141 Shades of Europe : A Tartan Tale: Edinbruh and St. As

Hello readers!

My long-awaited post about Scotland is finally here! (It'll be relatively short, promise).

I left London on Valentine's Day and got to the hostel after midnight. The plane ride lasted less than an hour, and I took a bus (which had WiFi!) from the airport to the center of town where my hostel was. The next day, I did a bus tour of the city and took so many pictures. Edinburgh has so many castle-looking buildings (Edinburgh Castle is the only real one), even the shop buildings and restaurants looked old and beautiful. There were bagpipe players on the street and booths set up selling Celtic jewelry. On the tour, I stopped at the Royal Botanic Gardens, which is a HUGE greenhouse that has so many different plants. Also, many of the souvenir shops were selling kilts and cashmere items. That night, I went on a tour of Greyfriars Kirkyard, which is a haunted cemetery, and of the haunted underground vaults. The vaults were used to store illicit materials but also to kill people and hide their bodies. I felt like I was in American Horror Story: Asylum walking through that place.

Scott Monument

Roya Botanic Gardens

Prettiest flower ever

Castles

Greyfriars Kirk

Inside the Vaults

Someone probably died in this thing

Creepy furniture

The new day I did another route on the bus tour and got to see more of Edinburgh. After that tour, I took a bus to St. Andrews to visit Catherine and Miles at The University of St. Andrews. The campus is so gorgeous. St. Andrews is a cute little beach town that has the academic buildings, student housing, a zoo, two beaches (duh), shops, restaurants, and residential housing sprinkled throughout it. Miles gave me a tour of the town, and later I met up with Catherine and met her friends. She bar tends at The Vic (ayy!) which is the student bar/restaurant that St. As kids frequent. I stayed in St. Andrews til about 10 PM and then when I got to the bus station I realized the last bus back to Edinburgh had already left (always crosscheck the internet schedule with the bus station schedule, kids) and ended up having to switch my flight to Tuesday afternoon. That was definitely very stressful, but looking back it worked out given a number of other things that I won't discuss online. The next day was very relaxing. Cath and I slept in, got brunch at The Vic, watched the movie Up!, and hung out with her friends. Tuesday, we got breakfast at Costa and I made my way back to London.