a wee little post about Scotland

First things first: I love Scotland. The atmosphere in Scotland was amazing- I just felt happy and free and everyone was so nice there, always asking about us and talking to us. It was like everyone wanted to be connected and they were, and I felt like being there made me a part of it.

Wednesday night we took an overnight bus to Edinburgh, and arrived around 8 on Thursday morning. Although the bus wasn't the nicest and it was hard to sleep, it was a great way to go because we were able to start our day bright and early. There were 17 of us, and we headed over to the Castle Rock Hostel, which is right next to Edinburgh Castle. We checked in and then split into groups and headed off. With the girls in my group, we spent the day exploring. We saw the castle, cool ruins, a cemetery, and checked out the shops and stuff. It was a lot of fun to just explore and walk around without feeling any rush.

On Friday we had a bus tour to Loch Ness planned. As soon as we got on the bus at eight that morning we knew it'd be great. We had a really fun tour guide, Bill, who kept us entertained between his jokes and his passionate love for Scotland. I learned so much about Scotland's history, and in an interesting way. The bus actually broke down just after we saw Loch Ness, but I didn't even feel like it ruined the day because it had been so good.

Saturday morning Hailey, Sabrina, Amanda and I went to breakfast at Chocolate Soup, where we had some delicious chocolate pancakes. They were wonderful! Hailey and I then hiked Arthur's Seat. It was a pretty long hike, and at the top the wind was crazy. Hailey and I really were holding on for our lives when we were at the top. It was so much fun. As we headed down, we stopped to lay in the grass and stayed for awhile. Altogether we spent a few hours up there, and when we came down, we had lunch and went to the National Portrait Gallery before we had to catch the bus to the airport.

Scotland was a fantastic trip, and I am so grateful I was able to go. I feel like I was able to learn a lot about the history of Scotland and something about the people, as well.