SCOTLANNDDD Day 1-14 July 2019

Not a great start to my Scotland trip.

I woke up to a rainy London morning the first in a long time. Underestimating he amount it was raining I only wore my jean jacket which was a mistake but whatever.

I slept terribly. I dunno why just now in my life I decided to start having anxiety. I was up all night tossing and turning worried about making my train and the trip going well and hoping I packed everything even though there’s nothing to do about it.

I barely slept and only got little naps. I woke at 6 to Kristas alarm. She made noise around the place and finally left.

I got up at 7 and drank water and then sat in my bed for a bit. I wasn’t hungry yet so I made a Nutella sandwich for the road.

Krista left a mess so I had to clean up after her in the living room, kitchen, her room, and bathroom. I feel bad for Emma cause she’s the last to leave and being last always sucks cause you have to deal with everything left.

I washed my face and packed everything up. All my bags are bursting to the seems which sucks. I much like traveling with room so it’s not as much of a struggle. I brought a lot of stuff that I never even wore. Next trip I am not listening to mom at all and will just pack 4 T-shirt’s and 3 pants and call it a day. I never wore the cardigan or bomber jacket or the fancier black shirt or the navy shirt or grey striped shirt. I brought too much.

With both my bags and backpack bursting to the seems I toted them down the stairs and finished cleaning the flat. I ended up leaving my cereal and bread cause I didn’t have room.

Then I lugged my stuff in the rain to Kings cross. It honestly wasn’t that bad of a walk.

When I got there it was pretty empty and the sign didn’t say anything about an 8:48 to Edinburgh. It actually didn’t have any trains before 11am. I asked around and apparently there’s maintance work this weekend so there’s no trains out of kings cross til 11. Of course. I asked at info just to clarify and they said my ticket doesn’t have a specified time and since I bought it from trainline I didn’t buy a specific seat either so I can get on whatever to Edinburgh. The first train of the day is 10:50 straight to Edinburgh.

So I sat and waited for two hours and ate my Nutella sandwich and my applesauce and worked on my blog a bit before my computer started dying. I’m annoyed. But I should get to Edinburgh by 3:15 which isn’t too bad. Also since it’s raining I probably won’t be able to do the short hike up Arthur’s seat like I wanted to today. So my new plan is to get in lock up my luggage at the station and check into the hostel and then go to late lunch/early dinner at the elephant house which is where jk Rowling used to sit and write.

The train ride there is supposed to be really pretty and I’m excited. I also love rain so I’m having a good day. I’m excited for my new adventureeee. I finally shut up and went!

Honestly I’m having a great time on this trip overall. I was a little bummed about not having like minded people with me but I still had a blast and learned a lot. Sadly I failed my one goal of making a London friend unless you count the first day where I met the American, Canadian, and girl who worked for the prince. I hope I meet some cool people in Scotland but I think I’ll be happy even by myself. I think I’m an introvert. I always thought I was an ambivert (mix of introvert and extrovert) but after this trip I think I’m and introvert. I enjoy time by myself and only really like hanging out with good friends but I do really like talking to and meeting new people so I dunno.

The ride went fine. The crazy part was getting on. They never announced a platform so 30 min before we were supposed to leave I went over to the gates and just waited right in front of one cause there was a small crowd. At 10:40 they randomly opened all the gates and then everyone just rushes in and gets on the train somewhere and tries to get a seat. It was wild. Thankfully I was lucky and got a seat and this dad age man helped me with my luggage which was really nice. He put my grey luggage under a seat down the row and my green one up above. The overhead rack was super small and there’s no way my grey one would fit there which is sorta poor design. He sat next to me and his wife sat across the aisle. The train was way over packed and a bunch of people ended up just standing on it for the whole trip! I had a window seat with an outlet! But I was going backwards which was fine. There was WiFi but it didn’t work and I dunno why my data plan isn’t working cause dad activated it yesterday.

