Let the traveling begin!

Deciding not to give myself too much time to get settled in I spent about a day in Hull before heading out to see the sights.  I was very lucky to get to go to my school right away and meet several of the teachers and go on a tour and then pack again and head out.  Sadly I was not as prepared as I should have been and missed my very first train!  Yes, this was not good.  Luckily the man felt bad for the poor lost American girl and gave me a bit of a break.  After a few train changes I was finally on my way to Scotland to  meet up with a few other Fulbrighters.  Seeing a familiar face at the train station and all the craziness of the morning went away and I was ready to have some fun.

Yay bus tour!

We all started in Bathgate where I met up with Christy, Natalie, Stephanie, Niki and Tessa.  The first night four of us went over to Edinburgh to the Fringe Festival.  We had a few pints and then went to a comedy show.  The city is filled with shows all over in any possible theater or room.  The show we went to was a free show with two stand up comedians.  I will just say that I am glad we didn't pay to get in.

Holyrood Palace

Edinburgh is an amazing city with so much to see that you can't possibly fit it all in in a day.  Trying to do our best several of us went on a hop on hop off bus tour.  We were extremely lucky to have wonderful weather and were able to sit on top of the bus and take pictures and enjoy the view.  We got off to tour Holyrood Palace and learned about it's history as well as the dark past of murders and conspiracy that were hidden within.  The best part was walking through the abbey ruins behind the palace and taking some time to play with the settings on my new camera!

After the palace we hopped back on the bus and saw other sites including Parliament, the Britannia, several parks and more.  We decided to end the day with a whiskey tour.  What else would you do in Scotland?!  Now unfortunately I don't really enjoy whiskey, much to both of my brothers' dismay, but I did have a great time.  We rode around in barrels and learned about the process of making the best whiskey around.  What a successful day in Edinburgh!

Not even close to all the whiskey in the collection.

Hmmm coincidence... 

My next wine project!

We all had a great time and ended with a nice picnic at Christy's while talking about everything we were looking forward to in the year to come.

I'm a bit of a laid back guard.