Weekend Warriors

So these last 2 days have been completely insane -- in a fun way.

Yesterday we had the day off from "class" because it was intended to be travel if we wanted to go to London, which we decided against (I wasn't too keen on it anyways). So instead we decided to re-hike up to Arthur's Seat, and we packed a lunch to go with it. The first time I didn't go all the way, so this time was a little more intense. But it didn't take too long because we didn't stop for pictures like we did last time. The view from the top was amazing, almost a full 360 of Edinburgh. And opposed to what the others say, I liked the view from the tower at St. Andrew's better, the beach is just awesome.

So at the top we decided to eat, sandwiches, chips etc, and Yashera started throwing food at the black birds, who hesitantly ate it. The interesting part came when an evil seagull decided he wanted some too, so it ended up being an all out war between the seagull and the blackbirds. Watching "The Birds" in high school has scarred me for life, so I hid under my jacket while the seagull 'attacked'-- the blackbirds kicked it's butt. :)

The afternoon was spent lounging around the flats, doing laundry, sketching, etc. We cooked burgers for dinner and invited our teacher to join, and then went down to Grassmarket. Although we fully intended to hit up a pub there, we ended up getting rides from bike taxis down to George's street, where we went into a pub there instead. That was another interesting experience, for it was a very crowded, noisy pub with no where to sit; my hand was probably frozen by the end from holding my drink all night. We successfully walked back home after a long and interesting day.

Today we hit the ground running, visiting The Real Mary King's Close; an 'underground' (now, but not back in the day) city, where we learned about history and a few ghostly stories. We then walked around the Royal Mile, checking out vendors and those stupid tourist shops. I feel like I've been here 2 weeks and have yet to go into any actually Scottish shops, but maybe I should open my mouth more. Anyways I did come out of that with an awesome printed t-shirt and a super cute bag, so no loss.

We kept walking and ended up at Camera Obscura, an optical allusion place. The top had a giant mirror that you could adjust to look over almost any part of the city, it was really fun. They also had tons of fun illusions and mind tricks, as well as these booths to make yourself look older, younger, male or female. We had fun with those. It's definitely designed for kids, but it was still an enjoying time.

After picking up take away food, we decided to look up the Edinburgh Film Festival, and Lizzie and Yashera decided to go to a horror movie, so we walked them there and then me, Erin, and Angelica explored the area. It was such a nice night, and a lot of people were out and about. We sat in the grass market for awhile, just people watching, then decided to head back to pick them up. And so ended another interesting, yet enjoyable day in Edinburgh. I can't believe we only have 1 week left. I feel like there is so much I still need to do (and buy!!).

~Lisa