We had 6 stops. Newark north(lol), York, Darlington, new castle(lol), berwick upon tweed , and then Edinburgh! It ranged from super cloudy to bright and sunny as we went and we passed a lot of countryside and industrial bits. It was nice. I read Peter Pan . I finished the first one which is Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and then I started the second which is Peter and Wendy. I’m a bit confused what prefer they were published and what format they were published in. It seems like Peter in Kensington was the first one and just more of an idea. Then Peter Pan as a play and then Peter and Wendy is adapted from that? But then there’s also Peter Pan the book and also The Little White Bird which I thought was the original book that has the Peter character but I dunno.

Behind me on the train was a loud girl from Memphis. Why Americans always so loud. I feel like Americans and Chinese are the loudest people publicly because culturally I feel like we just don’t care about others as a society.

A list of weird things from my month in England:

-showers are very high up and difficult to get out of

-showers also have no curtain and only have a half a glass partition

-public bathroom stalls have doors that go all the way to the floor

-toilets either have a double button (which is annoying cause you can’t do it with your foot), a pull string, or a weird handle that you have to pump twice

-wooden and recyclable straws AND utensils everywhere

-crossing roads is always a hazard regardless of whether you are a local

-homeless people are kind and very friendly to everyone

-people in turn are polite to homeless people for the most part

-they don’t have applesauce

-tea and coffee is only a pound or two which is 2-3$ and sometimes a whole pot is only 2£

-there are so many accents and I really can’t understand some of them sometimes surprisingly

-people are not as friendly as I expected and way less personable than Ireland

-the city itself is like a cleaner NYC

-newspapers are free and homeless people hand them out

-people hand out flyers but aren’t pushy about it

-pret is Starbucks

-food is so insanely cheap at food stores

-they don’t have Barnes and nobles but they have waterstones

-museums are free! But exhibits are expensive also tourist spots are expensive

-they don’t say bless you here

After looking at farms for hours I’ve decided I would like to live and work on a farm in another country for a bit one day. I feel like it would be really hard rewarding work but also relaxing and mindless.

I finally arrived in Edinburgh!!! The last hour of the trip was prettiest and I think that was the Scotland part. There was the sea on the left (reminder I was sitting backwards) and rolling green craggly fields on the right. It was gorgeous. I knew I’d love Scotland.

The guy I was sitting next to had helped me stow my luggage and when we got close he pulled it all down for me. He was very nice and friendly and he’s from Edinburgh. He suggest pubs near the base of the castle when I asked. The girls behind us were on an EF tour from Mississippi and it was her first time out of the country. She was loud but had funny dumb comments that made everyone laugh.

When I got there I made a last minute decision to try to lock my luggage long term in the hostel instead cause that’s a thing I didn’t even think of before. It’s only 5£ a day to store it and I won’t have to pay the nights I’m there so I think that’s perfect! That’ll be 4 days so it’s 20£ which is wayyyy cheaper than what I had originally planned.

I lugged all my stuff uphill both ways! It was actually such a terrible time but also great. I love terrible adventure moments like that cause while it’s happening you know it’s a memory already. It took me what felt like ages and I thought my arm would fall off. This is my exercise for the whole summer. It was a steep hill and all the sidewalks and streets are super bumpy old. But I love Scotland already. It’s gorgeous and has dark stone buildings and little windy parts and side staircases called “close” and I love it! Also there was bagpipes on every street but I never saw them which was funny.

About two blocks in I paused and huffed and puffed for a bit until I had my breath and this lady came over and asked if I wanted a lift cause her car was literally right there. It was very nice of her but my head was screaming stranger danger so I declined but as I saw her drive away I may have shed a tear or two.

I eventually made it and also passed about 4 gothic churches and ?people holding owls?. The hostel is literally right below the castle and it is the coolest thing.

