The early morning weather over Germany and the Netherlands was gorgeous and sunny, and I found it somewhat ironic that everything clouded over as soon as we hit Britain. We landed in a gray, rainy Scottish morning and one of Catherine's Smith friends kindly met me at the airport, as my hostess was finishing a paper. We drove into Edinburgh with the sweeping view from the top of a double-decker bus and arrived at Catherine's flat without difficulty. Her mother had been there for the past month for a visit and had been trying to fly home all week, but some silly volcano had stranded her there. Although inconvenient, I was very happy to meet her and have her play "Mom" to us, making sure we were well-fed and tea-ed.
Not much happened that Friday due to the weather, Catherine's paper exhaustion, and my charming combination of sleep-deprivation and stuffy head cold attack. Catherine did walk me around the University of Edinburgh campus for a bit, but then we were content to go home, drink tea, and work on a puzzle amidst the flurry of flatmates and friends coming and going and doing crazy things. It was fun to be in a mix of Scottish, British, and Irish accents, though it was totally strange to be surrounded by English again, particularly out in public. One thing that I particularly loved (LOVED) was that drinking tea was a normal and encouraged part of every young person's life. (As was hard liquor, but we need not go into that.) And my, oh my, the Brits sure do know how to make a good cup of tea.
The weather the next day was wonnnderful, and I was very happy to go enjoy it as soon as Catherine was able to get herself out of bed (LOVE YOU!). We'd decided to go explore the Royal Botanical Gardens in another part of the city and then see where we ended up. While winding our way to the bus stop, I was surprised again by the plain gray architecture everywhere and found it very interesting that, unlike in many other parts of Europe I'd seen, there was no real effort put in to making the buildings beautiful or impressive. They were functional and that was that. And they did have their own charm in their own special way.
We got the best seats on the bus for a second time on our way to the gardens. (You can see some more buses below!) I found this steeple on the left rather hilarious, as it is not a church, but rather a giant gothic-wedding-cake-esque monument honoring Sir Walter Scott.
The botanical gardens were quite nice, of course, but I didn't think they were worth all the hype. My favorite part of it was the Queen Mother's Garden, where there was a lovely little hut with a memorial for the Queen Mum inside. The walls were cleverly decorated with an elegant pattern of shells and the ceiling with pretty pinecones, all demonstrating her love and support of the natural world. I thought this memorial method was much prettier and more worthwhile than yet another solemn stone statue for birds to poo on.
Once we'd been gardened out, we made our way to the beach, where I poked the North Sea from the left side. It was nice and all, but it was just a tad bit too chilly for bare feet and there wasn't really much else to do. Therefore we went to a cafe to delight in various hot beverages and cake. They were out of scones. Sigh.With happy tummies we made our way back to the flat, but then continued along to explore the Crags, which are like Edinburgh's mini-Highlands. They also loom conveniently right behind Catherine's flat. I found it amazing that all you had to do to make one of Europe's most popular cities disappear was turn around. Instant nature at your toes, and it comes with a view!
The whole hillside was covered in these pretty yellow flowers, which looked especially sweet with Edinburgh's huge medieval castle looming ominously behind them.
Our wanderings were continued the next day. It was another lovely day and we headed wherever my camera wanted to go while my wonderful walking talking tour guide told me fun fact after fun fact about this old spooky city.
Of course our wanderings brought us up to the castle. Being there brought back memories of playing on the canons there ten years ago during our family vacation to Britain. (That did happen, right Mom?) We didn't pay the exorbitant entrance fee, but stole its views from the lower ramparts instead. Just walking around where Mary, Queen of Scots walked and where so many other rich parts of history happened was thrilling enough for me.
Guess what kind of church this is!
This is Greyfriars Bobby, one of the most photographed statues in Britain (I think). The dog became famous after it guarded his master's grave for fourteen years, leaving it only for food from a nearby church. His fidelity earned him not only fame and his own statue, but even his own bar! (And the ladies, I'm sure.)
This is where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book! Eeeee! Talk about rich history!
I played with this one a little. It pleases me.
Once our tummies had had enough of wandering, we wound up in a delightful cafe called "chocolate soup" where we enjoyed a small lunch and very large, delectable dessert. It was here that the nice French fellow behind the counter fell instantly in love with the beautiful Lady Catherine and went as far as writing her a cute note and asking her to come talk with him. After she'd been stuck there for a while, I calmly reminded her that we had to get to the train station to meet Jesse and that we really did need to leave now. It also then that I learned how the beautiful Lady Catherine needs to work on her ability to fib smoothly. Such an amusing adventure.
More wandering!
This is where the Queen goes to church when she comes to visit.
And this is where the Queen lives when she comes to visit. Not too shabby...
After investigating said Holyrood Palace and the likes, we made our way back to Catherine's flat once again via the Crags.
These are some of her crazy friends and flatmates. They were completely delightful. One thing that I definitely noticed, however, was the age differences between our various schooling situations. School in Scotland starts at age 4, so all of Catherine's peers were younger than we old things, meaning around 19ish. In Germany, I'm one of the youngest people in my dorm, as they do high school until the 13th grade and then all the guys have to do a year of military or civil service. An interesting observation.
We had some downtime before a surprise party that the flat was throwing for a returning flatmate. Later that night after the surprised had been surprised, Catherine and I wandered to the Tesco to find some dinner. They had so much cheddar cheese. It was a little bit mind-blowing.
Our walk there and back was prone to many spooky scenes, such as these. Creeepyyyy.
The only flight back to Germany on Monday left at 6.20am, meaning that we had to leave the flat at 4am. (There wasn't another flight 'til Wednesday.) Therefore it made the most sense in our situation just to stay awake all night, which wasn't too difficult. Catherine and a flatmate kindly walked me back into the city to catch the shuttle to the airport at the crack of dawn. Waiting for the bus, I managed to catch this picture of the tartan seats that had amused me so all weekend.
These seagulls were swarming in this one location very ominously. It was neat.
The night bus I'd planned on taking didn't end up existing, meaning I had to wait a little longer for the airport shuttle to start. I wasn't too worried about the time and took this picture as we were pulling out of the stop.
I checked in without difficulty and had just enough time to comfortably get to the gate. However, I was delayed at security because the guards apparently expected me to blow up a plane with my plastic toothbrush case. Once they finally let me go after digging through all my things, I noticed a "FINAL CALL" notice flashing in red next to my flight on the screen and ended up running all the way to the other end of the airport where my gate was located. Everyone was still in line at the gate, so basically I had a mini-heart attack for nothing, but at least I got there on time! The flight left without delay and, thankfully, with me on it. We went from rain to sun and then landed in pouring rain in Bremen almost two hours later.
I caught the first tram back to the central station in Bremen and checked the board to see when the next train to Hamburg was. It left in two minutes from the other end of the station and I didn't have a ticket. In a moment of quick thinking, I had to decide between waiting in Bremen in the rain for another hour after an all-nighter or using my superpowers to buy my ticket with my discount and run to the train and leap on just as the doors were closing, which is what I did. It was epic. Epic. The rain had let up by the time we arrived in Hamburg an hour later, so I didn't have to get soaked on the way home. (Thanks for that up there.)I've been trying to catch up on sleep along with school all week, which has proved a challenge. My cold has already started going away, though my foot remains unhappy, probably due to all the wandering... It was so worth it.
And now I really want to go play in the Highlands with the fluffy cows. And the haggis.
Oh, and I have a plane ticket to Sweden. For after Turkey. Mhmm.
