A Week of Scotland: Day 3

On Saturday morning, the first thing we did when we arrived in the city was drop off our bags at the Caledonian Backpackers Hostel. We couldn't get our keys yet because they were cleaning the beds and rooms still, so Rose and I got our purses and cameras out of our suitcases and decided to walk around the city.

Edinburgh was so beautiful! It is an old city, with the oldest part being cleverly named Old Town. In this area is Edinburgh Castle (been around since the 12th century) and the University of Edinburgh (founded in 1583) as well as other old buildings, cobblestone streets and narrow alleyways.

This is Edinburgh Castle.

We didn't go inside because it was 14 pounds. That's $23!

Thanks but no thanks. I can spend my money on other things, such as sweaters and wine.

Also, I just found on the Edinburgh Castle website that there is a virtual tour of the castle, so we don't even have to pay to see what's so great about it! Ha!

Edinburgh likes their cathedrals. So much so that they built one around every street corner! (That's an exaggeration)

We walked up to Calton Hill, which holds the Scottish Parliament Building and a bunch of monuments. You can see the whole city from up there!

This building (Nelson's Monument) reminded me of Rapunzel's tower.

 The rest of the day went like this:

We wandered to the Old Calton Cemetery

Saw a monument dedicated to David Hume.

Got Subway for lunch.

Went to the City Chambers Quadrangle and saw the Edinburgh Awards plaques on the ground. 

Here I am putting my hand in JK Rowling's handprint. She was the winner of the award in 2008.

Went inside some cool shops.

Took pictures of awesome things instead of purchase them.

Wandered around the city some more.

Walked around West Princes Street Gardens.

And ended our day by going shopping in the Princes Mall. 

Look what ugly leggings I found!

So many girls wear leggings like these. Stacy and Clinton, get these girls on What Not To Wear asap. They're breaking fashion rules.

That was the end of my Saturday! Happy Leap Day!

A Week of Scotland: Day 2

During our weekend stay in Edinburgh, Rose and I stayed in a hostel! I've never stayed in a hostel before so the only knowledge I had of a hostel was the horrible horror movie (called Hostel, for those of you born before 1980) about how the locals in Slovakia torture Americans. The scaredy-cat in me was definitely getting inside my head and making me paranoid.
The hostel we stayed at, Caledonian Backpackers, was anything but scary and intimidating. Almost all of the walls were painted with murals, there were tons of books and brochures at the front lobby, and everyone there seemed to be between the ages of 18 and 30. We think the hostel was previously a private school because the staircases were old and wooden, there was crown molding on the ceiling edges, the windows were as tall as the ceiling, and many of the doorways had plaster detail. It was a very pretty hostel!

The scariest people there were the ones on the walls!

Every wall was painted a different color.

All of the furniture was hand-painted with neat designs on them. It was a really cool place to stay! 

The cafe was where Rose and I spent most of our time when we weren't sleeping. There was a bar, two pool tables, an upright piano (painted, of course, with a screen showing a virtual fire), lots of barstools and couches, a few picnic tables, and graffiti and murals all over the walls. Music was always playing in the background, even during the night.

This is the door that opened to our room

I forgot to take a picture of our room, so credit goes to Rose!

There were 38 beds in the room we stayed in, which were split up between two rooms. We both got bottom bunks right by each other and right by the windows.

The first night we went to bed early, around 9, so we heard everyone come in and get ready for bed. It didn't bother me too much; I just put in my headphones and closed my eyes. The worst part was when the guy sleeping in the bunk above me noisily climbed up to bed... and then snored half the night! There are some things that music can't drown out, and that is when someone is snoring 5 feet away from you.

The second night Rose and I went out, so we didn't go to bed until midnight. I slept like a rock (must have been the wine) until around 4, when a guy sleeping in the other room was snoring. It sounded like a freight train was in the building, he was so loud! I wanted to throw my boots at him.

Overall staying in a hostel was a good experience. We got free breakfast (I'm sure my mom will be happy to hear that), although the breakfast consisted of bread, Nutella (#winning), jams, plain granola cereal and milk, coffee (#winning) , orange juice, and fruit cocktail. Not an impressive breakfast by any means, but it was free, and anything free is golden in my eyes.

A Week of Scotland: Day 1

I went to Scotland this past weekend! And I'm going to tell you about it once a day for the next five days.
Our flight to Edinburgh was on Saturday morning.. at 6:25! We flew with RyanAir, and they like to fly really early in the morning or really late at night, so Rose and I sucked it up and chose the earlier flight... most likely because it was cheaper than any other flight.
Waking up so early was brutal, of course, and we noticed some kids in our apartment complex still partying at 4 in the morning. In fact, when we left for the taxi at 4, our Spanish roommates were just getting back from a party.
Getting through security and everything went well, and we had an hour to spare at the gates. There were so many people on our plane! Rose and I found out that RyanAir isn't the fanciest airplane service, and we could pick our own seats on the airplane. The flight was less than an hour so we arrived in Edinburgh a little before 7:30.
We also found out that Scotland's currency is pounds, as well as Northern Ireland and England.

The exchange rate of dollars to pounds is horrible! If you want 40 pounds, you'd pay $25.  The rate is 1.6, but we just rounded up when we saw priced things. We figured if an item costs X pounds, it would be double that in dollars. 

We did go into McDonald's the next day and found out they do have a pounds menu!

After we got some money at the airport, we paid for our bus tickets (6 pounds for roundtrip) and made our way into the city.

After walking around the city later that day, I noticed Edinburgh isn't that big. There is a population of about 486,000 people. The main road we walked on a lot is Princes Street.  Shopping stores are packed all along one side of the road; the other side faces West Prince Street Gardens.

We had all day to walk around the city, but before that we dropped our bags off at our hostel, the Caledonian Backpackers, which is where I will pick up on tomorrow's post.

What am I going to do with all these kiwis?

After our one class today, Rose and I went grocery shopping.

Here is some of what I bought:

Maple & Pecan Crisp Cereal. I eat this for breakfast and I put it in my yogurt. It is SO GOOD.

I always buy a couple of boxes of this granola cereal when I go shopping, because I go through it fast. If I ever run out of it, I'll probably have a panic attack.  

Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins. These are also very delicious.

Tesco brand cream crackers. I eat them with Nutella.
Guess how much they were!

.26 euro! That's $.35. What a deal!

Another deal: Three packs of kiwis for 3 euro! I have a boatload of kiwis now... so its a good thing I love them!

Avocado. If only I had sushi to go with it...

I found this steal: a little bottle of my favorite perfume! Now I'll be able to smell nice!

Potatoes. Rose showed me how to make mashed potatos in the microwave and it's SO easy! And with a little butter, they are delicious! No wonder Ireland loves potatoes.

Join Me on an Adventure!

We're going to go on an adventure today... to my campus!
But first, let's have breakfast.

Let's leave our apartment and walk down Shanowen Hall.

Open the gate.

Turn left and admire some graffiti.

Look, there's a Spar!

Keep walking.

Cross the street up here.

Then you turn right and see this beautiful building. It's a parking structure!

This is where I enter campus. The Business Building is on the left, the lecture Theatre is the round brick building and to the right is The Helix.