London! - Days 034 & 035

On Thursday, I arrived in London at about 7 in the morning.  I walked around and quickly realized how big the city is.  I stumbled upon a mall where a pizza restaurant had an all you can eat buffet for £5.99.  I was pretty hungry and this sounded like a good idea to me.  Sadly, it was really bad pizza.  Worse than Pizza Time in Tacoma, which was the cheapest pizza I've ever bought and was delivered by a guy who went by the name White Shark and would let you hear a tape of his rap demo if you were interested.  Anyway, the pizza was not pleasing so I had a lot more salad.  The salad was pretty good.

I headed out to the campsite that I found online.  I'm hoping to find more like it along my trip.  I got pretty lost and walked around for quite awhile.  Eventually, I found the campsite and was glad to get some sleep.

The next day I met up with my friend Chaz.  I joined her and her friends for a quiz night.  It was pretty fun, but I only did well on the music round.  I let them down on some of the American questions.  I'm embarrassed to even say one of the questions I missed.  Something about the Super Bowl... haha. :P

Edinburgh - Days 032 & 033

Tuesday was the day to see the last couple things I wanted to see in Edinburgh, and what a gorgeous day it was to see them!

The first thing I did was go to the National Museum of Scotland.  This time I was allowed to take pictures in the whole museum.  The museum's 7 levels were in chronological order of Scotland's earliest known history to the latest.  I spent way too much time reading every detail on the first 2 levels and then went quickly through the last few levels.  The top roof level had a very good view of the city.

After the museum, I picnicked then made my way up to Hollyrood hill.  It is a hill on the edge of town that looks over everything around.

Wednesday I spent most of my time trying to find the cheapest way to get out of Edinburgh.  I had been looking at buying a train ticket into England, but since I waited the price had gone up tremendously.  After hanging out at the train station for awhile, I walked down to the bus station where they had an overnight coach all the way to London for 18.50.  That was a great deal!  So then I hung around the bus station until 10:30 and then I was headed to London!

Edinburgh - Days 030 & 031

Wow, I've been gone a whole month! I went to church Sunday at St. Giles' Cathedral. I think I should've gone to the later service instead of the 8 AM service because there was hardly any one there and there was no music. It rained more Sunday and Monday. I remembered to call my mom Sunday night! <3

I didn't do much on Monday. Well, I read and I actually drew on SketchUp some, too. There is a website (http://ebookhood.com) where you can get free books to put on your iPod or other electronic device. Anyway, since this is a blog and I think you give links and talk about random things on blogs, I thought I'd mention that. So, I put Charles Dickens' David Copperfield on my iPod and I have been reading that. I was sad I couldn't find the books I left behind online, but Arthur Koestler isn't very well known.  Dickens is enjoyable anyhow.

Edinburgh - Days 028 & 029

I toured a lot of galleries on Friday, most of which didn't allow me to take any pictures, but I enjoyed them all.

The whole week had been beautiful until Friday when the rain clouds came in. I was in the last gallery for the day, The National Gallery of Scotland, and as I was walking through I could hear the storm coming. I loved being inside looking at all the paintings and listening to the rain on the skylights and the thunder all around.

On Saturday morning I woke up really early. With my breakfast I ordered a cappuccino and it was really the best cappuccino I have ever had. Saturday was a very cold day, however, I felt really warm the whole day and I think it was because of the cappuccino.

I finally toured the castle. I'm glad I waited till Saturday because I had so much time to do it and my previous days were filled with multiple things on my list. There were lots of cool things to see in the castle and so much history. I really liked the prisoners of war section. You could see their living conditions, which I guess if you were prisoner of war the Edinburgh Castle wasn't that bad of a place. Also, their were doors with all the carvings of the prisoners. Some carvings were a bit questionable, like "John M was here 19/11/1990." I also enjoyed the Scottish Crown Jewels. These were jewels used in the coronation of royalty that were hidden for over 200 hundred years. Their existence was in doubt until 1818 they were finally uncovered. The Scottish Crown Jewels include: a crown, a sceptre, a sword, and my favorite the Stone of Destiny. Sadly, pictures were not allowed to be taken of the jewels.

Edinburgh - Days 026 & 027

I toured St. Cecilia's Hall - Museum of Instruments. It was really cool to see old harpsichords, spinets, virginals, and pianos. It actually reminded me of a dream I used to have where I was lost in the McCall Shore Lodge and then I would stumble upon a secret stairwell that led down to a room full of exotic pianos.Thankfully, the part where I completely forgot how to play didn't happen like it did so many times in my piano dreams; also I was wearing pants, so that was another pleasant reassurance.

I had the pleasure of meeting a couple people at the hostel and then bumping into them later on High Street, where there are lots of street performers and vendors.  Bagpipes can be heard all along High Street.  So after bumping into them, the three of us went out to eat at the Elephant House.  This little cafe house proudly displays in its window, "Birthplace of Harry Potter."  It is the place where J.K. Rowling penned the first Harry Potter novel.

Edinburgh - Days 024 & 025

I woke up early and just wandered the city. I walked around the castle. It's hard to get a good look at it up close. Due to its elevation on a cliff and the massive size of the whole thing, you really have to be far away to get a good look at it. I was looking at a lot of the paintings that a lot of the street vendors sell and it is usually of the city seen from a hill at a distance with the castle being the focus.

I found a place with free Wifi (before I realized there was one right in my hostel) and updated the blog and made some plans for the days ahead.

Here (from the spot that I took this picture) you can watch the trains coming and going from the Waverly Train Station, you can watch the double-stack buses drive across the long North Bridge, and you can see the castle in the far distance where the skyline slopes downward.

On Tuesday I took a walking tour. We learned a lot about Scotland's history. We heard some of the brighter stories of Scotland and some of the darker ones, too.  One story is about a dog now known as Greyfriar's Bobby.  Bobby, a Skye Terrier, belonged to a night watchman named John Gray.  After two years together, John died.  For the next 14 years, Bobby guarded John's grave day and night.  Bobby has his own tombstone now and it, along with John Gray's, is one of the most visited tombstones in Edinburgh.

A sample of my thoughts on spending money

I have found in the cities I have been to so far, that while walking down the major streets the cafés are all begging you to eat there where they serve the authentic food of the locals. A reasonable price for a dish at most of these cafés would be about 6 pounds or something. I prefer to pass on eating the local dish, I prefer to buy picnic food at a market for under 3 pounds, and take it somewhere outside to eat alone, like on the side of a hill where I can view the city at sunset, or on the steps of a cathedral. The cafés are tempting, I will admit. So is the ice cream, the many different kinds of crêpes, the pizza, and the beer. I will eat crêpes along my trip, I will eat at the cafés, I will eat pizza. The temptation for this food that will not fit in my budget is there daily though. If I am proud to be disciplined enough to avoid these treats regularly, I am not cheating myself out of anything.

There are subjects other than food I could discuss, obviously, but it all is pretty much the same principle. I will spend what money I need to when there is something I am really looking forward to do. Until then, I am having a wonderful time, please do not think because I am trying to make my money last that I am missing out on fun.