Haste Ye Back (Or, Why I Want More Time in Scotland)

I love Scotland!

Even though at first I was worried that this weekend excursion so close to the end of the semester would be detrimental to my workload, I am so glad that Ian, Hannah and I took this trip. Scotland is definitely one of my favorite places out of everywhere I have traveled.

We arrived in Edinburgh late on Thursday night and spent the night chilling in the hostel so we could wake up early the next day and head to Dunfermline, the town that Ian's family is from. We took a quick half-hour train ride to a small, pretty town where all the trees had the green leaves and pink blossoms of spring and a heavy morning mist hung over everything. Dunfermline was Andrew Carnegie's birthplace, and we went to the Andrew Carnegie museum where a really friendly tour guide told us about the displays. By the time we left the museum the sun was out and the weather was beautiful. We had lunch in a little cafe run by old ladies (I had steak pie and an empire biscuit) and then went to check out an old abbey.

  Then we went to our bed and breakfast to drop off our stuff, and we met Jim, one of the owners. He was incredibly friendly and welcoming, and our room was really nice and comfortable. We also met an American couple who were living in Scotland and gave us their phone number in case we got lost or needed help and also gave us some recommendations of where to go for dinner. After a quick nap, we visited Pittencrief Park, which was even nicer than Phoenix Park in Dublin.

Me with the Andrew Carnegie statue

After going to the Andrew Carnegie library to look into some local history and genealogy, we headed to the cemetery to help Ian search for some of his relatives. Although we found a few headstones with the right last name, none of them were related to him and the place was massive, making the search difficult. But it was still interesting to walk around and see the names; I found quite a few Crawfords. After the cemetery we went for dinner in town at one of the pubs the American couple had recommended to us, then went back to the bed and breakfast to relax before bed.

In the morning Jim and Liz, his wife, made us a huge breakfast which we ate in their lovely dining room. Being at the bed and breakfast was like being at someone's grandparent's house. We had such great time chatting with them and the house was so comfortable that we didn't want to leave. But after breakfast we got back on the train and made our way into Edinburgh. Unsurprisingly, it was raining, because wherever Ian and I go, apparently, it rains. But we didn't let it dampen our spirits as we explored the Royal Mile on our way to Edinburgh Castle.

We explored the castle with audio guides, but most of it was outside and it was quite cold and rainy, so we didn't see everything, but it was still cool. We had lunch at a random cafe, then went to the Scotch Whiskey Experience. It was kind of like the Guinness Storehouse or the Jameson Distillery, except you got to go on a ride in giant whiskey barrels to learn about the distilling process. Then you go into a tasting room where they tell you about the different regions in Scotland that produce scotch and how they all taste different, and you get to choose one to try. They also have the world's largest whiskey collection which we got to view while drinking our sample out of our free tasting glass. It was a little cheesy, but overall a fun activity.

We went to our hostel after the whiskey tour to check in and drop off our bags and saw that we were in a 6-bed dorm and there were 3 other people with stuff already there. We groaned because we knew we would be woken up when they came in, seeing as how we had to go to bed early to wake up at 4:45, but didn't worry about it as we walked around the city. We wanted to go to Mary King's Close, a tour around an underground town, but the tickets were sold out for the day. Instead, we ended up having hot chocolate at the cafe where JK Rowling used to sit and write the Harry Potter books! I didn't even know where it was, but we stumbled upon it and went in for a drink. It was easy to see why it was so inspiring--it has a perfect view of the castle.

We explored the city a little more of the city before heading to dinner at Frankenstein's, a pretty cool restaurant with pub grub. It was a little obnoxious because we were sitting right next to a giant hen party (bachelorette party), but they were a little funny when the started dancing. Then we went out for after dinner drinks at another pub before going back to the hostel to sleep before our ridiculously early morning.

We thought Easter wouldn't be a peak travel time, but the Ryan air desk had the longest line I've ever seen at an airport desk ever. We were lucky we had gotten there early because it was pretty ridiculous. But we got home and took the city bus to a place near enough to walk to our apartments. The trip was tiring but amazing--I wish I could have stayed longer!