Edinburgh

Well…. We made it safely to Edinburgh, Scotland by plane last night. The place here (BackPackers Hostel) is pretty damn sketch what with its crazy painted walls and counted steps (all the way up to the 5th floor where the hostel is). Then there is that smell. I seriously think roomie and I are getting high off the smell. This whole place reeks so thoroughly of weed I keep thinking that if I turn the wrong corner in the corridor I’ll be face-to-face with 50 people all lit up. So anyway. Roomie and I had the “J” room all to ourselves last night. Today there is someone else too. We have our own lockers – named after our beds: Jungle (me) and Jeopardy (roomie).

Today we woke up early. Me at 7ish, because it was frickin freezing as hell! I lost all the blood in 2 toes (but they came back as they always do. damn raynauld’s disease). We had left the window open last night in hopes of airing out the room a bit… it worked a bit. All I know is before we entered the building I had no problems with my allergies and since then… I cant shake this damn headache and my nose has gone insane.

But we left nice and early and walked around a bit. Sainsburys for b-fast and then walked towards the Edinburgh Castle. We got confuded looking for the Vistors Center and ended up going to the National Gallery for a bit. I got a bit pissed at roomie for all this. I dont know. She’s kind’ve a pain to travel with. I dont like to plan out every minute of my day and she does. I was kind’ve a child sulking til we left the National Gallery. Then we went to check out the castle. Take away the red phone booths, nice toliets, and signs and it looks just like you stepped back in time. The coolest part about it in my opinion was the view. The castle itself overlooks the entire spread of the city. I love it! Then we went to walk the Royal Mile again and stopped at the Fudge Kitchen – best place in the world!!! mmmm belgium choc and vanilla swirl…. After those sweets roomie and I went to The World’s End Pub (which roomie knows the story of and I forgot already) where I had a very normal meal of burger and chips. Then we popped over to Princes St. for shopping… Lost roomie in Jenners, which is frickin huge… We were supposed to meet up by the knitting at the cashpoint… but somewhere between the foodhall and the 8 millions stairways and lifts we missed each other. It was rather eventful.

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Excerpt from conversation with one of my friend’s boyfriends back home – what a sweetheart! girl, you picked a good one!
Me: i couldnt remember fot hte lifh of me
Me: wow my spellig sucks
Him: are you drunk
Him: and with boys with bad teeth
Me: no not drunk
Me: and i have only met guys from britain with good teeth
Him: ok good
Him: i worry about you two
Him: when you get a little liquor in you, the guys with bad teeth look like the ones with good teeth
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So over the next few days a lot happened. Scotland was beautiful! Roomie and I spent 2 days in Edinburgh but also traveled to Loch Ness and Glasgow. We seriously had a blast, but I definately missed out on sleep.

The days were awesome. We traveled a lot by train and saw castles and touristy things, earned an addiction at that fudge shop (amazing… seriously), and got lost quite a bit. Loch Ness was beautiful. Roomie and I left for it late in the day (didnt sleep much the night before… see “Officially the Worst Sleep Ever”) and thus we arrived at Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness after the Castle and grounds closed for the day, but it was still an amazing sight becuase we were there at sunset. So we ended up walking the few miles back to the nearest town to catch a bus. It was quite the adventure.

We wokeup earlier for Glasgow and spent the day just wandering through the major sites and saw the Moscow City Ballet Co perform Romeo & Juliet (never been a fan of the play, but the ballet was cool). Roomie and I got into a huge fight during the 2nd intermission but patched things up on the way home. I’m still a bit mad tho. She always plans everything and nothing I suggest is ever good enough…. Other than that there was just a lot of sightseeing around Edinburgh.

The most adventure really was at the hostel. omg. My allergies were soooo horrible after staying there! I have a major headcold now. It sucks. Seriously though the place reeked of weed. I kept waiting to find some in my bed it was that strong. Honestly I havent slept more than my dozing on the trains and an hour here or there at the hostel in the past 5 nights. I’m exhausted. The first night the smell kept me awake plus the window (right by my feet) was open to air out the room so i froze! The second night Christy and I went to bed at 10pm but were woken up at 2am to the horrible sound of two people having sex. So yea. that was great. My mom laughed her ass off when I told her about it. I personally didnt think it was that funny at the time, but in retrospect it is quite amusing. The following night we got back pretty late and all the beds were full. Unfortunately, 3 men snored really loudly and the loudest one’s head was right next to mine.

The last night I just couldnt sleep my allergies were so bad. I was starting to wonder if you really could get high off weed even if you dont smoke it. Seriously though… allergies at their worst so feeling pretty shitty right now. Not to complain too much of course (yea, that’s sarcasm)

Otherwise it was a total blast. I cant wait for this weekend. My dad is coming to visit! I think we’re going to go see Phantom in the West End bc I’ve never ever seen it (with exception of the movie). Hopefully my cold will be gone by then. Actually, hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow because roomie and I have a presentation to do for Marketing. I am a headcase right now. I’m sick and congested (therefore grumpy) but on top of that my ears didnt pop on the plane so I am half deaf and cant hear anything (so of course everyone is making fun of me because I never realise I am talking 10x louder than I should be.) Oh well. Prolly should get to my homework.

Moral of the story: Stay away from hostels. You can get a hotel for $4-10 more and it will be 30x better.