Slainte!

Hello all!

I've had a pretty fantastic week here in London! On Monday and Tuesday, I worked from home for my internship and did some of the regular stuff so I won't bore you with the details of that!

On Wednesday, I went to my British Pop class. We talked a lot about punk rock and the progression into the music that sprouted up after. We listened to some songs that I wasn't quite a fan of, but it was interesting to see how the roots of dub started all the way back then.

On Wednesday night, I went out for dinner and drinks with Miguel. He took me to a Turkish restaurant which was absolutely delicious. I would also like to point out that I tried hummus. Yes, everyone, I, Paige Hoffmann, ate hummus. Here is the even more shocking part...... I LIKED IT. After all of the years looking at it and never even trying it, I tried it and enjoyed the taste. Shocking I know. Newsworthy if I do say so myself.

Thursday, I hung out with Miguel and Fran and just chilled out since I had to be up at 5:30 on Friday morning for Scotland. It took me quite a while to get home so I didn't end up getting much sleep, but I was up and ready and at the train by 7:30 ready to head to Scotland!

The train ride was about 4 and a half hours, give or take a few minutes and I slept through most of it. It was much more comfortable than the plane ride to England, I'll give it that! Once we got to Scotland, we headed to the hostel, which was incredibly nice. it was described as "the posh one" by one of our cab drivers.

After we dropped our bags off, we grabbed some lunch at a local cafe and then headed out on a walk. We got to tour the Edinburgh Castle and take an audio tour which was really interesting. It was quite medieval and there were cannons and whatnot. There was a ton of history!

We then proceeded to go on a walk guided by Bill all around Edinburgh. We made stops at places like Greyfriers Bobby (the dog that sat at his owner's grave for years), The Elephant House (where J.K. Rowling wrote a large chunk of the Harry Potter Books) and some other really interesting buildings such as museums and whatnot.

That night, we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Jolly's. I had a glass of white wine and chicken that was cooked in a whiskey sauce with peppercorns (once again, who am I?). It was delicious! We then went to the pub next door for a pint before Ayla and I headed off to the ghost tour! The ghost tour was awesome. Although it wasn't exactly scary, I learned a lot of history about the city because our guide, Dave (who was dressed in a matrix type cape coat and had a ponytail) was awesome and kept the jokes going. We went into these deep caves where people used to be kept. They were damp, haunted and dark hahah. The coolest part had to be the cemetery though. While there are 437 headstones, there are over 450,000 bodies buried there. When it rains, as it does quite often in Scotland, bones become unburied and have to be removed. We were told to not touch any if we found any because we could catch the plague, even though it has been hundreds of years, the bacteria still could spread. It was really intriguing.

Saturday morning, we woke up and went down to breakfast. After a quick bite to eat, we started our trek to King Arthur's seat. We took a pit stop at the bottom and toured the Hollyroodhouse Palace. We took another audio tour and it was amazing. The rooms were beautiful and the stories that lie within the walls about Mary Queen of Scots and the like were awesome. I am not always super interested in history as most of you know, but it's hard not to be when you are in a real place that is dripping with it.

After the palace, it was time to tackle King Arthur's seat. When I tell you that I did not think I was going to make it to the top, that is not a joke. I mean, I knew I was out of shape, but this put everything into perspective. This was a HIKE. Uphill with hurricane force winds. Ok, maybe that's a little dramatic, but it was INSANE. I thought I was going to need medical attention once I reached the top. Once we got there, my breath was taken away. Except this time, not from exhaustion. The views were phenomenal. I could not believe what I was seeing. I felt as if I were on top of the world. People talk about moments that truly take your breath away, and this was certainly one of them. The pictures simply do not do it justice. It was a beautiful day, but the winds at the top were a bit scary. There were a few moments where I thought I might fall off the cliff, but I survived! As we were sitting on the hill commenting on how beautiful the day was and how lucky we were, someone pointed out a cloud formation and said "is that a storm front coming this way?" we decided that maybe it was time to head back down. Within the next minute and a half, we started getting pelted with snow. At least, I think it was snow. It was a mix of freezing rain, hail and snow because it was literally hitting us with such force that we were in pain. I used my sunglasses as goggles. After about five minutes of cursing Scotland's temperamental weather, it stopped and we were surrounded by blue skies again. Once we got to the bottom, people were wondering what was wrong with us since we were soaking wet and bundled up. We took a taxi back to the hostel and grabbed some lunch. We all took showers and I took a quick nap and then it was time to get ready for the Ceilidah!

For those of you who don't know, a Ceilidah is s a traditional gaelic social gathering, which usually involves playing gaelic folk music and lots of dancing. When we first arrived, we discovered it was a fundraiser in a church. Not exactly what we were expecting. After the first song started playing, we were hooked. They taught us how to do each dance and you would swap partners and everyone was so incredibly friendly! You could tell how incredibly happy the people were to have us there. We definitely made up about 3/4 of the group. There were some drinks and food, I obviously stuck to bread and butter and some beer hahah but others said the traditional dishes were good.

 

After the Ceilidah, we headed out to a pub called the Opium Bar. It was basically a heavy metal bar with cheap drinks hahah. We stayed there for a bit, but then decided we were pretty tired so a couple of us headed home. It was pretty fun, but I was pleased to be in my bed at the hostel after I had been freezing!

This morning, We woke up around 9:30. There wasn't anything scheduled, so we just had free time until our train at 3pm. Chelsea, Julianne, Ayla and I headed out to grab some brunch at the Elephant House (Harry Potter) and do some souvenir shopping. We went in a ton of places and left with some keychains, stickers, jewelry and some gifts for family members! It was a beautiful day once again and it was a fantastic time. 

The train ride back was a little rough, but we made it! It was almost 5 hours and I was thrilled to get off and head home! Once we hopped on the tube, I realized I had forgotten my bag of gifts on the train! I jumped off at the next tube stop and rushed back. I ran with my backpack still on and tried to find it. After searching the train, asking conductors, looking through lost property and talking to the "team leader" I was heartbroken to find that the bag was nowhere to be found. I literally started tearing up at the thought of not only losing all of that money, but all of the gifts and postcards I had written! I decided to give it one last shot and write on the facebook wall of the London group and ask if anyone had by chance seen it. Luckily, someone had picked it up and given it to one of the ICLC chaperones! I was so excited, I wanted to cry again! It is still not in my possession,  but Julianne said she would pick it up for me tomorrow since she has class. What a gem that girl is.

I was pleasantly surprised with Scotland. For some reason, I pictured countryside, sheep and rain. Which of course there was definitely some of that, but we were so lucky to have such magnificent weather aside from "Ice Storm Scotland 2012." The city of Edinburgh was so beautiful and made me realize once again how incredibly blessed I am to have all of these opportunities to travel, live in Europe, study here as well as have an internship here. I am truly in love with Europe and it is going be so difficult to go home, although I do miss all of you dearly, I just wish you all could come to me instead of having to leave!

I miss and love you all a ton! I hope all is well and pictures will be coming soon! It's just they take a very long time to load and I am a very tired girl!

Xx Paige