Edinburgh, Scotland

First extra trip!

We planned to leave for Scotland at 5:35am Wednesday morning and leave from Scotland at 10pm Saturday night. The bus ride was somewhere between 10-12hrs. altogether. The ride to Scotland wasn't bad at all, but the ride home was bad. The bus was completely full, and I just could not get comfortable. Would i do it again? yeah probably, I mean it is the cheapest way to get to places. Plus going to Scotland was totally worth it!

So we got to Scotland on Wednesday evening and we walked the long way to our hostel, which was the Cowgate Tourist Hostel. The Hostel was actually pretty nice considering how cheap it was. It was really nice because the rooms are for 6 people and that is how many people we had so we didn't have to share a room with any strangers. After we settled into the hostel we were all hungry and headed out to find a good place to eat. We decided on an Italian place called Made In Italy. I know, I know, Italian food in Scotland? But, don't judge, we are surrounded by tasteless food here so any food that tastes good we are all for it. It was very yummy. And then after we were done it started to rain so that was pretty much all we could do the first night.
Thursday morning we woke up and made up our minds to explore this beautiful city of Edinburgh. We took a free tour of the city, which was very interesting and fun adventure. We got to here a lot of stories about certain traditions they did in edinburgh and some horror stories. One story had to do with these two guys grave snatching bodies and selling them to the medical students. We saw quite a few beautiful cemetaries. That's an oxymoron. But seriously, they were beautiful. And then after that some of the group went to tour Edinburgh Castle, while Araceli and I decided to explore the city some more. We went to The National Museum of Scotland which was pretty neat.  Didn't spend a great deal of time there because it closed at 5, but it was fun. Then we just went wherever the wind took us. That is where we found one of the Universities and got to see a Wedding party taking photos. It was so cute. Then, this is where we got a little turned around, but we kept heading in the direction we thought was The Royal Mile. We walked through this park called the Meadows and finally we asked a girl which way to go to the Royal Mile and we were going in the opposite direction. hahaha Well we had fun anyway, and plus we found some thrift stores on the way back. :) That night we went to a pub that was right across the street from our Hostel, called The Three Sisters. They had karaoke and we sang a few songs and had a good time.
Friday we had a plan to go to The Botanical gardens across town. As we headed that way we noticed that there were people at the top of Scott Monument so naturally we decided to find out if we could do that too. We found out we could and we climbed all the way up the small, spiral staircase to the top. 287 steps! It was such an amazing view! I loved it! Then we kept heading to the gardens but it started to rain and our plans were no longer plans. We dedided to eat at a deli and it was really good food. The waiter wasn't too bad himself. lol We walked around the stores and went back to the hostel for a little bit.
Saturday was the best day of all! We went to the Royal Mile to do all of our tourist shopping and buy souvenirs. Then we headed back to the thrift stores because not everyone had gone there. Then we decided to go to the National Monument. As we headed there, we stopped to watch a street performer. He was a Canadian and was doing stunts. He juggled a chainsaw, hand grenade, and some sort of knife. (personally I think the granade was fake, but it doesn't matter). Then he chose Jessie who was with us to be a volunteer in one of the stunts. He laid on a bed of nails while she stood on top of him. It was crazy! I don't know why anyone would do that. So after that we went to the National Monument, which was supposed to be just like the Parthenaon, but they never finished it, so they call it the National shame. As we were on top of the hill, we saw what we thought was another castle. We soon found out it wasn't a castle, but a Palace. The palace that the Queen stays at when she comes to Scotland. It was so pretty!! Wish we could've seen the Queen, but maybe another day. As we went back to get our things from the hostel we saw so many weddings going on and it was so beautiful to see everyone all dressed up. Then we had dinner at a pub and tried hagus, which yes, I did try. The taste was pretty good, but the texture was gross.
So all in all the trip was a success. It was fun, interesting, beautiful, cold, and I would reccomend everyone go to Edinburgh. If you want to see pictures of Scotland, I posted them all on my facebook page.

