Bagpipes, Kilts, and a Sketchy Hostel!

Last weekend I went to Scotland with 12 of my friends: Mary, Maddie, Hilary, Janna, Amy, Lauren, Patrice, Kiely, Elizabeth, Jenny, Maryanne, and Amanda. It was so much fun and I did see two men in kilts playing the bagpipes. It was so cliche! But let's start at the beginning. We arrive in Edinburgh and it isn't too late. We are walking around, all 13 of us, and we are looking for our hostel. We can't find it anywhere, and so we finally ask some of the bobby that we see walking around and they point us in the direction that we need to be going. We go and we walk into this back alley way and we walk past this opening and then we realized that that was our hostel. So we turn back around and go in. I kid you not, there were characterchers on the walls. And then you had to walk up about 60 steps to get to the hostel. During those steps we walked past a nice Pub that provided us with a great smell and crazy music into the night. Now not much rivals the comfort of your own bed, and let me tell you, this also does not rival the comfort of my bed! But nonetheless we were safe, thanks to Arnaud (another story, for another day) and nothing of mine was stolen, so I'm not going to complain too much. The next day we went to a castle,
hiked up Arther's Seat and saw the whole city of Edinburgh,

saw the birthplace of Harry Potter, meaning the pub where J.K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter,


and went to the Scottish Museum.

Then next day I went on a bus tour (yes, I am a tourist, so get over it) of the city and it took us a little bit out of the city near the bay. It was really fun and we went to the Botanic Gardens, where I was able to stand next to one of the oldest palm trees in one of the tallest green houses in Great Britain. Ya doesn't get better than that...

the Royal Yacht Britannia,

and went into the Scottish Parliament Building.

It was such a fun weekend and I really liked the city. It was big enough that there was always something that we were doing, yet small enough that we weren't overloaded with new stuff. I think that my favorite part was hiking up Arther's Seat. I loved being able to look over the city, but it was really windy, so a lot of my pictures you can't even see my face because my hair is blowing in it. But I loved it in Scotland and even though the hills were small, it made me feel like it was just a little bit more like I was in Provo. It was refreshing. I would just like to end by putting this disclaimer. The hostel we stayed at, as explain above, was sketchy and not the cleanest. Ergo, I didn't want to use the shower because I think I would have come out dirtier than when I went in. You can do the math. Please excuse the grease in my hair, and thank goodness for deoderant! But you know what they say, when in Europe, do what the Europeans do!