OK everyone, sorry for the delay, but with getting started on the new semester, I didn't have a ton of time to write this. I'm sad because I've probably forgotten some of the details about what exactly happened, but that's fine, I will get the gist of it down.
So, after the museum, we tried to find The Elephant House Cafe. This is the place where J.K. Rowling came up with all of the characters and beginning story lines for the Harry Potter series. We looked on the map and saw that it was right next to our hostel and we were really excited about it. But, when we walked down the hill to our hostel, we couldn't find it. Upon further examination of the map, we realized that it was actually on top of our hostel, on a bridge. Once we found it we were really excited and we had some shortbread (something the Scots are very proud of, and should be) and drinks. If had a great atmosphere and we sat there for hours.
After leaving there, we did some more exploration of Edinburgh and found St. Andrew's Square that had a marine exhibition, so obviously I needed to read up on some of my favorite marine creatures. They even had a poster of my favorite: THE CUTTLEFISH!!!
From there, we went back to the hostel and did some internet for the first time in a few days and then we walked back over the hill and went to the Hard Rock. Even with my membership card, it still took us about 45 to get a seat. It was a really nice place, though!
From there we went to bed, it had been an EARLY morning and we were ready to just get to sleep. Thankfully, our room was quiet, but there was a couple in the bed next to me sleeping with each other, but...that's not a big deal. They were quiet.
The next morning we had a late start because we knew we had the whole day (our bus to London left at 10ish) to see the rest of Edinburgh and we didn't want to spend exorbitant amounts of money. The pound is not our friend. It is our enemy. It is false. You think it's just like a Euro...or worse...like a Dollar, but IT IS NOT. It got worse when we got to Scandinavia, though...
Well, we woke up, had a mediocre breakfast and walked our way to the castle because we wanted to beat the crowds. It opened at 10 and we were there by 11 and it was not too busy, so that is really great. The history of this castle was so interesting. Mary, Queen of Scots is probably the most famous of the Scottish royalty and her son, James I united Scotland, Ireland and England for the first time. Pretty cool stuff. We also got to see the Scottish Crown Jewels that are older than the English ones (but not as pretty). It was also cool because it was on top of a hill and therefore had really great views of the Scottish Highlands and surrounding city.
This is Arthur's Seat, people climb it for fun and can see the best view of Edinburgh, we obviously did not do this. It is really photogenic, though. :)
Us inside the castle walls.
From the castle, we walked right out the gates to the Camera Obscura. All of the travel websites and books say that you have to do this and it is so cool and we were skeptic. It's basically a house of illusions, we didn't think we'd be that impressed....but we were! It was basically to coolest place I have ever been. Obviously the pictures here do not do it justice. It was just so cool. There was one room that you walked into and the walls were spinning but the floor was totally stationary, but your brain must tell your legs that you are falling or something because I could not stand up straight, it was so cool.
Inside the mirror maze. It would have been more effective if the little girls running around didn't get their hands all over it so it was easy to see which way we were supposed to go, but it was really cool just the same.
They had a computer program where you can click things like "Make me Asian" or "Show me as a baby" and this one is "Make me more manly" I personally think that I look A LOT like Travis in this picture....and this is what I would look like if I was more manly. I don't know what that means.
This was a room where the floor was slanted to Braden looks bigger than me. I ripped my pants jumping around in this room, that was my second pair on the trip that I ripped.....awesome.
Another fun Camera Oscura picture.
The main event at this place is the actual Camera Obscura on top of the six story building, there is a system of mirrors and with it, the can take a 360 look around Edinburgh. So crazy, it's like one of those things on a submarine that you put up through the water. We had a lot of fun at this place and it was really worth the money.
After that we went back to the Elephant house and just sat around and did souvenir shopping the rest of the day. That night we got onto the night bus to London and did not sleep one wink, but meh, we were in London, so it wasn't a big deal.
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