This hostel is sooo nice! I have a key to get into my room and my locker and then a bright pass that I show at the door to get let in. My room is upstairs but is number 42 and I must have looked dreadful cause the desk lady was like lol it’s only right up one flight. There was no way in hell I was lugging my luggage up. I tried to get her to let me put my one luggage in the storage room already but she insisted that I take the cheaper way essentially which was nice but annoying. I lugged everything up the grand staircase and easily found my room. Apparently there’s a Harry Potter themed room and I’m sorta bummed I didn’t know about it. My room is super big! And it’s perfect! I have the bottom bunk which I’m not hype about however it has TWO pillows! And it has TWO outlets in it! AND there’s a big window with a nice view overlooking the town which is cool. The locker is sorta small but I just put my jackets and backpack locked in it with my valuables and my two luggage I put right next to my bedside and they have locks on them so that’ll have to do. I’m in an all female room this time I think too. There was one other girl there when I came in who was watching incredibles 2 but didn’t say hi so I didn’t want to interrupt her. Maybe later.

I went straight out to elephant house which is right around the corner! But it had a line and it’s open til 10pm so I decided to do the hike first.

Having data is actually so nice I forgot what it was like. I listened to music and put on google maps instead of vaguely wandering (but I think I like wandering better) and texted mom and googled things.

It was about 15min to the park and then the hike was about an hour. It was roughhhh. I was pretty steep and apparently was the fastest but hardest route to take to the top according to my one website I found. But honestly after hiking it I think that was the only path to get to the top of that part. It was essentially really rough stone stairs which were wide enough but it was 3 separate stones across so each step had different heights across the width of it which was just annoying. The stairs zig and zag upward forever and then curl around the one hill and then once you’ve done that there’s a plateau of beautiful grassy area and then The Lookout spot which is a super craggy little hill to hike. Apparently Arthur’s Seat was a volcano at one point. I think that’s crazy! I can’t imagine Scotland as ever having had a volcano.

I hung out at the top for a bit and enjoyed the view. On the way up it’s a nice view of the whole thing but also the surrounding hilly cliff formation which you can also walk on and looks like it has ?a parthenon on it?. The top of The Seat has a thingy that tells you how far away things are but they’re only Scotland landmarks which I thought was funny and then there was a marker of the highest spot. I asked a lady to take a picture for me and she happened to be very Scottish and had a cute little accent and was super nice. She took photos from about 8 different angles which was lovely and very funny.

Then I went back down and went back to elephant house. The line was surprisingly way shorter now. I thought it would be longer now for dinner time. I sat at a little table near the window and imagined what it was like writing Harry Potter here. There's elephants everywhere which is cute. It's like when you have a grandma or crazy aunt who collects pictures of cats or something. I got a cibatta (brie cheese with mango apple chutney), lemon lavender cake, and a pot of early grey tea. All the food was really good and I think I'll have to come back cause it's a very nice atmosphere and there are so many cake choices. I didn't finish the cake cause I ordered too much food but I will save it for tomorrow. I hung out for awhile and read a chapter of Harry Potter and then wrote my blog for a bit.

They played bops like country road (I can’t believe this is my second time hearing this on this trip), mr blue sky, hey there Delilah (which made me miss dad cause I remember he told me he heard it in Hawaii one time and it made him miss me cause I used to sing it a lot and “play” it on cello and I have decided right now in this moment that it is our song and we will dance to it at my wedding), and Beatles.

I checked out the backroom and the bathroom before I left. The backroom was where JK wrote usually and it was very cozy and sunshiny and overlooks the castle. The bathroom is insane. It is so very small but is absolutely covered in every inch of harry potter fans. I wrote my name on the one wall. One wall was covered with a glass protection which I think is cute cause that makes it not graffiti anymore but something valued. I didn't get to pee in there sadly cause the two stalls were taken and didn't open for about 5 minutes so I left. I'll pee there next time.

I was there for about two hours and then went back to the hostel. Apparently they do concerts in the castle? I could hear it all the way from Arthur's Seat but didn't realize it was here. I think that's so freakin cool but also who ever it was was sold out both nights apparently and people were sitting in chairs outside our hostel listening to it. The castle is literally so cool. It's right there on this huge cliff and then leading up to it is this amphitheater thing and something about the structure reminds me of quidditch and Harry Potter and ugh I'm really already in love with this city. I'm so utterly glad I decided to do this trip and I'm pumped to see how it goes and what i'll see.

