Scottish is Hottish!

So, I left really early for Edinburgh on Wednesday morning. Did you know that it's
only a 4 and a half hour train trip from London to Edinburgh? I was in a completely
different car from Tiffany, Kelli, and Lindsey, so I used it as an opportunity to
sleep and do the dumb little puzzles on the in-train magazine. We showed up to
Edinburgh, met Mary Jane and Kalais, and hit the hostel around 1 in the afternoon.
Our hostel, Budget Backpackers, belonged to the theory that everything looks cooler
if it's painted in about 7 different bright colors, and that we can't see the dirt
if the lights are really dim! There was hair on my sheet and a weird brown smudge
on my comforter, but I'm still alive!

The main thing that we did in Edinburgh was hit the Royal Mile, which starts at
Edinburgh Castle (which is way cool), and then goes down a long cobblestone street
full of stores. We went to a tartan-weaving place, where I got to see the Stuart
(or Stewart) plaid. I felt so Scottish! Yeah...my group kept stopping at every
single store. I didn't really want to buy much of anything, so that got a little
bit old. The city, though, was absolutely gorgeous. It's pretty much all made
out of stone, so the whole city looks like it's been carved out of the same rock.
We took some really fun pictures, which I'll post soon. We also stopped at the Museum
of Childhood, which was pretty fun to look at all the toys. Some people in my group
tried to walk into Parliament, which obviosuly wasn't gonna work. At the end of
the Royal Mile, we hiked up Arthur's Seat, which is a big fat hill with a painful
cobblestone path and a great view of the city. We got some dinner and crashed at
the bright, not-so-clean hostel of fun.


In the morning, me and Kalais split off and went to Greyfriars Cemetary, and then
we went to the Edinburgh writers museum. They focused on Stevenson, Burns, and
Scott, and it really made me want to read some of their stuff! I just got back
around 5, because the tube coming home stopped, then magically changed lines in
the middle, so we got a bit lost. If you get on the District line, why would it
change into Hammersmith and City? Why? Why? Some people were a little surprised
that I just went for the day, but I think it was totally perfect.