Loch'd: April 2011

Well I haven't written in quite a long time. My parents were here for five days, and then my boyfriend AJ arrived on the day that they left, so I've been busy doing all of the touristy things around Edinburgh- it's been amazing. My parents and I went to the castle, and I took AJ there as well. The castle in Edinburgh was mostly used as a fort, and now it houses the crown jewels of Scotland, which are used in coronation, as well as the Stone of Destiny. The view of the city from the castle is also breathtaking. I have lots of pictures up on my Facebook right now, but I'll post a few at the end of this entry. While my parents were here, we went on a tour of the Highlands that included a boat ride on Loch Lomond and visited Stirling Castle. We also stopped quickly to see some Highland cows! Highland cows are like normal cows, except they're orange and have lots of hair (which covers their eyes too) to keep them warm up in the cold highlands. They're so cute.

I also toured Holyroodhouse Palace with my parents and then later, AJ. I really loved that, you get to see Mary, Queen of Scots' apartments and learn a lot about her. Her majesty Queen Elizabeth II herself stays at Holyrood every summer for about two weeks, she holds royal luncheons and such while she is there. We saw the rooms where this business is held, as well as the gardens where the Queen holds parties when she is in residence. We didn't get to see the gardens when my parents were here, but they opened for touring on April 1st, so I took AJ while he was here.

Probably the most exciting thing that has happened in all this time has been mine and AJ's trip to Liverpool. We took the train down and stayed in a hostel for two nights. Which was an experience, but I'm willing to do it again, so it's not that bad, ha. I'm just super cautious about things ever since my stuff was stolen back in January, and there are so many people in and out of your room in a hostel...I wouldn't suggest bringing anything of value. Anyway, we went on a Beatles tour, of course. We saw every place in Liverpool that had to do with The Beatles, it was amazing. We saw their schools, their houses, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, I'm so so glad we went. We also went to a great museum that's located basically on their version of Navy Pier, which is called Albert Dock. It told the story of The Beatles and had some cool stuff in it, lots of photo opportunities. AJ and I decided Liverpool is the New Jersey of the UK. We did love it though, exploring Albert Dock was fun, and the nightlife was interesting. Lots of older people out drinking quite early in the afternoon.

We made sure to go to The Cavern Club, where The Beatles played over 200 times. The one that you can visit today isn't the actual club itself, but it's right next door and supposedly built the exact same way. It was really cool, it's underground. Sort of like being in a cave. It was very crowded, with a Beatles cover band playing, of course. Love it. We didn't stay long, but I'm really glad we went.

While AJ was in Edinburgh, I had him try lots of British food, he tried Bangers and Mash and haggis. And loved both! I also had him try Irn Bru, which is the Scottish soda that outsells Coke. Scotland is the only country in the world where Coke isn't the number one soda (I know I'm Midwestern and am supposed to say pop, but my east coast friends make fun of me and my British ones have no idea what I'm talking about when I do say pop, so I've gotten out of the habit). It sort of tastes like orange soda and bubblegum and I still can't decide if I like it, ha. It also has a lot of iron in it. For some reason. Oh and we also went to the Edinburgh Zoo while he was here, and it was great! They have koalas, who just slept a lot, but they're adorable. And they have a Penguin Parade every day at 2:15pm, which we attended. It was amazing. Penguins are my favorite animal. There's a video of it on my Facebook. Not only do they have a parade, but their penguin exhibit is huge. They have something like over 100 penguins. You can walk through the exhibit, there are trails through it, sort of. I loved it.

We also went to see two movies while he was here, because that's what we do =] We found a cute little indie theater called the Cameo, and it was actually quite cheap, they had a student rate and everything. Now I'm not sure if this was just this particular theater, but they had no cup holders. It was strange and I felt like a spoiled American, expecting them to have them, ha. They also serve alcohol at the snack bar, I don't think I've ever seen that in the states. The screen we saw this Welsh indie movie called 'Submarine' on was like half the size of a normal American movie screen. But then on Friday night we saw 'Source Code' and it was in a different theater, it was huge. It was like the building used to be in a playhouse, this screen had a curtain in front of it and the theater was ornately decorated. It was cool. Both of those movies I highly recommend, by the way.

So AJ left this morning to take a bus down to London and catch his flight. I've just been in my room all day, cleaning and relaxing. It's been an amazing and busy two weeks, and now I'm going to do some relaxing until I have to start my essays due towards the end of April. I went shopping at Tesco (a British grocery store) on the way home from dropping AJ off, because the dining hall doesn't serve meals during Spring Break. And we also don't have an oven or a freezer. So I settled on refrigerated meals you can heat in the microwaves and canned ravioli. I never thought I'd miss the dining hall food, ha.