SCOTLAND!

so this weekend I went on a school trip to Edinburgh, Scotland for the weekend. it was SO beautiful! its a really small city surrounded by amazing scenery and cliffs and a bay / the ocean. i took a million pictures and am going to have to open ANOTHER webshots account soon! we left school friday morning at 6:45am, and took a train to Scotland, we arrived around 12:30pm-ish, so yes it was a loooong train ride. we thought that maybe the school had planned out stuff to do for us but they basically dropped us off at the hostel and were like see you on sunday. the rooms were for 14 people but they were all from our school so it wasn't that bad, but still kinda annoying at times. when we first got there we just walked around the city for a while and went to the national gallery of scotland because it was crappy weather and we didn't want to be outside! on saturday we walked at least 100 miles, haha just kidding, but we did walk A TON! first i went to the edinburgh castle which was cool but not as good as the castles in england i didn't think, but the views were great. then i went to this scotch whisky heritage centre, where i got a tour of how whisky is made and this neat ride through the history of it, and then i got a free sample and was taugh how to "taste test" whisky. granted i hate whisky but it was still really cool and i got to keep my glass whisky glass! then i met up with courtney and rachel at the museum of scotland and they gave me a tour that they had went on, saw a lot of cool stuff. then i saw greyfriars bobby, basically this little dog that became the mascot of the area somehow and then everyone took care of him, i don't really know the story but there are lots of childrens books on him and i saw his statue and grave. then we went into st. giles cathedral which was relally nice as well. we walked the "royal mile" from edinburgh castle to holyrood palace where the queen of scotland / now maybe the queen of england stay sometimes, i'm not really sure because we didn't go in we just took pictures of it. then we hiked up this giant "hill" which i think was more of a mountain to get some amazing views of the city and the area around us, it was SO pretty! then we went to a garden called princes street gardens but nothing was really blooming so it wasn't too exciting. by the end of the day we were EXHAUSTED! on sunday we had to check out at 10am and and then just walked around the city some more until our group left at 1. it was a great weekend and i definitely want to go back to scotland to see more of the country when i am older, like loch ness and the mountains and stuff. it was SO pretty and it made me very excited for my trip to ireland at the end of april because i am sure it will be even prettier!
i can't believe there are only 6 weeks left of the semester, and technically five of classes and then one week of finals! so crazy! i'm starting to try to figure out how the heck i am getting all my stuff home, because i have tons. i'm also realllllly realllly excited for my sisters wedding when i get back, and of course going back to troy and seeing everyone and getting to see dan again :-) ok well adios for now, i actually need to get work done tihs week because my auntie dee is coming on saturday! YAY for another visitor :-) i am very excited!