Our five day adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland!

Let me precede this entire post by saying that this was an incredible trip and loved every minute of being in this city and really didn't want to leave. So, we flew into Edinburgh early afternoon on Wednesday, headed into town and got set up in our hostel, and then headed out into the city to explore! Our first destination: the baked potato shop :) They have a huge list of toppings you can have (all vegetarian) and a "small potato" is really a pretty big potato and a half. So delicious.
It was amazing! After this we continued to walk around and start to take in the town. The next day we went on a free walking tour of the city which was amazing! There's so much history throughout the town. Here's some of what we saw and learned:
This had to do with a previous building that was in this spot that would hold prisoners, and this symbol was on the door, when it was removed, they put this in the ground, and you are supposed to spit in the middle circle of it. They said that you can sit nearby and watch people walk by this part of the pavement and you can tell who's a local and who isn't, because locals will walk around it because they know its covered in spit, but visitors will walk right over it. Also, apparently, a couple from California got engaged on this spot (because its a heart and all, he thought it was cute/romantic) without knowing what it stood for, and were told the story after the proposal. She still said yes.

St. Giles Cathedral :) [more pics following]This is the oldest building in the city, and you can't really see it, but on top of the 2 points on the top are a fleur de lis and a thistle. The symbol of France and of Scotland, to show the good relationship between the two countries.
Greyfriar's cemetary.
The Covenanter's Prison. Apparently, it's the most haunted place in the world.
Greyfirar's Bobby :)

Later on, we found this AMAZING tea boutique/cafe called eteaket! It seriously is my favorite thing ever. All of the teacups were mix-matched, and everything was delicious and there were soooo many choices for tea flavors, very bad for such an indecisive person such as myself. Scones with clotted cream and jam. SO GOOD.

The castle (up on volcanic rock) and the Prince's street gardens below.

The next day we visited St. Giles Cathedral and Edinburgh castle, here are some of my favorite shots of the day:

St. Giles

View from the castle.

Another amazing view, you can see the Scott Monument, Calton Hill, and the North Bridge.

The next day we had gotten tickets for a bus tour to take us into the Highlands of Scotland, it left at 8 am and we didn't get back to Edinburgh until 7pm that night. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip because I just love all of the openness and the amazing views. God did some good work in Scotland, that's for sure! Here is why I loved it so much:

Loch Ness!
You see that mountain there, covered in all of the clouds? yeah, that's Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in Britian.
The Commando Memorial, for the WWII soldiers that were specially trained in this area, and also died in this area.

That night we went on a walking ghost tour of the city, which, thankfully, was not too scary :) which was good haha. The next day was our last day :( but we climbed to the top of the Scott Monument (that's 287 steps in a series of 4, sometimes very tight, spiral staircases). Here's a few pics:
So, for the rest of the day we just did some shopping for gifts and such for family and had tea one last time before heading to the airport. This trip was well worth it!
Since being back, it's been pretty low-key, although most of our coursework is due in a couple weeks so we've got to get a move on! Cristina and I went to Bath yesterday, so a post will be up on that soon (hopefully)! That's all for now :)
love, emily

Our very short trip to London...

For our second trip with the international office, we went to London! It takes about 3 hours to get there from Cardiff, so we had a lot of time to chill on the bus and not so much time in the city itself :( But! we are planning on going back, so we'll get to do a lot more on that trip :) Anyways, they gave us a brief bus tour and then we had about 4 hours to explore on our own. The first place we went was Buckingham Palace!
Following this, we headed straight to Big Ben! Which is actually the the bell in the tower, not the clock :)
And then, we just had to take phone booth photos :)
Next we headed up to Trafalgar Square.
and then, we found Chipotle!!! The only Chipotle in the UK, and it was delicious :)
After this, we did a bit of shopping and then went into the portrait gallery, which was amazing! seeing as I am getting more and more into photography and such, it was really cool :) And then we had to head back to the bus to head back to Cardiff! Short and sweet, but definitely fun.
love, emily