Edinburgh, Scotland

The past couple of weeks came and went too quickly without my permission... We traveled as a GLS group to Edinburgh, Scotland, I explored Italy for a week on Spring Break, and I began a wonderful internship with the US-UK Fulbright Commission. That means I have too much to write about to be able to catch up in one post, so over the next week I am going to attempt to cover all of the exciting things that have been happening across the pond. So I apologize for inundating you with information you might not care about... but then again, no one is making you read this...

This post is going to attempt to cover the trip to Edinburgh that happened a week or so ago. I cannot guarantee that I will remember much, because a lot has happened since!

All 26 of the 2014 GLS class traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland along with Lane and Andrew, our directors, to enjoy some haggis and windy weather for a few days. Upon arrival, we went on a ghost tour of Edinburgh that landed us in the "vaults" of the city. I will admit I was quite creeped out. I don't generally scare easily, and maybe it was just that our tour guide was particularly creepy even apart from his job, but the tour did it's job. We were given free reign of the city at night after the tour and we ventured to find some traditional Scottish food. I was determined to try haggis, but after learning that it was basically sheep's heart and liver oatmeal I settled for some safe chicken...the ghost tour was enough fright for one day. I had the chance to roam around the city and enjoyed seeing the Castle of Edinburgh by night, which has been the background on my computer for years. I stumbled across The Elephant House - the cafe where J.K. Rowling began writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Needless to say, I was very excited.

The next day, we woke bright and early in order to hop on a bus for a day-long tour of the Highlands and Loch Ness. Sitting on a bus all day may not sound like a barrel of fun to you, but believe me it was wonderful. Our tour guide, Andy, or as he liked to be called, "Dead Sexy," played 90's tunes while we rolled through the mountains and took in the scenery and history of the beautiful countryside. We were able to stop at a few castles along the way, including the castle used to film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The further we got into the Highlands, the more windy it got. By the end, the girls were all attempting to tame rat's nests of hair and everyone was wind blow, but it was well worth it. The sights were beautiful and the history was fascinating. It is lovely to be able to be so far away from big cities and tall buildings and for once to be able to look up and see the sky instead of a telephone pole. We made it to Loch Ness and were all able to walk out onto a pier to take pictures and absorb the beautiful scenery including four or five full rainbows. I had a close call that almost landed me straight in the Loch... as I began tumbling down the rocky side of the pier, I reached out and grabbed for Kayla, the first person I could reach only to realize that we were now both about to fall in the water. If it weren't for Chucky's Spiderman-esque reaction and quick save, it would have been a very long, cold ride home.

  The next day, which happened to be my 20th Birthday, we visited Edinburgh castle and ate fried Mars Bars. I'm not sure which was more exciting... the train ride home seemed exceptionally long, but that might just be because we were all anxious to get back and head out for Spring Break. It was a wonderful trip to a beautiful city, but the fun doesn't stop there! Hopefully I will have an Italy post up later this week!