Day 25

Today was Friday and it was thus a free day - one which we took full advantage of in regards to sleeping. Yeah, we all basically chose to relax today. There was a pretty awesome adventure though - I went with Ed, Honi, Amy and Jake to climb Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is basically a moderately sized mountain that only takes a little while to reach the top, but it still takes the wind out of you. We chose to walk around the mountain on the way to the top and the view was spectacular. We all sat down at the very top and relaxed for a while - I got bored of this after a few minutes and decided to wander off on my own. I ended up basically climbing down the mountain until about halfway and then wandering about for a bit. I saw this really cool path down which I decided to take, but then found out that it was practically for professionals and that I shouldn't be on it. I did it anyway. I ended up slipping and sliding for about a good 15 seconds, which was absolutely terrifying. Once I got to the ground, I went back up to meet with everybody and then Ed and I decided we wanted to head back first. We ended up, like idiots, deciding to practically climb straight down the mountain where there was no path whatsoever. Although we succeeded, since I am telling you this, it was a pretty radical experience. We ended up falling down many times, scraping our hands and feet, slipping and pricking our hands on the rough bushes around us. Once we reached the ground, we met up with Alex and Zach and we all headed back together.

I decided to get some sleep pretty early, so after relaxing for a while and just doing whatever on my laptop I went to bed. This was the last full day in Edinburgh! :( I shall miss it dearly.

Day 24

Honestly, today wasn't full of as much excitement as other days have been. The main goal of the day was to go to Holyrood Palace, which is where Mary, Queen of Scots resided during her day. The trek there is pretty awesome because its' over the mountain! I went on this trek along with Nate, Dylan, Ed, Honi, and Amy. Jake decided to leave us behind and went ahead - sad day! Not really, but he did leave us. The mountain is absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous. I can't even begin to describe the beautiful view of nature as well as the city that I got to take in and the pictures can't either.

The palace itself was, of course, stunning. Everybody else decided to grab a free disk to listen to the history of the place, but I decided that I would simply enjoy its' beauty without distraction. Therefore, I sort of sped through the palace and saw a lot of people along the way. After leaving the palace was where it got the best for me, since that's where the garden lies. As always, the garden is my favorite part.

Afterwards, I headed home by myself and walked really slowly, enjoying the scenery as I went. I actually got confronted by a huge, black dog, and thought I was going to die. I'm not even joking - the dog was huge and its' owner was nowhere in sight. It charged at me and just as I thought all was gone, it ran past me and disappeared. That was by far the most exciting event of the day. Afterwards was class, which was as class always is: arduous. I actually grabbed a BLT prior to class, which was surprisingly fantastic. A whole group got together afterwards to go to the student bar and then head to a jazz bar, but I only went to the student bar with them. Tomorrow is our last night in Edinburgh!

Day 23

The big trip for today was basically Edinburgh Castle. I know that I already visited it, but this time I got to actually go inside it! I went to check out the castle along with Ed, Jake, Nate, Dylan, Honi, Amy and John. Ed, Dylan and I decided that we really wanted to see if we could get a picture of us wearing some Scottish clothes, but it was way too expensive so we passed  on it. The castle itself was absolutely stunning! The view of Edinburgh was ridiculous and the architecture was beauteous. Oh yeah, and along the way we actually saw some pretty darn cool race-car-looking vehicles.

While at the castle, we actually ran into a lot of people including Jeff and Katherine. After leaving the castle, we decided that we wanted to go to the Elephant House once again since most of the group had yet to go. Jake and Nate left to go get some money from Barkley's beforehand and then they met up with us later. I had the exact same thing that I did before since it was so delicious, but I decided not to get tea this time and to keep my budget tight.

The bathrooms are especially interesting because they feature writing from many of J.K. Rowlings fans as well as non-fans. Nate took a lot of pictures although I actually did not. We then walked back to our rooms and decided that we wanted to get some Chinese food after a break. Once the break was over, we did just that! The food was fantastic, albeit expensive, and the woman who served us was very entertaining and wondrously hilarious.

