St. Andrews!

Yesterday, some of my friends and I traveled to St. Andrews (Scotland) with the International Student Centre. It cost 8 pounds, but that included transportation and entry to the castle and cathedral (which, in all honesty, should be free). St. Andrews was nothing like I expected- its so much smaller and with less to do. Living in Edinburgh now, I guess I just expected everything to be as exciting and bustling. Don't get me wrong, St. Andrews is beautiful and quaint. I'm just glad I live in Edinburgh. We got lucky and had a beautiful day, for the most part. It rained a little, but hey, we got a rainbow out of it. (And the wind was manageable.)

The castle was hardly a castle- mainly just ruins at this point. It was humorous because a huge group of us, while looking for the castle, completely passed it because it looked nothing like what we were expecting. The cathedral was SO cool though. Obviously it was in ruins as well, but something made it seem much more grand. There was one tower that is open to the public to be climbed, however, the weather conditions prevented us from doing so. There was also this really cool pier/jetty into the water, but by the time we discovered it, the wind and rain were too deterrent for us to go check it out.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on the trip. I can't think of anything else to add at the moment, but if there's anything obvious that I left out, feel free to ask.

The Pub Where We Ate Lunch

St. Andrews

I just thought this was funny...

View of where golf was born, apparently?

Also, on another note. I went to the pub on Thursday with my American friends and met the coolest kids. They were a bunch of math students who happened to live in the same building and were all from the UK. (Ireland, Scotland, England). We had a lovely chat for a few hours and now I've been invited out with them. I was supposed to go out with them last night, however, there was a slight mishap and the girl whose number I have left her phone so I couldn't get in contact with her. But she promised to make it up to me, so I'll be seeing them soon.

Drinking whisky- again! We obviously think we're classy.

Haverford in Edinburgh!

Malone's Irish Pub

On Friday, my friend Michael and I hiked up Arthur's Seat which is THE ABSOLUTE COOLEST. Everyone needs to come to Scotland right now and do it. I'd include pictures, but since I was with Michael, who lives about an hour away from Edinburgh, I didn't want to be the biggest tourist. And now I have a great excuse to keep going back. There's a really nice park at the foot of the mountain (volcano? I'm not actually sure what it is) so I'm thinking that's where I'm going to be running from now on. I'm finally starting to get better I think. This morning was the first morning I woke up able to breathe out of my nose. So I think I'm finally going to try physical exercise again! I'm thinking about running with camera in hand, just in case I find something especially breathtaking. Just about all of Arthur's Seat (the views from the top) are unreal. 

Ok well I think that's about it. I should really start my day- need to do some reading for school, although my books are in the Darwin Library over on the science campus (don't feel like going there). Maybe I'll just go for a run like I said earlier. It's a beautiful day out. 

Cheers!