prepacked cheese sandwiches and veggies (college students need to keep it cheap). We continued on our journey and saw Greyfriar's Bobby (the grave, bar, and statue commemorating a little dog who slept on his master's grave every night for 14 years and whom the people of Edinburgh cared for), St. Giles Cathedral (gorgeous!) and an excellent view of the castle. After parting ways with my friend, we headed for The Elephant House, the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. We spent two hours in there drinking delicious coffee, eating tasty homebakes, and discussing Harry Potter and our love and adoration of his creator. That was definitely a magical experience (please forgive the pun). We were pretty tired so we headed back to the hostel and just chilled out for a while before heading to dinner. We went to an amazing Spanish Tapas place in New Town and needless to say, it was highly satisfying. After all the walking, we were pretty tired so we turned in early. 
Sunday morning, we checked out of the hostel and made our way to Arthur's Seat, a massive volcano surrounded by smaller cliffs and tiny mountains that is often featured in movies and offers the most impressive view of the ENTIRE city. It was quite a hike (thank you Grandma for investing in those hiking boots for me, they majorly came in handy!) and got tiring and tedious at points, but the view from the top was well worth it. We took pictures, I had a few Pride & Prejudice moments (you know where Keira Knightley stands on top of the cliff?) and we just soaked it all in. I've had this line in my head for a while, that I want to go somewhere and marvel at something; well, Arthur's Seat was my moment of marvel.
After a much easier descent, we practically sprinted back to Wannaburger, a classy fast-food place that was recommended to us by past participants. We practically inhaled our burgers, chips, and shakes and few things have ever tasted so good. On a funny note, you could add a shot of bourbon to your shake for 2 pounds 50 p-- which I did not do, just to be clear. By then we didn't have much time before our bus back to Aberdeen was arriving so we just killed a little time in a bookstore. I could have spent the whole afternoon in there, it made me feel at home to be amongst all those books. I ended up buying Winnie-the-Pooh: In Scots, a Scottish translation of the tale of the silly ol' bear. Here is an excerpt:"Whit for dae ye want a balloon?" says you.
Winnie-the-Pooh keeked aboot tae mak shair naebody wis luggin in, pit his loof tae his mooth, and said in a laich whusper: 'Hinny!'"
They also refer to Piglet at Wee Grumphie and Eeyore as Hee Haw. That was about the end of our adventure in Edinburgh. There is so much I still want to see there so I'm glad I get to go back and take in even more of the city.
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