a weekend getaway to scotland, cause I can.

Two weeks ago the group went on a trip to Northern England. You can see photos with captions here.

We ended the five day trip in Liverpool. We, me, Calvin, Alyssa and Cameron, got special permission to leave from Liverpool and head up to Scotland for Easter weekend. So we hopped on a train that after noon and showed up in Edinburgh around seven that night. 

[Calvin, Alyssa, me and Cameron]

 That night we wandered around downtown Edinburgh. We walked down the Royal Mile, which is a stretch of road, yes it's a mile good job, that starts at the entrance of the Edinburgh Castle and ends at the Holywod House and along it is all these fancy important buildings. We ate dinner at a pub, where Calvin got hagis for everyone to taste. I'd already tried it before (Marta, the scottish woman in my ward made some for a munch and mingle) everyone seemed to like it mucho. I got cullen skink. Its a creamy soup with some sort of fish in it. It was actually super tasty. I had no idea what it was when I ordered it, I just felt like being super scottish. That night we made it back to our hostel around ten. The place was really nice and the guy who ran it was really nice. I would definitely recommend it. 

[really cool bridge]

The next day we made our way up to castle hill where we were to meet our bus for our day tour to the highlands. We booked our tours separately not knowing there was more than one bus. Everyone was on the same bus but me. Luckily Calvin and all his heroics convinced a lady to switch buses so that I could be on the same bus as the other three. I almost spent twelve hours by myself in Scotland. But  I didn't and we set out on our journey. We drove a ways out into the highlands with Alistar, or Ali as our tour guide. He was hilarious and would use the word guys at least twice in every sentence. Hey Guys you know out here in the highlands you gotta work hard guys. We had a sneaking suspicion he was mormon. 

[me and nessie]

Our first big stop was Loch Ness. We rode a boat out onto the Loch and to a castle just on the other side. It was gorgeous. It was a cool crisp day. The water was still but pitch black. I saw some water ripple like it would have been Nessie.... 

[Loch Ness]

The boat director even played some Scottish mood music for us so we could have an enjoyable nessie watching journey. 

On the other side was Urquhart Castle. 

[the gang on top of the castle, yes I wore that hat all day like a tourist]

The Castle ruins were really cool to climb up and look out over the loch. The loch is SO much bigger than I thought it would be. I was thinking it was more like a really big pond. No wonder no can find Nessie in there.

 [ me basking in the glory of the loch, sorry its sideways] 

The rest of the trip was driving through the highlands, stopping at different little points to take pictures of the scenery and to buy whiskey. It was a really fun day, but I was pretty sick of riding a bus buy the end of the day. That night we went to this really great Italian place for dinner. I love some authentic carbonara.

[Edinburgh Castle]

The next morning, Easter Sunday, we hiked up to the castle and went all over inside. It was a really pretty castle. The complex is so much bigger than it appears to be. Inside we went through the war displays, the state apartments, the cathedral, the dungeons and the crown jewel displays. Which compared to the tower of London is nothing spectacular, I mean they only have one crown in there. But they do have the stone, man I can't think of the name of it, any way its the stone that every monarch in British History has sat on to be crowned. Even Elizabeth, well there was a little spot for it under the coronation chair. That was pretty sweet. But the sweetest thing about this place was all the Bruce stuff. Yeah that's right, I'm related to Robert the Bruce (go watch Braveheart) and he was the king of Scotland once. 

[me being crowned, take that Rob]

They had this little statue thing of Robert being crowned but I totally abdicated the throne, atleast it stayed in the family. 

After the castle we walked down the Scotland's National Gallery. They have some really good stuff in there, being a fan of 19th century art that was my favorite. There is a portrait by John Singer Sargent that I really like. Her gaze is captivating. 

[ the colors are so much more vibrant in person]

Then we hopped back on the train and rode it for five hours all the way back to London.

I really love Scotland and I'm proud to be from there.