Drookit

Hello there Internet,

SCOTLAND! That's all I need to say. But I'm sure you'd like to hear more than that, so let me tell you all about it. To get to Edinburgh from London, it takes 8 HOURS. On a bus. With 50 people. So pretty much it was a long day. We made stops along the way to break it up thankfully! Fountain's Abbey was our first stop in York, which is this run-down yet really cool monastery. It was very Skyfall with the fog and everything. It was a perfect photo opportunity.

Fountain's Abbey

Amanda and I 

Morgan, Tavia, Me and Amanda

That night we made it to Edinburgh after a very long, very uncomfortable 6 hour drive. I was really looking forward to a hot shower, soft bed, and silence. What I got instead was a hostel. Having never stayed in a hostel before and having heard horror stories from friends, I freaked out. The fact that our room smelled like hairy man BO didn't help. I tried to take it in stride and think of it as part of the experience, but the amount of drunk men hitting on us and fungus living in our shower made me vow to never stay in a hostel again as long as I can help it.

Streets of Scotland

Hogwarts?

The next day we woke up early to climb the hill to Edinburgh Castle, the castle that inspired JK Rowling's Hogwarts. Again, it was crazy foggy and raining. Which gives me a chance to explain the title to this post. Drookit means soaking wet, and soaking wet we were! Part of me wishes it wasn't such terrible weather so that I could get a better view from the castle, but what's Scotland with sun? Not Scotland!

Sydney and I

After, we trekked down the hill to the National Gallery. Normally this wouldn't inspire me as something to write about on the blog, but for being so small it was incredible. I was standing next to Degas, Monet's, and Van Gogh's all in the same room. I was a bit starstruck.

Just chilling with Dega's Ballerinas

The rest of the day was spent exploring the city and trying to figure out what to do that night. Edinburgh is considered a really haunted town, so a lot of our group went on ghost tours that night. Considering I'm a HUGE whimp when it comes to scary things, I opted out. Instead, we went to this lovely restaurant called The Outsider that placed us at a table right by a window looking up at the castle all lit up in the dark. We ventured in search of sticky toffee pudding after we had gorged ourselves. If you don't know what that is, you're missing out! It's probably one of my new favorite desserts. I'm in search of the perfect recipe for it. We rolled around for a little bit, stuffed to the gills with STP, and then went to The Jazz Bar. A local told us about how cool it was, so we knew it was a must-do. Thursday night acoustic night meant there was a lot of local raw talent playing. We heard some really talented people, all with thick Scottish accents!

The rest of our trip included long coach rides, cathedrals, running around drookit, homemade churros found at markets, warm Starbucks, snow hikes to Roman walls, Chinese food, island castles, interrupted sleep, and at last a warm shower. Scotland was one for the books; I hope I can go back one of these days! Until next week my darlings.

Love,
Courtney