My Journey to Scotland

This trip ran slightly differently than my trip to Germany because we went on the school led trip.  In other words, all of the transportation and lodging was organized by Harlaxton.  The coach was scheduled to leave Friday morning at 8 am so we all got up really early and ate breakfast in time to load the coach.  Unfortunately, the coach that we were going to take broke down, so we lost an hour due to them having to switch it before we could leave.  This was sort of dissappointing because that pushed back out arrival time.  We made two stops on the way, first at a rest stop to eat our lunches, and then at the England/Scotland border for a photo op.  As we arrived in Scotland, I immediately fell in love with the beautiful countryside and view of the North Sea.  It was truly magnificant.  We arrived in Edinburgh (pronounced Edinborough) at 3:30 pm and by the time we got checked in to our hotel, it was 4pm.  This left us with no time for hitting the major "sight-seeing" places in the capital of Scotland.  Nevertheless, Amanda, Clare, Christina, and I took a walk around to sort of see what the city had to offer.  We did a little souvenir shopping and then set off to find the Birthplace of Harry Potter.  J.K. Rowling began writing this amazing series in a little cafe called The Elephant House.  We decided to have our dinner here and so we sat down for a relaxing meal.  Afterwards, we also checked out the statue of Greyfriar's Bobby because it was also located near the cafe.  The story is that this little dog sat by the grave of his master for 7 years after he died.  It was a cute story and the statue of the dog was fun.  We walked back to the hotel then to plan our adventure for the following day, because now we had to fit all of Edinburgh in a single day.  After we got organized, Amanda and I also left and walked around the city to experience some of the night life.  We tried a fried Mars Bar which was good, but sooo greasy!  I liked it, but I don't think I'll be getting another one anytime soon!  We also met a couple new Scottish friends and we learned a lot about their country.  It was interesting, their driver's license are pink and their permits are green!  Also, they wear the tartan (famous plaid design) kilts to formal events such as weddings even now.  Everyone was very nice, and it was a good time.  We headed back to the hotel to catch a few hours of sleep before we had to wake up early for our touring the following day.