London VI: Not England, but Scotland

Scotland

Friday:

Nothing says fun like a five-hour train ride to Edinburgh with Scottish guys dressed in either fake kilts and wigs or spandex and a painted cardboard box.

Yes, this is real life. Welcome to my train ride.

Everything was going pretty well at first. I was working on my short story for class and enjoying the scenery (the real scenery, not the above views). But then I received a phone call from Eamonn, who says that he accidentally overbooked our room. He took a long time to tell me that we could stay at Rhone's (Rone-ah) B&B on Friday night and that we'd simply move our things to his place on Saturday. We had a room for both nights, so I was fine. No worries. Of course, our bus took us much too far, so we asked a Travel Lodge for directions...and then we caved and called Eamonn...and then Rhone. (If you ever go to Edinburgh, I highly recommend staying with one of them. They're lovely.)

We went to a pub for dinner, where we heard a waiter complain that all the queen does is spend money, and then the twelve of us said, "Hey, let's climb Arthur's Seat!" 

It's about 820 ft. high, and I get for all of you hikers and mountain climbers that this is not a problem, but we're city people now and weren't in the proper clothing.

Feel the struggle.

See the view from the top. 

Applaud me for a job well done.

It was worth every struggle, and I didn't slip until we nearly returned to the bottom.

We had grand plans to reward ourselves with Scottish dessert. After talking to the locals, however, we learned that MacDonald's is the only place open "late" (meaning after 8) other than pubs that were already too full. We got there a few minutes before they closed (10, maybe?) and grabbed ice cream.

Saturday:

I love, love, love cities, but we've gotten a bit weary of them after living in London for three weeks, so we took a train to Balloch and spent the day around Loch Lomond. And guys, it was all that is good and beautiful. It was sunny and about 70 degrees, which is the opposite of typical Scotland weather. Perfect.

We stumbled upon the "dragon races," which felt like the 4th of July. They had tents and food trucks and played "YMCA" and the "Macarena." 

Look, I've found the Romans!

Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond 

After exploring Balloch and having the best ice cream of my life (honeycomb, if you were wondering), four of us went back to the train station. My group was the first to leave and, therefore, the first to discover that the train system was having "overhead wire problems." This meant that we got on a train that dropped us off in Dalmuir, where we stood for 30 minutes with several Scottish people, all of whom had no idea how to get to a real station. Luckily, an older couple adopted us, saying that I reminded them of their "wee granddaughter" and traveled with us, herding us into our next three trains and giving us all hugs when we parted.

For dinner we went to The Elephant House, which is where J.K. Rowling wrote most of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Because a chair broke when one of my friends sat on it, we got 20% off our total. If you ever go, you should try the hot chocolate (I got mint and caramel) and check out the women's restroom. I don't care if you're a girl or guy. Check out the women's restroom.

The "Birthplace" of Harry Potter (Note the Gryffindor colors.)

We all signed the restroom walls.
They essentially make up a giant "Thank You" card to Rowling.

Sunday:

After Eamonn gave us his "How well do you know your country?" quiz (Did you know that 22 of our states end with an a? Because we do.), we walked around Scotland, heard a man playing "Amazing Grace" on his bagpipes, went shopping, and returned to The Elephant House for lunch, where my waiter said, "Sorry, I can't remember your order. I'm actually still quite drunk."

Fun things we learned in Scotland:

• They really do say "wee" all of the time.
• If you introduce yourself with "Hey, I'm American," they're generally pretty nice and give good explanations.
• Even the locals don't always understand their train system.

Join me next time for my flight with Peter Pan, my attempt to steal the TARDIS, and my first theatre experience at The Globe!

Cheers!