First of all, it should be acknowledged that the day we left for Europe was the day Shaun left for Ranger School. It's been strange and a little guilt-ridden to have so much fun knowing that my brother is being put through hell. Your prayers for his continued success are much appreciated.
So. After London...
Instead of paying $200 for a flight to Scotland, we took the adventurous route and paid $15 for a bus to Scotland. The difference was that a flight takes an hour, and a bus takes nine hours... overnight. This is the third time I've taken an overnight bus, and each time the conversation with myself has gone something like this:
"This won't be bad at all... Totally worth the savings. I can just sleep like *this* and be comfortable all night."
2 minutes later,
"Maybe *this* will be more comfortable."
4-5 minutes later,
"No *this*."
1 minute later,
"Well it's going to be a long night."
What's funny is that even though it stinks, I know I would do it again. In this way, overnight busses are like labor. Yes. Exactly like labor.
Upon finally arriving in Scotland, I remembered just how beautiful it was. Its greenery, its charm, and its people make my heart melt to the tune of the bag-pipes playing in the streets. Kelli and I are lucky enough to have a dad with friends all over the world who are willing to spend time with us and show us around the entire coast. Ian & Angie grew up in the area and were a delight to spend the day with. (I made sure to tell them how much I loved their accents.) They took us up the eastern coast to St. Andrews, with a few stops in between. On this day, Kelli and I tried "Scotch eggs" and Guinness steak pie. We also enjoyed breathtaking views of the North Sea.
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| Couldn't have asked for better weather. They said it was the warmest it'd been yet! |
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| I call this one, "Serenity: Sand for days." |
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| A Scotch egg! It's hard boiled, wrapped in sausage meat, and covered in fried bread crumbs. Sooo it tasted amazing. |
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| The St. Andrew's golf course. Original home to the game. Of golf. |
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| Standing in the remaining ruins from a church built in the 1200s. The twelve...hundreds... |
That night, the US played Belgium in the World Cup. The outdoor viewing area we went to ended up being a pretty ideal place to be an American who isn't in America. We proudly joined 100+ others in singing the National Anthem, and chanting "I believe that we will win" all the way until they didn't.
The next day we took a free walking tour of Edinburgh. Let me immediately rephrase that by saying we took *the worst walking tour in all of time. Sure, it was free. But I've been on at least 7 free walking tours that are saturated in anecdotes, energy, history, and an overall pulse-rate from the tour guide. These things were all lacking in this particular tour.
"But Sarah you sound like you are being too harsh and maybe too picky since you love History so much."
If you don't believe me, ask the other 30 people, including a group of 10 Aussies who started making stories up as we walked to add some actual information to our walk. Here are some examples. My commentary comes from the free tour I took 2 years ago, which now I wish I had given the girl $50 for and hugged her. Please note also that I didn't fabricate any of these quotes.
"This is the Royal Mile. It's really old..... Ok. Let's go on."
*The most famous street in all of Edinburgh, it connects the old castle to the current Queen's Scotland palace, which she is staying in this very week! The way you know this is because the castle is flying the UK flag rather than the Scottish flag. This brings up old animosities, but Scotland actually has a vote coming up in September to be independent or not!
"This is a famous school in Edinburgh, it's also very old."
*The school was the inspiration for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies since J.K Rowling actually lives IN Edinburgh! Also if you look just to the left as we stand in the cemetery, you'll see the names of two characters from the Harry Potter books: McGonagall and Moodie. It's rumored that this isn't a coincidence, but that J.K Rowling walked through the cemeteries to get inspiration for the names of her characters. Just around the corner is the real life "Voldemort"- Thomas Riddle!
"This is the Scottish memorial... umm it was built by..."
*He then went on to actually read the plaque we were all staring at word for word. The Aussies had a hay-day with this.
Anyways. Scotland is amazing even if walking tours aren't always a guarantee.
On day three, a few hours before we left, we saw the Queen of England. Kelli spotted a car 50 feet up the street, along with LOTS of police, and lots of people taking pictures. "Umm I think I just saw the Queen drive by." And then the uphill sprint began. We ran in our best tourist fashion at least half a mile to catch up to the car, and then had a hard time getting a good view. The Queen was going to a ceremony inside a church, so once she went inside, the crowds cleared dramatically. We decided it was worth it to wait for her to come back out, and politely pushed our way through the crowds for a prime spot. Then exactly 45 minutes later... (Queen at 0:28, Prince William at 0:35)
In part three we will explore reasons why Dublin has dumb maps, and what the West Coast of Ireland has in common with One Direction. (Answer: We saw both of them.)
In part three we will explore reasons why Dublin has dumb maps, and what the West Coast of Ireland has in common with One Direction. (Answer: We saw both of them.)
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