Airlines and Castles

And so ends day 2 of my adventure. After these last 2 days, it has become apparent that I will be truly enjoying myself and the time I spend over hear. I already have ideas for this sketchbook we have to keep. Anyways, I'll try to start where I left off last time, at Newark Airport.

(Continental airlines are such good liars)

So we got to the airport, and I would have updated more, but the wifi there costs money, go figure. Anyways, like we weren't going to be waiting long enough, the flight kept getting pushed back. The final departure time was supposed to be 11:20; we took off at 1 AM. Yea, after the plane arrived, they had some stuff to fix. The good news, however, is that me and Yashera got bumped up to first class, because of our ticket price and the fact that the flight was overbooked. I think that's hilarious because we didn't even pay full for the tickets. We totally milked that for all it was worth-- we went exploring the President's club and also made sure to pick the best meals (even though I wasn't hungry). Anyways though, the only really nice part of first class was the face that I was actually able to get a decent sleep. Otherwise, I found it rather awkward.

We arrived in Edinburgh around noon their time, and I wasn't really all that lagged, but I had a pretty awful stomach ache, I ate too much the day before :( But getting off topic. The Taxi guy didn't fully know how to get us to our housing, so that took a little while, but we finally got there. Angelica was really happy to see us, having been there a day alone (She flew in from Germany, where she was visiting her parents who are military, but got in a day before us due to our plane issues). So we unloaded all our stuff and marveled at the wonders that are UK standards (The plugs, weird sinks, etc) before heading out the find a quick bite to eat. We ended up at a cute little cafe, and they had the BEST (So far) Panini's anywhere. And yes, I know the Pound is more than the dollar, but for only about 5pounds we got all this food:

And the guy working there was pretty cool too :)

After that, we went back to our apartments and hung out before deciding to go explore. We ended up walking a bit of the Royal Mile, which is also a tourist trap of 'handmade' woolen scarves, blankets, kilts etc, although I doubt half of them are. I really want something Cashmere though, so I'll have to hunt around a bit for an actual Scotish product.

Sleeping turned out to be a bit of a challenge, jet lag fi

nally hitting it. I guess when it's normally 4PM in KS, it's pretty hard to get to sleep. And it was freezing, our heaters only run 30 minutes at a time and apparently the scots are used to that bec

ause the linens we were given are very minimal. So I was in and out of sleep about 3 times.

Day 2 began rather nicely though. We walked around a little more this morning, got breakfast pastries at this shop and the guy was like "They're American Muffins!", like he thought we wouldn't want them otherwise. My scone was better! And there never was a drop of rain but instead nice blue skies! We walked up to the Edinburgh Castle, and saw ALOT! It was so historic and beautiful. It really puts things into perspective when you go somewhere with history dating back a lot longer than the USA's. We learned so much, and even though it isn't known for it's art, I feel like I got a lot of influential ideas from it. A few things we saw: The stone of destiny, as well as the cr

own and sword (forgot whose....), Old prison

cells, the war memorial, armory, amazing friezes on the several walls, and amazing views.

We also cooked our first meal tonight, something I don't even do with my roomies back home.... Spaghetti and meatballs! It was pretty good, and we didn't spend too much on the supplies, but it's still hard to judge with Pounds to Dollars. Maybe someday I'll get that right. Since then we've just been chilling, relaxing after a long day and a lot of walking. We talked about going to a pub, but it's almost 10 already and I don't know if I'm awake enough for that. Tomorrow's plan looks to be a bit of a hike in the morning, followed by

something and the binding of our home-made sketch books. I'll post more when it happens, but for now: Goodnight (or should I say good afternoon?) America, see you in 3 weeks.

~Lisa