'blowing' through scotland

so yesterday we left the safety of smallcity dundee and headed for the big edinburgh! well actually besides the danger of getting lost(which we did), the most dangerous thing was the high winds that were forecasted. As we were driving there it was easy to hear the wind, and when we arrived it either pushed us forward, or held us back. it was pretty crazy! you can see in the picture all these benches that were blown over. at first i thought they were placed that way though. but no- WIND!

also while in edinburgh i came to a conclusion about scotland. as a country it likes to do the same things as everyone else, BUT call it something else! so first of all, the men wear skirts. but they can't just call them what they are, skirts. its got to be KILTS. then they decorate these kilts, and also everything else (but i'll get to THAT in a second) with plaid. plaid is everywhere. but it isn't just plaid, it must be called TARTAN. and then when they want to get drunk they have whiskey. but no, it isn't just whiskey, its SCOTCH. do you see that? i guess they just think they're so special.

i guess they are though, cause everyone calls their stuff what they want us to!

oh and the tartan...EVERYWHERE. at the museum the docent/guard/supervisor guys weren't just wearing black pants (like at everyother museum in the world), they were wearing tartan pants. the next morning we went to a coffeehouse, called the tartan coffeehouse, and there they had tartan paintings on the walls. even the bus seats were covered in tartan!

we mostly were blown through the city, but we got to check out plenty of cute stores, as well as touristy ones. and we went by the castle, and princess street and the royal mile, all the way down to the scottish parliament building- where i got a darkish view of arthur's seat, its in the mountains. once i read more about the myth related to it (it should be in my scottish fairy tale book) then i can report back! then we found dinner and headed home!



the next day we actually went to the tartan coffeehouse. and it was great. between scottish tea and delicious soup i was more than happy. but then we shared a piece of millionaire's shortcake! AMAZING! i will learn to make it and then die a happy blair. ofcourse my love for it, led craig to finally tell me about the 24 hour bakery that sells it which is essentially across the street from him. but its in a little shopping area, which is why i hadn't seen it. so we stopped by it, and guess what- it is called Clark's Bakery. i wish it was, by that i mean i wish it was AT clark!

ok- well moving on we then headed to St Andrews. where the famous golf course is and i guess prince william went to school there, so its a bit posh. we checked out the cathedral ruins, which were really cool. i learned about the saltire, and we paid too much money to climb a tower. but i was cool- so i'll stop complaining! 159 steps to the top. but then we could see the whole city, and the ocean and even though it was cloudy the view was nice. by the time we got back down it had gotten cloudier and was starting to drizzle. we stopped and got ice cream at this award winning place, i attempted to get the most scottish ice cream i could- since it was my last day. we tried the IRN BRU sherbet, and then scottish tablet and then caramel shortbread. i got a 1/2 scoop of s.t. and c.s. cause the girl was sooooo nice!

then we drove past the old course, and through the town twice (again with the getting lost- though mostly just turned around!). then we headed to craig's favorite beach. it was nice, and i found quite a few rocks, and even a piece of seaglass. i wish i had a favorite beach of my own. but i guess st louis isn't really the right location for that sort of thing. then we went to craig's house and had tea with his mom. it was all quite cute. then a fancy thai dinner, and packing. and now i have to go catch my bus! another sleeper bus... i think next i will do a comparision of overnight buses to sleeper trains. except wait. there is nothing good about the overnight bus.