Jen and I headed down to the bus pick-up by the train station around 10:30 pm. We had a bit of a panic due to the bus being 20 minutes late. Then we had a 2.5 hour ride to Edinburgh, lucky for us we sat right in front of the obnoxious lady who was on and off with her daughter Amy who kept asking where the mother was; I was so close to reaching around and telling her "AMY! It is pitch black outside the bus and we have no idea where we are. Now stop calling!" We arrived in Edinburgh not long after 2:00 am, then we hailed a taxi, someone stole it, so we hailed another one. We made it to the Belford Hostel where we had our first Scottish Accent misunderstanding. The way the innkeeper said "pounds" it sounds exactly like "pence." Heading into our dark 8-person room we could not find where the beds were labeled after quite some time of running our lit up mobiles around the room and disturbing the others sleeping. As a result, we decided to just take one of the empty beds and share it, that way we only took one person's bed if we were wrong. As it turned out, we were wrong; some people came in later than us and said "these girls are in my bed," but they let us continue sleeping, or faking in my case. We woke up around 9:00 am and took pictures of our church hostel and checked-out. We wandered towards the castle, noticing along the way how very different and beautiful the city of Edinburgh is. We stopped at a Starbucks for breakfast with a breathtaking view of the castle. We went up to the castle and wandered through a few shops while waiting to meet up with Elsa. It was 14L and a long queue to get into the castle, but it was the inspiration for Hogwarts, so it was well worth it. It was huge, with so many historical portraits and artifacts, museums and a cathedral. It was here where I decided to start spontaneously planking and getting pictures of it. To see all of these pictures, I will direct you to my facebook, where they have their own photo album. After the castle it was time for my most exciting part: THE ELEPHANT HOUSE! This is a cafe where J.K. Rowling had been seen writing Harry Potter. We ate lunch here and used the restroom before leaving, where so many people have written on the walls thanking J.K, so naturally I did as well, and I wrote it from the UVMQ team. We headed over to the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland to roam around and eventually meet up with Ashleigh and Anna. Then we headed back to Ashleigh's hostel to grab her backpack. Along the way we checked out various shops, walked through St. Andrew's Square, and we later stopped for dinner. Of all the restaurants and pubs on the street, we managed to find and All-American restaurant.. but we were too tired to find another place. After dinner we made our way over to the bus stop where we killed two hours. They were entertained by my planking in any place they proposed, including Jen's lap. I did this on and off for about an hour, so they got comfortable braiding my hair and we all played cards on my back, including me. It was all very fun. Before the bus came we wanted to run to the restrooms, but found how they ridiculously charge you to use them... stupid. We were all so ready for the bus ride back and then the walk to our dorms. It was a fantastic day! And now I am still exhausted.
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