We had a beautiful ride to Edinburgh on the train and passed all of the countryside and the water (which Morgan thought was a lake, I told her was the Ocean, and the lady next to me corrected us and told us the North Sea...oops!) I loved being still to sleep, read, and look out the window. We stayed in ta perfect location, really near the train station and right off the Royal Mile. It was probably one of the nicest hostels I have ever seen (although I really haven't seen very many I guess!).
We wandered around the shops on the Royal Mile, listened to the bag pipes, and saw all of the wool and cashmere. I remembered that there were gardens near by to we headed that way and ended up walking on a path through a field next to the Castle. It was a BEAUTIFUL day!!
Seeing all of the fields and the wonderful sun made my heart happy! I love walking around beautiful countryside like this SO much!
Because we had so much fun in the Princess Gardens we decided to walk to the Botanical Gardens...boy did we not know what we were getting ourselves into!!! Some people we met in the Park told us everyone knew where it was and could give us directions. We figured in that case it would be really close and easy to get to. After for walking around for a while in the direction we assumed we were supposed to go (the Botanics were off of our map so that wasn't very helpful), we stopped and asked a mail man how to get there. He told us to take a few turns and we'd be there, and then rolled down his window when he drove by to make sure we knew which turn to take. After another 20 minutes of walking, no gardens. A sweet old man saw us looking lost and came over to help us, telling us to go down the windy windy bridge and take a few turns. After that we still weren't there! By that point the weather had changed it started to rain.
We finally saw a sign pointing to the gardens. But now it was poring rain and we had come to a bus stop and decided it would be better to take the bus back than walk around the gardens and then walk an hour back in the rain. Sadly, we never made it to the gardens, but we had quite an adventure getting there!
That night we ate at the most wonderful restaurant ever, Monteiths!!! It was so nice and quaint and had great food! We loved it so much that we decided to make reservations and bring the guys back the next night.
Saturday was a very grey and raining day...not to mention freezing cold. After breakfast we decided to go tour the the Endiburgh Castle...bad idea! We waited in the rain to get a ticket for thirty minutes. Once we got inside the wind was blowing so hard we thought we were going to freeze. The castle and views are great on a sunny day, but there is not much of a change to see stuff inside the castle building away from the rain. After this we decided to take our sightseeing inside and go on the Scotch whisky tour. They told us all about the whisky from the different regions of Scotland and we got to smell the differences in them. The places was cool but I think whisky is nasty!!!
That night we went to the bank bar pub to celebrate Colin's 21st bday. They had a guitarist and we was playing all sorts of songs we would have at a band party! The second song he played was Brown Eyed Girl. Of course we loved and it all sang. After that a man came over and said that was his and his wife's song from 1970's and he couldn't believe we knew it...he thought it was so great that he bought all six of us a round. Turned out he was from Atlanta and had come over to play golf. Colin brought the place to life by trying to get literally EVERYONE in the pub to dance! It was so much fun to dance! We also met four older Scottish people who we talked to a lot that night! They were hilarious and dancing with all of us (while playing matchmaker with Liz)! haha such a fun night and wonderful memories!
Sunday we climbed Arthur's Seat. Again, I LOVED it! Beautiful views! John had bought a mini bagpipe and played it for us on the hill lol! Kaz, one of Colin's friends from UVA who is from Edinburgh invited us to her house for lunch. We had so much fun hanging out with her and her sister, and friend and the food was to die for!
That's the end of my long and wonderful weekend and back to London on the train I went!
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