London

On thursday we took a trip to London for the day. This is how it went:

First we took the train into London and had to get on the tube. That was quite exciting and now I know what people were saying about mind the gap. So, we first got to London and walked to Buckingham Palace, which is where we saw the changing of the guard. There were so many people there, it was insane. You could literally hear all of the clicking from the cameras. It was pretty cool to see all of the guards in their uniforms and hats.
After we saw the changing of the guard we headed to Westminster Abbey. It was so gorgeous. Everyone should see that in person, it is so incredible. Then, we walked to The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Big Ben was so cool to see. I'm still in awe. Then the leaders took us to this store that is apparently like a really english store. It has like all of the Queens china and has a whole bunch of tea and chocolate and teapots and glassware. It's kind of hard to explain, but very neat to see.
We had lunch in Piccadely Circus, which is I guess is like their Times Square. Angela, Will, and I decided to eat at Pizza Hut. I know I know, I could get that here, but it was cheap. It was actually really good. After that they left us on our own, and we decided to go back to Westminster Abbey and go inside. When we got there, it was closed which was quite a disappointment, but i'm sure we will go back at some point. Then we went to the London Eye and bought tickets to go on it. It was such a great view to see London. I reccomend it for everyone. It takes like 30-40 minutes to go all the way around, so it's worth the money, which isn't that much anyway.
Then we decided to go to the Tower Bridge. That was quite the adventure. haha We didn't know exactly where we were going so we were walking down the street and we asked someone and finally made it there. The Bridge is so cool and so detailed it is amazing. It would've been cool to see it from a distance, but it was cool to be on it. Then we went back to Piccadely Circus to find a place for dinner. We can never choose, and then this girl came up to us promoting a place and said that they had a 25% discount. So of course we said yes. Anything we can get cheaper sounds good to us. It was called the Penthouse and it was on like the 6th floor and you could look out on the balcony. It was a pretty good meal and I split a pizza with a friend so it was cheap for me to eat there. Then we headed home on the train after that because everyone was beat and there feet were killing them from all of the walking. Over all London was a great city to see and explore and there is still so much more to see there. Next time we go to London we are definitely making a stop at Abby Rd.
So far I'm loving everything about England and I can't wait to exlore more places and things.

I'm just going to post a few pictures...

this is the first pub we went to and it was very nice. I had my first drink there too, called a Bramble.           

A lot has happened since I left the United States of America. Our flight was not the best due to two crying babies behind us, but we did enjoy the food. When we got to Heathrow airport in London we met two other people who were also going to Brighton as well, Will and Angelike (spelling?). We bought tickets for the bus to take us to Brighton, which was so long of a ride. The drive isn't that far but we had to make quite a few stops along the way.
We made it to Brighton, which is a beautiful city, and from there we had to take a taxi to the University Campus. That was pretty cool and strange at the same time. Angela of course went to the drivers side!! :) We made it to Brighton and we got our rooms and met some others. Then we decided to go the grocery store in town, because we had no food or toilet paper. We took the bus to town and we all bought some basics, like bread and cereal and things. We had a communal dinner together, which was pasta.
Through this whole day I didn't know who was living in my building with me. I was all alone. But finally after I came back from dinner they had arrived and I can't remember all of their names right now. One guy is from Uraguay, a girl from Korea, and a guy from Denmark. So there isn't anyone in my building who is from the US, which is super cool and a little strange too. It'll be fun to see what happens...

This is part of the campus of Brighton University. I believe this is where we are having orientation

so I decided it was a perfect time for a picture since I wasn't very good at taking pictures the whole day. I never really had the time...

Packing, Packing, and more Packing

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to be sharing my incredible adventure to england with my friends and family! As of right now I only have two days until my departure, which is both exciting and scary. I can't wait to be there and be able to share some pictures with you. I hope you like my blog, and i will try to keep it updated every week. Thank you all for your support and love, it is such a blessing to have all of you in my life!