Scotland; Haggis and Kilts

Golly. What a weekend! I have officially broken the ice on travel with my first trip — Scotland!

Ashlee Springer and I left Dublin on Thursday and after trying to check into the wrong hostel, we found the correct one which was much more ... non-hippyish. We dropped our bags and went out to explore the city. We found some food, a few drinks, but most shops were closed. The next morning, we awoke to a room full of hairy old men. And unfortunately for us, one of them sure was naked under his cover. Needless to say, we escaped as quickly as possible.

We made our way through Old Town to the Edinburgh Castle which was very cool. I have quite a few pictures to prove it.

Edinburgh Castle

After a few hours at the castle, we stopped for lunch. And I tried haggis. I asked the waitress what exactly it was and she said "It's heart, lungs and intestine ... but you really shouldn't ask. People who don't know what it is really like it." So, I pretended I didn't ask and I tried it anyway. It wasn't bad, but I just kept thinking about what exactly it was. I am still trying to block it from my memory.

View of Arthur's Seat from the Castle.
After lunch, we walked down the Royal Mile and over to the trailhead to Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat sits atop a very high mountain and over looks Edinburgh and the surrounding area. The hike sucked, but the overall reward was amazing. The view was tremendous and made the journey well worth the climb.


View of the Castle from Arthur's Seat.
After a fumble down the mountain, we tried to start a pub crawl that Nikki Glaros told us to do. But no luck. Apparently, they stopped doing the Downtown Ale Trail in Edinburgh. Instead, I suggested that we try to catch the evening performance of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Edinburgh Playhouse. So we found our way over to the theatre and scored some tickets off to the side in the balcony. But with an hour til curtain, we wandered around the area near the theatre. We ended up at a take-out fish 'n chips place which quite possibly is the worst idea in the world. With no where to go, we sat on the steps of some apartment building attempting to eat fish and chips. It was a disaster. But it was nearing showtime, so we went over to the theatre to take our seats. They were definately in the nosebleeds, but when the overture started playing, everone with bad seats made a dash for the center of the balcony. And then. The show began. It was so much fun! I found myself grinning like an idiot the entire show. I don't know if it was because I was so tired from walking all day, but I absolutely loved the show! And the car flew! It was awesome!

After the show, we went a few doors down to the Theatre Royal Bar and slowly, a few members of the cast started to trickle in. At first, it was more of a joke — "He looks 'dancey' and he has a bag! I bet he was one of the chorus boys!" But then, most definately, the actor who played the Baron came in. I was determined to meet these people. So, I got the next round of drinks and on my way back to the table, I asked the Baron is he was in the show. We proceeded to have about a minute long converstaion about the show and where I was from and what not. It was awesome.
And then at a table near us were some of the chorus boys (one of them offered me some pizza) and the Baroness even came for a while. (She was amazing.) It was cool to see them all interact with each other after the show. They all seemed like cool people that I would want to hang out with. I also introduced myself to one of the actors who played one of the Bulgarian duo. It was a good night.

We returned to the hostel and prayed that everyone would be clothed in the morning. (We now know the importance of a youth hostel.) The next morning, we wandered around and then caught a bus to Glasgow. (It was cheaper to fly into Edinburgh and out of Glasgow). So, yesterday afternoon, we went to the Glasgow Cathedral (c. 1200's?) which was old and to the Necropolis cemetary which was really cool.



Our flight left early this morning and it sure did suck. I was so exhausted last night. All the walking from the day before was catching up to me. So, after the cemetary and some food. I basically just passed out until 5am when we had to be up to catch a taxi to the airport. (Airports hate me by the way. That's a story for another time though.)