Scotland!

Tuesday April 18, 2006

So after spending hours on that horrible bus with little/crappy sleep I finally arrived in Edinburgh- pronounced Ed in Braw for all you yanks. ; ) Not ‘Ed in burrow’ as so many people say- heck I even say it that way a lot. Saying the braw sounding part is hard to do! Well before actually making it to Edinburgh we had many stop offs along the way. There was even on in Glasgow. So hey now I can say I was in Glasgow… it might have been five or six in the morning and I wasn’t quite lucid but I do remember it! : P We arrived in Edinburgh at about 7:30 I do believe. I nabbed a map from the bus station and set out to find my hostel. I was doing pretty good when I first started off. I was on track. Then I lost the map… yeah I think you guys know where this one is going! Not again Ashley! LOL I know I know! Ok so I got a little lost. I was like the hostel is supposed to be on a street shortly after the High Street aka the Royal Mile. So that sounded ok... now cowgate, cowgate, cowgate… where is the stupid street called cowgate???? I walked for quite awhile until I finally decided I must have gone way too far and turned around. I ended back up on High Street with no ‘cowgate’ in sight. I then realized something quite important. Cowgate goes under a bridge… the one I was walking on. :P So I saw this street and headed down towards it. The fun and wonderful thing about streets outside of the US though is that they are not always labeled. So I was walking down this street for a good while thinking I was probably even more lost. Then Eureka! I found it! My hostel! And it was only… 8:30 I think. Oooo that’s pretty funny. Now you can probably imagine how sore I was after lugging my crap all around for that length of time. When I got to the hostel I couldn’t check in though, but they did let me lock up my luggage for free until it was time. So at the hostel I picked up another street map- one that I am determined not to loose again! And then I headed out to actually explore Edinburgh. As I was wondering I ran into the Scottish Museum. I really wanted to go in but it was open yet so I went into a church. You know this happened today and I can’t even recall as to what made me pick that one and go in, but I am glad I did. Strangely it is one of the most famous/popular churches in Edinburgh- St. Giles. (That’s probably pronounced with a J mom ;) hehehe) It was quite nice inside. It has had a lot of work done to it and has been nicely restored in areas. From there I headed out and found a Starbucks. Oooo coffee!!! I bummed about for a bit then tried my luck at getting back to the hostel. They give free walking tours of the city everyday at 11. Now how to get back to the hostel….LOL! Hey don’t look at me like that! So this time I did have a map with me, but like I said trying to figure out what street you are on is harder said then done. Plus you don’t want to be standing in the middle of the sidewalk looking at a big ole map. Nothing screams- tourist here, please mug me- more than that. So I was almost to my hostel but had to find Victoria street. An old Scottish man came up to me while I was trying to ponder this out and asked if I needed help. I would usually say no I’m fine but I thought to hell with it just ask him where Victoria Street is. So I did and he had me walk with him to some other street where he pointed me down another way. He was fairly nice but perhaps he heard me say something other than "Victoria". LOL yeah I ended up even more lost. Using the map I got back to where I had started before he came along. Sadly though it was just past eleven so I didn’t make it back in time for the city tour. I will be staying at this same hostel though later this week so perhaps I can do it then. So instead of doing that I thought I would follow the street sign that pointed back to the Scottish Museum. On the way down that street guess what I found? Ooo that’s right- Victoria Street! I chuckled as I went past and just decided to go to the Museum still. The Museum is so insanely cool. First off- its FREE (what???? Free???) and get this- they even provide free audio tours!!!! Chyeah!! (Ok maybe I’m the only one who gets excited over random stuff like that. Hehehe!) Man what a drastic change from Ireland and Rome where you have to pay like 5 euros just to get into a church and like 10 euros for a museum and then probably 7 euros for an audio guide. So that was a sweet deal but the museum itself is really nice too! I started off with the audio guide but then decided to do a guided tour. We only hit 3 floors and only a few parts of them as well. There is 7 floors to this puppy and that’s only the Scottish side. There is a whole other part of the building that is dedicated to world history. OOooo yeah! Now we are talking! That museum and me- made for each other! Hehehe. The tour was about an hour and I wanted to stay there longer to explore everything but sadly I could hardly walk at this point. I had evaded sleep for far too long. It was at the point where it was all my effort to lift my arm! So I headed back to the hostel, checked in, and slept for a few hours. I meant to get up at four so I could see more of the city but didn’t wake up until around 6:30. Its kind of a bummer because everything was closed by this point. So I decided I would just shower and get cleaned up then spend this time catching up on my blogs. And yay here I am now! I’ll probably see if I cant use the computers here to upload my Ireland blogs and then I will probably head off to bed. I have to check out at about 7:30 tomorrow morning so I can make it to the next place in time. Grr which reminds me- I should probably find a grocery store so I can eat something. I ate a few cookies today but that’s about it. Dang I’m hungry! Ok lots of love! Ta!