Edinburgh

It was pretty hard for us to leave Glasgow. Our hostel was incredibly cheap, the food was cheap, we met a bunch of cool people, and there was a soccer pitch right next door. However, we knew we had to keep moving....we have lots of ground to cover in the next few months. We caught the train in Glasgow central and headed off to Edinburgh.....which was only a few hours away. I love how close everything is. Right before we left I booked a night in the "Budget Backpackers" hostel which apparently is number 1 in all of Europe. The ride was very pleasant....I love how fast and convenient all the rail lines are in Europe....perhaps something we need to think about in California? When we got off the train, Jared ask a homeless guy where Cow Gate was, which was the street our hostel was on, and he proceeded to give us the most complicated directions ever! We managed to find our hostel, lock up our bags, and then hit the city to do some serious touristy stuff. The first stop was Edinburgh Castle, which we could easily see from our hostel. But first we had to eat some local cuisine and just so happened to be walking by a pig roast. So we enjoyed scrumptious pulled pork sandwiches stuffed with haggis and onion sage spread. Best 4 poounds spent so far on the trip. The castle was absolutely stunning and the weather turned on us to typical Scottish weather. With fog, heavy clouds in the sky, a cool breeze and it sprinkling, it made exploring the castle even more fun. We walked around for hours, took loads of pictures, walked through the museums, and met some interesting people. We were also able to tour St. Giles Cathedral, which was very beautiful and had some of the best staind glass I had ever seen. It was named after St Giles, who was the patron saint of leapers and cripples. Interesting little factoid. Back at the hostel we managed to meet friends from all over the world again. A canadian couple whom had both been laid off so they decided to sell everything and travel, two Spanish girls whom were on summer break, three lawyers from Argentina, a Swiss, some Germans, and a bunch of Australians. In the common room of our hostel we managed to catch the semi finals of the French Open and now I am a fan of tennis :) Go Federer. So besides taking pictures of historically significant landmarks and us posing infront of statues, I am trying to capture some humor I find too. I truly got a kick out of seeing the fluorescent light bulbs all throughout the castle so I decided (especially for nina and erik) That I had to get a shot of them! All in all, what an incredible city!