Mmm...doesn't that look good?
Anyway, tonight was KARAOKE NIGHT! I can't even begin to name all of the people that were there, but it was the first night where a ton of us got together and really decided to go out and have a great time. We first went to the student bar to relax and chat before heading to karaoke later in the night. I ended up singing some Katy Perry with Nate and Dylan, as well as Chloe and Parker. I sang quite a few songs and didn't even care that I couldn't sing whatsoever! It was a gosh-darn fun night.

Day 22

Today was basically spent 95% on the bus and 5% checking out some awesome sites. I mean we were literally on the bus for probably 8+ hours, it was ridonculous. We left at around 8:30AM with the ultimate destination being Loch Ness. Yes my friends, that Loch Ness...the one with Nessie! I sat next to Jake and while he was spending his time listening to music I enjoyed the true beauty of the nature of Scotland. I was actually pretty jealous, not going to lie. I'll just share some pictures of the nature on the way to the Loch Ness with all y'all!

We stopped for food as well, and I got extremely jealous of Honi and Amy because they ingeniously got tea for two and ate twice as much as I did for half the price....although they shared a lot of the food with me, so I forgive them. :) Here's my meal guys.

We also saw a bridge that was in Harry Potter and a house/mountain passing that have been in James Bond movies! The bus-driver seriously ranted about Scotland the entire trip. Once we got to Loch Ness, we all decided that we would do the polar plunge no matter what. For those of you who do not know what a polar plunge is, it's basically going swimming in freaking cold water. 

Some people got on a boat to head to the other side of the loch, and those of us who didn't go on it simply joined them there. I actually almost got attacked while waiting by a vicious predator. 

We then all got back on the bus for the extremely long bus-ride back to our lodgings in Edinburgh. We stopped to eat in a small town and Nate, Dylan, Jake, Ed and I all ate at this really cheap but good place. I had fish and chips! Afterwards, as we headed out to get ice-cream, Nate got pooped on by a bird. 

And that was basically my day! 

Day 21

Today marks exactly 3 weeks since I've started studying abroad. Although I've been having such a blast here, I do miss my friends and family and cannot wait to share all of my adventures with them when I get back!
Having said that, today started with a trip to the Surgeon's Museum. This was very interesting because we got to learn first-hand how it was founded and the fact that it was the oldest in the UK and possibly Europe is fascinating to me. It was neat getting to walk around and look at preserved body parts...albeit them being a tad bit gross.

We then headed towards the huge bus-stop and chilled there for awhile before receiving our tickets for the hop-on hop-off tour, which basically allowed us to travel long distances whenever we wanted for the day. Nate, Jake, Dylan, Honi, Amy, Ed and I all walked around for awhile trying to find the darn Hard-Rock Cafe, only to discover that it was way too expensive for all of our budgets. We then walked for awhile before hopping onto a bus and relaxing while looking at all of the awesome sites around. We decided that we would eat pizza (yes I know I've been eating a lot of pizza lately) at this neat place that caught our attention due to the following sign.

Ed and I split the pizza shown above, which had haggis and feta cheese on it. It filled us up and was absolutely delicious. Everybody then headed to the candy store and we ended up missing the bus since Nate was getting along with the guy at the counter too well..if you know what I mean. ;) Just kidding! But yeah, we hopped back on and basically traveled across the city of Edinburgh, hopping on and off a few times to check out cool sites. We never actually went inside anything though, since it's all freaking expensive.

We then proceeded to nap for 2-3 hours in an amazing park, which was definitely by far the best nap of the trip. Dylan and I kept throwing sticks at Amy, which was hilarious. We then went back and relaxed for a bit before meeting up again and heading to the Auld Hoose to grab some dinner. We actually met up with John, Kristine and Matt and they joined us as well. It was a fantastic and fun dinner and a great bonding experience haha. We all agreed that we have to go to karaoke Wednesday night, no matter what. It shall happen.