Edin-whaaa?! Edinburgh!! (My favorite place so far)

I'm having the hardest stinkin' time uploading pictures so it's taking me longer than I want to dowload pictures...annoyin'! I realized I retyped a little about my last week in my last post which I'm sure sucked for you to read about my week twice but whatever. You'll live <3. I have TONS of pictures from Edinburgh, Scotland. It is pronounced similar to Ed-en-BURRR-uh. Try saying it...you'll love it. I loved this place and so far it is my favorite weekend trip...even compared to Paris. Crazy right? I was around people who spoke my language and actually liked me as an American. The hostel experience was amazing. Luckily though, I got to hang out with a bunch of people from our group and not random strangers so I made some new friends and memories this weekend which was amazing. I saw my last name EVERYWHERE in Scotland so I took the hint that I may have a little Scottish in me. I'll just go ahead and do what I usually do and download pictures rather than try to explain without seeing pictures...it's easier that way...here we goooooooo...

Here I am! In the top bunk of our hostel called Belushi's in Ediburgh! The hostel was actually pretty decent and I got to sleep top bunk like a 10 year old again!

Cheeeezin'

Megz chillin in the hostel.

So let me explain...here we have a meat called Haggis the black stuff you see on my fork...Haggis is a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours. <---This info was from wikipedia so I didn't have to type it out myself. It was actually pretty good to eat. We ate at Garfunkel's Restaurant and it was tastyyyy.

Giving it my first try!

Bird's Eye View

So once again....here I am in Scotland taking pretty pictures of these lovely buildings and I couldn't tell you the name of any of them really. They were all pretty so I took a picture of them!

Put on some hat...it was really cute but I decided not to buy it :(

This guy was playing the bagpipes I believe and I pretty much saw him daily performing on the streets. Pretty interestinggg...

This was a monument for a dude name Sir Scot or something...I think I may just be making it up but I'm kinda sure...who knows. It was really pretty though.

Prettyyyy.

So Megan and I went on a walk and ended up walking into this beautiful park with flowers everyhwere and a good sight of Castle Rock. It was great to see the pretty views and sit and relax and enjoy the green...we all know how much we see green in Arizona.

View from the park.

This is the castle in the rock and the view from the park. It is so fascinating how pretty and fantasy-like these sights are.

I believe these are tudor style houses that were right near the castle in the rock.

Park view 1

Park view 2

Pretty flowers!!

This is a thistle which is pretty much the flower of Scotland.

Sitting and enjoying myself at the park.

Once again...I was loving the castle on the rock so I took plentyyy of pictures for you all.

And AgAiN....

Pretty flowers were growing in the grass...they were so pretty.

This is the only dandellion I found in the grass!

Blowing the dandellion...making a wish :D

Jack Daniel taxi! So cool. Scotland seems to really have a thing with whiskey...it was everywhere. YUCKK.

SOOOOO...I'm on vacation and living a new experience...so I decided why not try something new? Yes, you guessed it. I took a shot with a worm in it. Tequila and worm=great combo.

I took the shot the first time with Stephanie and John. We are so brave :D

After affects...my face tells it all!

I feel accomplished!

So here we are going out on the first night. We went to a place called The Three Sisters and unfortunately I don't remember the second place we went to but it was right down the street from The Three Sisters and we had a blast. It was so fun but we lost Mya and Erica the first night after they went to our hostel to drop off their pizza. Whoops :(



Bucket-o-alcohol. How could you say no?



Megz at The Three Sisters.

So the second day Mary, my instructor, bought us tickets for a hop-on hop-off bus in Scotland and we took full advantage. The buildings of course were beautiful but you can count on me to not know the names...

Castle in the Rock from a side angle! It was so cool!

The Royal Mile was a pretty popular street in Edinburgh where there was shopping, underground caves, food deluxe, and a lot of history. It was pretty cool!

Here is a huge hill that was so incredibly beautiful and GREEENNNN! I loved sitting on top of the bus with the wind blowing in my face and seeing all this beautiful scenery. Makes me remember why I came on this trip!

We were going over a bridge and underneath the bridge you could see houses and such a pretty green area.

Over the bridge again.

Over the bridge againnnn...

Mya Megan and I on the hop-on hop-off

Totally appropriate...Megan Mya and I went to the science center and had a grand ol' time trying to entertain ourselves.

Here is the view of the ocean when we were leaving Ediburgh. It was so beautiful and I don't think that this sight will ever leave my head.

Inside the science center...there was an artificial iceberg so I had to take a picture...it was pretty cool!

Our 3-D experience "around the world".

The outside of the science center.

We get back on the bus and we find John who had bought a kilt. We had to take a picture...

Me, Erica, Mya, Stephanie, Megan, and the other Erica...I may have spelled some names wrong but these are the people who went out for Erica's birthday on Saturday! This was before the night began...muah-ha-ha-haaa

Birthday girl!!! Happy 23rd Birthday to Erica!

Erica let me try the sombrero on :D

Megz.

Erica againnnn :)

So after dinner and a few margaritas we switched on over to a fishbowl...I could assume you know how our night went...

Troubleeee...

So here I am looking pretty disgusting...the clubs were insanely hot but at that point I was feeling a little carefree as well as everyone else.

Raggedyyyyyy.

So this guy was just wanting to take pictures with American's...what an odd dude.

Birthday girl, Megan, and I making some awesome memories!

Dude again...pounding it. we were having so much fun!

So let me be clear about this picture...there is a story behind it...I have come to find that men in Scotland and England seem to be more touchy feely and a little more in touch with their homosexual side. There is nothing I have against homosexuals and all of my friends and family know this but I saw at least 3 times where men kissed....more than a peck...in the bar. I also saw two dudes hugging and whispering into each others ear crying...I don't really know how to explain these situations considering all of these guys including the ones in the picture above were straight (or so they said). I asked my teacher today about said situation and she said that men in England and areas surrounding that men are a lot more comfortable with themselves and more willing to be less manlier than American dudes. Whatever the case was...it was my little bit of culture shock.

Here is another "last picture" out of Scotland. I truly loved Scotland more than anything so far...and would love to go back some day. I met some really awesome people and Scotland was extremely green, hilly, and beautiful. The weather on Friday was great but on Saturday it rained like crazy and we ended up getting soaked being outside for only thirty seconds. I would assume I'd get sick of the rain but my weekend in Ediburgh will be a weekend I will never forget. People were so lovely there and really loved American's. In the bar/club people were truly interested in the fact I was American and that made me feel comfortable and not worried about people being against me. I would highly recommend Scotland and of course I have to end with I love you all and miss you but I will also end with a quote..."The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."-Saint Augustine. I'm just trying to read it all. Loves and hugs.
Ashlee