When I got to the room there was this lady there who is staying in the bunk above me. She's from Netherlands and loves Outlander and this is her second trip here. This trip she is here for 4 weeks and is doing Edinburgh, the highlands, and the isles. Tomorrow she is doing an Outlander tour. Maybe I should've done that I dunno.

I took a shower which went fine. It's like a little stall with a full door floor to cieling and then it had a little curtain that I just used to put around my clothes. It was uneventful and fine.

I am so incredibly hype about this trip.

I went to the common room after my shower. The common area is sooo cool. The one I ended up hangin out in has a big long table and then a bunch of couches and a pool table and a big world map and then an upper area with fancy couches and there's crests everywhere. It also has free coffee and tea. I made tea and it was eh but free. The other common rooms is a hippie one with couches and guitars and then another one labeled "the posh room (no riff raff allowed)" and has a piano in it and I decided that was not where I should be lol. The common room I was in was relatively busy and played a weird mix of popish music that had a lot of french music and then weird rock and swing songs.

I booked some trips! I decided tomorrow I will do Holyrood palace in the morning and then Edinburgh castle in the afternoon and then I booked a Harry Potter tour for 4:30pm that is a 2 hour walking tour. I'm excited. I also decided to scrap my whole tuesday plan and booked an all day Outlander bus tour. Originally I was supposed to do Craigmillar castle here in Edinburgh and then take a bus to Blackness and do that. Blackness is the Fort William castle in Outlander. I booked a tour that takes you to Doune castle (Castle Leoch in Outlander, the Monty Python Castle, Winterfell in Game of Thrones) (I was supposed to do this on wednesday originally), Midhope castle (lallybroch in Outlander), and this town that is Inverness in Outlander. I'm excited. If I get back early enough I might be able to do this other walking tour of Edinburgh that is at 7pm and is Outlander filming locations or I might do that next Sunday or tomorrow I dunno. My main problem I just realized is eating. I need to find cheap good fast eats. I will definitely go back to Elephant House next Sunday I think.

I worked on my VCUK blog. I missed the movie night here but I don't remember what they told me it was but I wasn't excited about it so I don't care that I missed it. I'm exhausted and hypeeeee. This is gonna be such a cool trip.

While I was working on my blog in the common area this guy came in with a group of people and then asked the room if anyone wanted to play Uno. He directed it at each person so when he asked me I just couldn't say no. His name is ?? and hes from North Carolina, the two girls he was with were Beth and ?? and they were from Austraila, then the other guy was Benny and he's from Birmingham (England). Then this other girl named Amanda joined, she's from Little Rock, Colorado. Then this other guy from North Carolina joined later. It was soo much fun and we stayed up really late. Sadly they're all leaving to different places tomorrow. The two Australia girls and Benny are friends from a previous trip to Thailand and I think are traveling Scotland together. The one guy was supposed to be doing a Study Abroad but then got here and decided to just travel around instead. Then Amanda is taking this trip before she starts her job that has something to do with Satellites and positioning.

Benny had never played Uno before which was amazing and a mess. Also after the first couple rounds we started adding rules whenever you played a +4. One of the rules was any time theres a +2 person the last person to stand up has to draw the 2 cards. One was you have to slap the table after every odd card played and the last person to do it had to draw one. My favorite rule though was that you could play multiple of the same card if you had it. I was honestly so unlucky the whole night and was getting all the + cards and not having the right color to play it was rough and then I finally won one game. It was fun. Apparently the concert that was in the castle earlier was Kylie Minogue who sings that one song from the 2000s. Benny said that she is "active" and her songs are an "anthem". He also kept doing fist bumps and calling them "big fists" which was funny. The one guy went and got a liter of coke and fish and chips and dumped pretty much and entire thing of salt on it it was hilarious and very American.

Then I think I was super exhausted cause I got a little dizzy and it was super late and I have plans for tomorrow so I decided to go to bed around 1. I did not finish my blog as planned.