Haggis, and Kilts, and Bagpipes, Oh My!

So I'm blogging from Scotland! Cheers!

It was an interesting, and a little nerve-wracking, getting in. I was a little scared something was going to go wrong, and well, I was right. I was going Oxford to Wolverhampton to Lancaster to Edinburgh. I had contacted Elaine (my contact in Edinburgh who was there to pick me up from the station) that I would be coming in at 7:30 according to my specific plan. I was mostly nervous that I was going to accidentally miss one of my connections because they were only about 10 minutes. Well, I got off at Wolverhampton to see that my next train was running 20 minutes late. I had only 7 minutes in between that train and my one after it. Yeah... I missed it of course. So I had a longer wait in Lancaster (and got some nice photos of the train station) and had to wait for the next train, which runs hourly. Not only was I running an hour late to Edinburgh, but I don't have an international phone plane on my cell phone, so I had no way of contacting anybody that I was late. So I had a nerve-wracking travel from Lancaster to Edinburgh. Thank goodness that I was right that not very many people would be walking around the train station in burnt orange 'Texas' hoodies, so it was very easy for Elaine to know who I was. And yes, she was thankfully still waiting there for me! So it was an experience... but I'm here and that is the most important thing!

Last night after I got in, Elaine and I got dinner and basically just hung out around her flat talking and such. I learned some more stuff about Scotland. We discussed accents, traveling, and such. Fun fact for the day: In Scotland, it is traditional for 21st (sometimes 18th) birthday of a young man, his parents will buy him a kilt and the rest of his family will buy other parts of the outfit to make it complete. I find it funny that the 21st birthday is almost more important over here than it is in the US. In England, when somebody turns 21, their parents throw them a HUGE party, traditionally spending about 3 grand. It's suppose to be a sign of them finally becoming independent from their parents. Cool, huh? Another funny thing I learned. I had mentioned that in Ireland, people could tell without us speaking that we were Americans and I was wondering how they could do it. Elaine told me that even though she wouldn't be able to say precisely American, she knew I wasn't Scottish because of how tan I was! I wouldn't have thought about that...

Ok- back to Scotland. This morning we woke up and got brunch. We went down to this nice little organic/green Cafe, which was pretty nice! The night before I had been talking Haggis with Elaine, and so she decided to order a side of it, and her friend got the veggie version, and sure enough I tried it! Be proud, ok! I never thought that I would ever eat it... I myself ordered French Toast with maple syrup and bacon. Much to my surprise, it was American bacon and it was suppose to be eaten on top of the toast! It was absolutely delicious, I loved it. We then wandered around town, and I was shown Princes Street and the Royal Mile, which are the 2 biggest places in Edinburgh. There are tourists everywhere here for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo Festival (starting this weekend) and the Fringe Festival (which started last weekend)- so for once I don't feel too odd being a tourist.

At the end of the Royal Mile is the Edinburgh Castle, so Elaine and I parted there. She left for Wales today for a frisbee tournament, so I'm alone for the rest of the weekend. I love castles, and have been to a few by now, and I had a blast at the Edinburgh one. It seemed very... Scottish. It was really rustic off of a rocky cliff with a lot of grass. Exactly how I think of Scotland. The view up from there was absolutely gorgeous, and one of my favorite photos that I got was of the back of a cannon where you can see the view peaking through where the cannon sticks out. At the castle I went to the Scottish War Memorial, the Scottish War Museum, the room where Queen Mary gave birth to King James, saw the Scottish crown jewels, saw where the crown jewels were buried during WWII, and where King James was almost murdered- but then killed his suspected murderers instead. I actually loved looking at all the outfits at the Scottish War Museum, and the bagpipes too. Unfortunately I couldn't check out the chapel, because there was a wedding going on! What a great place to have one. Plus great place to take photos!

I walked out of the castle back to the Royal Mile, where all of the action for the Fringe Festival is. There are a lot of people passing out flyers for shows going on with the festival for comedy, music, and theater. There were even people passing out 'Free Hugs'... along with flyers. They would also dress up really crazy like; such as Snow White, polar bears, underlings, etc. There were also a lot of side shows on the street to. I stopped to see the most pierced woman in the world (creeeeeeeeepy), a dance done by a Korean dance group (which was actually more comical than anything- it was very oddly coreographed, but they didn't commit to it), and my favorite which was these 2 Frenchmen who did a comedy/tricks act. I also saw a man in a kilt playing bagpipes, so my trip to Scotland has offically been complete. A lot of people who live on that street would just watch everything out of the windows. There are a few flyers which looked like interesting shows, such as this one with Australian women dressing up as Disney princesses for a satirical performance on gender roles, but I doubt I'll check them out. I'm a little bit nervous walking around a strange city in a strange country at night alone. Elaine's apartment isn't in the middle of the city either, it's in it's own neighborhood too. So next time I come to the Fringe Festival...

Oh yeah! I also stopped by the Whisky Shop, located right outside of the castle, to just see what was there. The actual tour was 11 pounds, so I decided not to do it, but I did go in and see all of the Whisky they had. Over 300 kinds. The castle also had a whisky taste testing set up, but I decided against it. Still does not seem appealing.

Tomorrow I'm planning on waking up early and going to Arthur's Seat. It's a hill in Edinburgh where there's a great view of the entire town. After that I think I'm just going to hang out on the Royal Mile for the rest of the day. Watch some street performances, collect flyers, buy some touristy things, and who knows what else. I'll find something to do, I'm sure. I'm still debating on going out to watch the fireworks after the Tattoo tomorrow night. I would love to see it, but once again, walking home alone. Not quite sure if I'm in to that.

Well, I've taken over 100 photos so far. And I'm in none of them. So hopefully even more will be taken tomorrow!

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