Is anyone surprised it took me this long to get to the last part of the Scotland trip? I'm a bit ridiculous. Other things have been happening. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But now I have several things to write about, I went to Croatia in April, my Mom and Michael came for Oktoberfest this September and I just got back from London. So I need to finish this one up and get current. Ready? Here goes!
We had a free day after that first day that included SO much walking. We got up and ate breakfast in the hotel then began wandering around. One of the first things we did was go to the museum across the street. There were a lot of really interesting paintings in there and a LOT of religious paintings. My favorite artist in the collection was Peter Paul Rubens. He is known for painting many wonderful things, but one of the better known aspects of his work was his love for painting full-figured women. Hence the term "Rubenesque" that is still at times used to described larger women. The museum itself was gorgeous as well.
We spent most of our free day wandering up and down Princes street. We stumbled upon a Build-A-Bear where Taylor got her kitty Daniel a classic Scottish "uniform" including the top, hat, kilt, and shoes. And a little kitty sized bagpipe. We also went to a Disney Store and got a few things. Then we stopped in every souvenir shop we came across. We bought a lot of things for loved ones, but we also bought a ton of stuff for ourselves, of course. Taylor got a beautiful peridot ring (that I am currently wearing) as well as several other goodies. Danny got a few things including a beanie. I got books!! A lot of books!! Books about hauntings in Scotland, books about royalty, some about the Roma culture...and some about crimes in Scotland. Cause I'm weird.
You know what was also weird? How hard it was to find Harry Potter books!! We looked in SEVERAL different stores and couldn't find them. I was starting to get frantic but then I gave up all together. I wanted to get some HP books in Scotland since that's where J.K. wrote a good portion of her work...but I had to give up...so I thought. More on that later.
We spent our entire free day shopping and site seeing right around the hotel. It was FREEZING and we were exhausted from our first day. We went to a mall which was fun, everything was in English (imagine that!) and it was glorious. We also managed to stumble upon "Occupy Edinburgh" which was interesting at the time since all of the "Occupy" everywhere going on. We had dinner that evening at the hotel - it was included in the price so we ate breakfast and dinner there every day. Each meal we had this little old Irish man would come up and talk to us, ask us how we were enjoying our "holiday". He was from Northern Ireland. He was so friendly and so adorable, he was by far the most amazing person I met on the trip. He even knew about Utah and had even been! He went for the genealogy aspect of things, "If there is one thing Mormons do right, it's keep track of history!" he said. It was cute. I wanted to fold him up in my pocket and bring him home with me...or just to stow-away in his luggage and go back to Ireland with him!
The next morning we went back to the bookstore next to the hotel and scoured the shelves once more for HP books. They still didn't have any. We were running VERY short on time so I finally had Danny ask if there was another bookstore nearby. We were directed about 1/2 mile down Princes Street. A huge bookstore!! I could have spent all day there and wished we had found it the day before. We were able to find Harry Potter books!! It was amazing. I got the Philosopher's Stone and The Deathly Hallows. So now I have HP books from Czech and Scotland. Right after we found the books we had to rush to get to the bus and get going to head back to New Castle for our trip back on the ferry.
The ferry ride on the way home was INSANE. The water was so choppy!! I was lucky, I had taken the dramamine before it hit me. Danny and Taylor were not so lucky. Taylor went to breakfast with me and managed to eat some toast...Danny didn't eat. He was green, I swear. Once we docked near Amsterdam we were running behind (again). We basically had time to eat and then get back on the bus. It was fine, I was exhausted and didn't feel like wandering much. I had hoped to find a HP book there but there just wasn't time. We ate at the same Doner place we had on the way up and it was DELICIOUS. I was glad that we had gotten souvenirs the last time we had been there cause there was certainly no time. We got back on the bus and settled in for the long ride. We kept hitting traffic which wouldn't normally be a big deal, but there were 3 guys on the bus that were supposed to be heading to the field that evening. Including Danny. We were pushing it...Danny made it with about five minutes to spare, seriously. It was nuts...but at least he made it.
Some of the things I learned on my first overnight MWR trip were that it is best to have your own water and snacks on the bus portion of the trip...and if you're going on a ferry. Things were so expensive that if we hadn't brought our own stuff we'd have been very very broke. The pound is VERY strong. Especially compared to the USD. Compared to the Euro it's strong. So if you plan a trip to the British Isles it is best to plan how much you want to spend every day on food and site seeing, then how much you'd like to spend on souvenirs...convert the amount...and try to stick to it. On my trip to England I decided I wants 50pounds a day and 100pounds for souvenirs. It ended up converting to around $500, so that's how much I set aside. So $300...yeah. Ouch. But since I planned, it was easy. I didn't spend my daily allotted money each day so I had more for souvenirs and to pay for lunch while in London. Better to have more than not enough!!
In closing, I highly recommend that if you get a chance, visit Scotland!! So far it is still my favorite place that I have visited. I still have a few places to knock out before I head out of Europe, but there is just something about Scotland that was really amazing to me. Edinburgh has my heart.
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