Edinburgh, Scotland. Oh how I love thee. Seriously. Love.
So Thursday night we got on a National Express bus to Edinburgh from Victoria Station. Stocked with two sandwiches, a sprite, a bag of chips, and 5 of the most amazing people in the entire world (Pratik, Erin, Shahar, Maggie, and Jen, I love you guyyyyssss), I faced an 8 hour bus ride through the Scotland night--which in case anyone was wondering, never REALLY gets dark during the summer. What ensued for the next 8 hours can be described in two short words I attribute to Maggie. They were the first two words out of her mouth when we got to Edinburg: Arctic Thunder. Those eight hours I felt I was on the verge of getting frostbite. The whole time. We sat there trying to fall asleep shaking and cuddling to keep warm. All the while wishing it would just get dark so that we could finally fall asleep. And it did get dark...kind of....between 12 AM and 12:15 AM. After those 15 minutes of darkness though? Yah. you guessed it. Light once more. But All of that was wiped from my mind (except the cold) when we reached the outskirts of Edinburgh. This city is gorgeous. I love everything about it.
We got into the coach station at Edinburgh around 7:30 in the morning Friday morning and our first stop? The elephant house cafe. For those of you who do not know, this cafe is a small little coffee shop in the town center that is the birthplace of Harry Potter. HIS BIRTHPLACE. This is the cafe where J.K. Rowling first began writing the Harry Potter books. We were there around 8:30 on a Friday morning and it just seemed like this gorgeous quaint little town surrounded by this immense beauty. It was absolutely breathtaking. No wonder she was inspired. And I say quaint because it gave off that kind of feel but the buildings are anything but. They are regal and old and just amazing. So we had our breakfast at this place and took some pictures along the way of the city, monuments and such, and then we made our way to hour hostel. The place we stayed at was amazing. Free breakfast, free Wifi (too bad I didn't know so I didn't take my computer...not that I would have had any time to use it anyways) and a bar that was open till 5 am so when everyone came back from their nights out they had a place to hang out and get to know some of the people they were staying with. We quickly dropped off our bags (we were there way before check in at noon) and then went back up to the town center to catch a walking tour of the city. We figured that would take the tour, find out about the city, see the sights on the tour, and then decide where we more specifically wanted to go for the next day. So we went to meet our tour guide, Marky Mark. He took us around the entire town, telling us stories and history and generally entertaining us. We went to a graveyard (second most popular place for public sex in Scotland, right after public restrooms), where we saw Tom Riddle's--aka Lord Voldemort's--tombstone. Thats right, JK took her inspiration from the actual town and the people who once lived there. WE LIVED THE HISTORY THAT INSPIRED HARRY POTTER. We went by the castle, the Grass Market, the Scot's monument, we learned the story of Deacon Brody, the true inspiration of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde." The tour was pretty awesome, and Marky Mark made it tons of fun :) After the tour, we went back to our hostel, got our rooms and put all of our stuff in, got changed real quick, and then decided it was time to eat (didn't hurt that it was also time for the Brazil/Portugal game). So we went to a restaurant/bar right next to our hostel and watched it there while we ate. Then we went back, showered, NAPPED, and then when we woke up, lo and behold, our roommates had arrived.
So we were staying in an 8 person mixed room at this hostel. There were 6 of us, and that left 2 beds. For Nicky and Paulie. Our australian roommates. Anywho, we finished getting ready and headed back to the town center (we did a LOT of walking on this trip) for our pub crawl. Oh dear. This pub crawl. Well I know it started at the Bank Bar, where we all had a pint and started chatting with the people who had been on our tours that day and with our tour guides and some of the other tour guides. At the next place we went to we had a 53 glass long jager train. ONLY ONE GLASS PER PERSON. After which we starting talking to some scotsmen, one of whom bought me my first shot of Scottish whiskey, but refused to let me mix it with coke. "You will ruin it." So there was that. Then we left and went to a place with live music....then a club called Frankensteins I think....and then the last place: this five story club where you can't find anyone when you try but you find everyone when you aren't looking for them. Once we got here, we proceeded to dance the night away. There were some guys from Northeastern on our tour who came on the pub crawl that we met, Maggie made some friends, Erin made some friends, and we all just had a good time :) Afterwards, we STUCK TO OUR RULE of six in six out, all left together....despite a slight almost mishap...and then we headed back to the hostel. We got back, changed, and were headed up to our hostel bar when in walk...er, stumble...Nicky and Paulie. So we take them with us. Shahar and I talked to them for a while. I'm not sure what it is exactly that they do but they were doing a few days vacation after having traveled to Edinburgh for work. They claim they do something for a toy store. They also claim to be 23 and 24....but we are not sure on any of these details. They are also weird. completely WAF. So we hang out with them chatting for a while and decide its bed time because we have a full day ahead of us and its lookin like we will be running on about 4 hours of sleep after not having slept much on the bus anyways. We get back to the room and get in bed. Nicky goes into a corner, strips naked. I mean, NAKED. except for his socks, and then leaves his clothes in the corner and gets in bed. These guys are bat shit nuts. Anywho. That was day one in Scotland. Ohhh dear. More to come on this later.
Radhi
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