So, where were we? Scotland, yeah.

Scotland was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. I seriously couldn’t stop taking pictures of the countryside, because I’ve never been anywhere where I could see entire towns for miles. I mean, i took a picture of an entire fucking rainbow.

Our tour guide had a way with telling time though. For every half hour he said a trip might be, you may as well triple it because I remember spending most of the time there on the bus either sleeping or in awe of how green the grass was. Yes, really.

Unfortunately, this might be where it gets a bit hazy in my trip telling, as my pictures are mostly of the countryside and my memory fails me so things might be out of order or confusing. After another incredibly long bus ride and stop at an overpriced rest stop (which seemed to be geared towards the geriatric crowd), we went to see Hadrian’s Wall .And as soon was we got there it began to rain. Did I mention it was about 35-45°F outside? The entire time we were there? It was fucking cold. I mean, as much as I love getting the chance to wear my sweaters and scarves, I wasn’t prepared mentally going from nearly 90°F in the States. Thankfully, everywhere in the U.K. seems to sell some form of tea for less than 2 pounds so that made it slightly better. What wasn’t better was that I bought a thick wool blanket from the gift shop that already smelled like sheep and was even worse once it was rained on. (I ultimately got rid of it because I couldn’t deal with it. Meaning I left it in a hotel.)  And then when we got to the top of the mountainside after walking and nearly killing ourselves, it got sunny and hot and I realized I spend £15 ($30) on nothing.
Anyway.

Some of the people in my group decided that trying to chase the wild sheep to get in a picture with them would be a good idea, so I left them to their own devices and looked around. Our guide was talking about, um, what happened there. Something important, yes, but I was too busy looking at the landscape. It makes you feel really small I can tell you.

On a side note, I had no idea of what to do with my hair at this point, because every five minutes it was either raining or humid so I just gave up. My flat iron laughed at me, I heard it. These are the things that bothered me, aside from my group members.

From what my pictures tell me, the next day was when we went into Edinburgh, Scotland and

went and saw Edinburgh Castle along with the Scott Monument, which is a massive structure in the middle of the town. The monument is also where some strangers took my picture and winked at me then ran away. They looked like alt bros, so it didn’t bother me.

It’s here that I saw Marks & Spencer, which for those of you who’ve never been to Europe, is like SuperTarget on crack. If I felt like it, I could by my entire wardrobe plus makeup, my potential husband’s wardrobe, a wedding dress, a laptop and sound system, purchase my groceries, furniture, and if I wasn’t broke yet, exchange money into a different currency. I could have Magnum ice cream bars too, which I’ve never seen around where I live, and they are delicious. Also, aside from London, this is where I saw a plethora of street performers. Lots of living statues, let me tell you.

Me and the other four who I could handle had lunch at The Abbotsford on Rose Street, which had an awful local beer but had pretty okay fish and chips with lots of vinegar. We discovered a internet cafe (EasyInternet) , so we split the time to check out emails, account balances, etc. and have iced coffee from the connected Caffe Nero.

This is where our group broke up into half and many small parts because the larger part went onto a ghost walk. I’m not really sure of what that entails, but I hear there’s a lot of sexual innuendo which makes it funny. Okay, yeah. Me and my then companion saw the inside of Deacon Brodie’s Tavern, and I’m assuming it was right after when work generally got out because it was incredibly crowded and loud.

We were staying in what I think is usually a hostel while we stayed here, because there were several rooms almost all with bunk beds. It wasn’t bad at all actually, it was cozy and more personal than the Etap. There was a boiler system, which some of the people on the tour did not know of and couldn’t figure out why there wasn’t any hot water the night we arrived. I was sure to make it clear that I had the first shower the next morning. I learned that in Europe you could order Indian Food like Chinese in the states, so with the help of the owner’s son I called Ferry’s Curry Connection for some very, very good Lamb Tikka.

I mean, I know we did other things. We saw a couple of cottages that were once owned by authors I have never heard of nor read. And I can’t lie and say they were interesting, because they weren’t in the least. I’d rather be on the bus, bitching about the bus than be in a building that has questionable stability.

We headed back to England for the last couple of days and we skipped through Rugby and some other towns. One of them by what I think was the North Channel during a storm, where we stayed for a night in a pretty upscale hotel which was vastly different than the hostel. This is where I found out the 14 year-olds I was sharing a room with had spent much of the trip talking shit about me despite me never actually sharing a room since I had my own room, and I stayed with other girls for the other nights.

These same girls spent the night running up and down the hallways at the next hotel we stayed at and cackled until 2am convinced that these men minding their business at the end of the hall were trying to “holla” at them. Downstairs, this rather inebriated man named George From Liverpool proceeded to tell me a bit about himself, fake an American accent (which was another great thing to hear), and be completely bewildered as to how we were going to London and not seeing where The Beatles came from. The bartender was from Belgium and told us a bit about himself as well and I found out Orangina isn’t an asian drink as Safeway would have me believe. As for the hotel itself, not bad either, although the water was either too hot or too cold.

More about the last of England later though.