Edinburgh,Scotland

It is only natural that World Tour cannot go down without a fight.  After almost a whole day on the bus, we got to Edinburgh around 9:00 p.m.  It was obvious we would be staying in a hostel, but the big surprise was that I got to room with 7 other girls!  My tolerance at this point on the trip is running thin, so the idea of 8 girls sharing 1 room, 1 bathroom, and 1 mirror was a bit like doomsday for me.  Now I realize this may seem quite dramatic, but it was like summer camp all over again, especially when I walked in to my roommates reading a Cosmo out loud as a group.  I guess now would be a good time to tell you that I did survive the doomsday hostel and the second night was not nearly as painful as the first, but I will get to that in a second.

Our full day in Edinburgh began at 8:30 a.m. with probably my favorite guide that we have had so far.  He had a lot of random information and did not just pump us full of ridiculous history facts.  Edinburgh is a pretty cool place with different historic buildings than we have seen in the past.  In the midst of all the old buildings was a pretty interesting modern piece of architecture, The Scottish Parliament Building.  I have studied it quite a bit in the past because I used it for a precedent in one of my projects, so I was excited to see it in person.

We had half a day for our own independent study.  It was a great afternoon of the exploring the Royal Mile and the rest of the city.  We went in to a couple whiskey stores, which was a lot cooler than I thought it would be.  A friend of mine was looking for some Scotch for his dad but had no clue where to even start.  The guy working was friendly and excited to give us a quick run-down of the basics of Scottish-Whiskey.  It was awesome, and so informative!  We found a cool pub with the nicest waiter and had a late lunch/ early dinner, then headed back to the hostel to work. 

Back at the hostel Dan, Devin, Ryan, Courtney, and I gathered together in the lobby to do homework, hang out, and eat Skittles, which by the way, do not taste the same here as they do at home.  I was so productive, it is almost unreal!  I got 3 different things done, all in one night!  As we were lying down to sleep we noticed a loud buzzing in our room followed by a slight burning smell.  Long story short, 2 electrical outlets for a room of 8 girls is not nearly enough!  Despite us overloading the outlets everything was fine, but we were lucky that we were awake when it happened; it would not have taken much to start a fire. 

So yeah, Edinburgh was cool, but I am so excited for Ireland!