Here I sit on the train, heading back to Wigan from
Edinburgh. What a week it has been here in England (and it hasn’t even been a
full week yet)! I suppose I should start at the beginning. When I got to
Manchester, it was 8 am here, midnight back in Idaho. Needless to say, I was
just a bit tired cause sleeping on the second plane was virtually useless, even
though that was exactly what everyone else was doing (although I did get to
watch The Lucky One and Hunger Games on the little T.V. in the
back of the chair in front of me, so it wasn’t to boring). Basically, I spent
almost all of Saturday sleeping on and off cause I was way to exhausted to do
anything else.
Even though I was still super tired, on Sunday I did venture
out a bit to the mall so Zoe could get her glasses. The shops here are humongous,
and it seems like all of the department stores here have both a café and like a
mini grocery store. Its weird cause even the expensive stores are like that,
which is not something you would really find back home. After shopping, it
finally quit raining, which turned out to be the perfect time to take a nice
long nap.
Monday was a Bank Holiday. I would describe a Bank Holiday
as the governments excuse to not have to go to work for the day. They have six
of these every year, and just about every shop in the country is open except
government shops and banks. So, it pretty much just gives everyone a chance to
go out and get all their shopping done, and of course not have to go to work.
This was also the day that I got introduced to ASDA, the wanna-be Wal-Mart that
just so happens to be owned by Wal-Mart International. It is probably six times
bigger than the Moscow Wal-Mart, and you can even buy major appliances in it.
By the end of the trip,
Tuesday was amazing! This is the day Zoe and I took the train
to Edinburgh. Talk about a beautiful ride. I was like a kid looking n the
window of a candy shop, and kept on annoying Zoe with my “Ooo, look at that”
and “That is such an awesome view.” The countryside is just what I imagined,
and more. We got to Edinburgh around 230 and spent most of the day roaming
around town, looking at all of the shops (and stocking up on McLean Clan gear).
I even convinced Zoe to walk up the Scottish Monument with me. For £3, you
get to walk up a single, tiny stair case to four different levels. Mind you,
there is one stair case in and out, so you either have to squeeze by other
people or try and move up and down the levels with people coming from all
directions. But, by the time you get to the top, you get an amazing view of the
city. Definitely worth the money to go up!
Wednesday was the best day by far, however. This is because
we went to see Edinburgh Castle. It was a bit expensive to get in, £16,
but it was definitely worth the price. You get to see so many buildings from
the 16th century forward, and see the best views of the city. You also
get to stand within two feet of the Scottish Crown Jewels (but you don’t get to
take pictures of them, which kinda sucked…).
We also saw the American prison from the Revolution, which I thought was
kinda cool, especially when you read about how after the Revolution, they let
all the prisoners of war that had foreign nationalities other than American
free, but they kept the Americans for years because they didn’t want them to go
home and fight more.
Wednesday was also an exciting day because Jamie got to buy
her very first kilt! Basically, a girl’s kilt just looks like a mini skirt with
tartan colors, and isn’t anywhere near as cool looking as male kilts, but I was
still excited. The only problem I had was that no one stocked McLean tartan, so
if I wanted a kilts in my clan colors, I had to get it special ordered. In the
end, I just got the Pride of Scotland tartan, which is a cool mix of black and
purple.
And today, we did absolutely nothing except lay in bed and
watch T.V. until it was time to check out of our room and get our train. Quite
a nice, relaxing day, which is good cause I still feel slightly jet lagged,
although that could be all the running around and climbing hundreds of stairs
talking. And now, its naptime yet again, as we still have over an hour left on
our train ride!
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