Everything Sounds Better in a Scottish Accent

This will be a super long post because I'm a huge slacker and haven't updated in a week! So here we go:

EDINBURGH!!!

First of all, EasyJet was pretty cool to fly with and easy to book, but they were kind of a bummer in terms of baggage.

Not even a purse. Sad times :-(.

Happily, I managed to cram everything into my backpack. A few hours later, I popped on a super easy bus and rode it into the heart of Edinburgh. Ariel and Katie were waiting for me at the other end-- it was the easiest thing in the world! I literally spent the first hour going "Wow. These people speak English. Wow." It was so great! And I got to speak loudly and in English with my American friends and not feel bad because Scots speak really loudly too. I also didn't have to worry about paying for transportation-- everything was pretty much within walking distance!

The first night was low key. We walked around, had a good dinner (they make really good caesar salads in Scotland) and then hung out for a while before going to bed at a reasonable hour. The next morning, Ariel and I wandered around a bit and used her dryer! French people don't use dryers, so my jeans weren't fitting correctly. We fixed that :-). It started raining after lunch (I don't want to talk about lunch. Not very tasty), but Noah was willing to go to the castle with me anyways, so here it is!

Noah's face kind of tells it all about the weather.

It was still rainy and nasty...

But then it started to clear up!

They call it Orthanc. It's actually the Scottish Memorial from WWI or something. I spent the first whole day wondering what it was.

Now for some history! I'm a history major-- you should expect nothing less.

That says AD 600. Just saying.

This is a time cannon. After the Industrial Revolution, having everyone keep the same time became a lot more important because things like trains were moving a lot faster. At first, a time ball was used at 1 PM every day exactly to mark the time. This only worked, though, for people who could see it. The time cannon was used so that ships at sea, for example, could synchronize their time pieces. Sweet!

Cool sign!

It's a replica, but pretty sweet-looking!

Scottish flag!

An oath of allegiance from a long time ago. The difference in the handwriting was really cool! Some people had flourishes, while some people could barely write!

The medals and equipment used by some guy to take out an Indian prince during the Rebellion (Scots fought for the British in every war).

The personal effects (think Jack Sparrow) of a spy who was captured and held in Edinburgh castle during WWII.

Yeah! Join the British Army! You'll be good at soccer!

Caricatures of the ineptitude of the British army. Unfortunately, I've forgotten the time period.

We've progressed from swords to... scary looking machine guns. 

No wonder people came back from WWI with PTSD. Just seeing someone wear one of these is frightening.

Bagpipes!

Really old chapel! It was really cool inside, despite the candle strobing.

Really clear rainbow! Scottish weather has its upsides :-)

Scottish royal seal. Compare to the British royal seal and be amazed.

Divine right, to put it bluntly.

Great hall!

A circle of... guns?

Really old door that held prisoners of war during the Revolutionary War in the castle.

As you can see from my sample of pictures, the main things to see were outside of the castle-- it was not particularly ornate inside and there wasn't that much to the inside parts (besides the war museum)!

St. Giles Cathedral! I went in earlier in the day, but forgot to bring my computer. This is where the Queen processes when she knights Scottish people.

So British!

Orthanc up close!

For Wesley! It's a grocery store.

King Arthur's seat from the bridge! It was too hard to get to from where we were, but it looks really cool!

Sharing a deep-fried Mars Bar (Milky Way). One of the best things I've ever tasted!

That evening, I played ultimate frisbee with the team that Katie plays with (I clearly needed to burn some calories after my desert). It was just a practice and had a bunch of intimidating drills, but I really like the way they play. I want to get it going with our ultimate team!

The next morning was the soccer game! Hearts (Edinburgh) vs Rangers (Glasgow). We're in red, they're in blue. We were encouraged to wear neutral colors so as not to be beaten up by one team or the other.

Hehe riot police. Only a couple people tried to get on the field at the end of this game, but these games have a history of getting nasty...

Why is their goalie wearing our color?!

Mince pie! I was nervous when I saw it but it was so good!!

More riot police!

Sneaky picture of a bagpiper. I just wanted a picture with Thomas More! He's my favorite...

We walked three miles or so back from the stadium to avoid the bus fare, but Katie and Thomas were awesome sports and dragged their tired feet to the palace with me. It's down the Royal Mile (aptly named) that links the castle and the palace. It was worth being tired and paying more money than I wanted to for the admission.

Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the inside of the Palace. Take my word for it-- it was pretty sweet! A lot of it was stuff belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots. They made a big deal of the exact place where one of her advisors was "brutally murdered" as opposed to humanely murdered, I suppose.

I did take pictures of the abbey, but unfortunately they're not loading right now. We'll do the end of Edinburgh and the week later! 

Bonsoir!