Adventures around Edinburgh and to North Berwick - March 5&6th

So I started this blog on Saturday.....

Yesterday was the end of another week, I can't believe it. They are going by so fast! Me and the group of girls that I am going on Spring Break with met a couple of times. We booked hostels and looked into places to go to while in Italy and Athens. It is so exciting! We are hoping to head to Mount Olympus and do a gondola ride in Venice!

A group of about 20 people from the castle did a house trip to London for the weekend (I'm going on the second trip later). I was looking forward to this because that meant I would get a weekend with just a little "me" time or with just a few less people around. Well I have enjoyed that time, but I did take some time out and venture around with a couple girls.
Kristen, Kari, and I went to Edinburgh in the afternoon just to wander around and see what we could see. We wanted to make our way to Arthur's Seat, though. We walked down the Royal Mile. I had never went down the mile. It was a lot quieter and less busy. We did find some souvenir shops and of course, we walked in to one where the guy decided to go off on us about how America doesn't have free health care - was quite interesting.
At the end of the Royal Mile was the Hollyrood palace. You had to pay to get in so we passed, but went into the Scottish Parliament building, which they spent 400 million pounds on. :O There was quite a bit of security to get through - like getting going through the airport again. Once inside though, you could see it was worth every pence! The place is huge! We even got to go in the debate chamber. When they built it, it was made to not have a bad seat in the place, which there isn't. We couldn't see many other places, but the building was magnificent from what we did see.
From there we headed to Arthur's Seat. We wanted to climb all the way to the top. There were a couple of different paths to choose from, so we just picked one that we saw people on, well it turns out that it just lead us to some knob. However we did get to take some pictures that had a great view of the city, of Calton Hill, and of some mountains. It was also great exercise!

So this is where I am starting my blog now on today, which is Sunda
On yesterday, Saturday, Kari, Kristen, and I decided to hit up the farmer's market in Edinburgh. It was a lot smaller than I had expected, wasn't even the size of the Eau Claire market. I was kind of disappointed, but there was a lot more meat and baked good products. It was surprising to find out that venison can be sold here. I really wanted to buy some, but I restrained myself knowing that I had nowhere to really keep it or anything to make with it. I tasted some oat bars that were delicious, so I did end up buying some of those. They are quite healthy and I figured they will be good snacks for this weekend.
On our walk to Waverly Train Station Kristin had the idea of stopping and getting crepes. I had never seen a real crepe made before. It is pretty cool. The batter is poured on to a round griddle and the man takes a tool and spreads it out in a circle. They were such a bad, delicious idea. ha. We all shared with each other. I got chocolate and marshmallows (only because they were out of apples and creme) Kristin got chocolate and bananas, and Kari got cinnamon and sugar.
Luckily we still had a wee walk to the train station! Around noon we headed out to New Berwick.(pronounced New Ba-dick - think of it with their accent)It was so a magnificent town! We walked down the main street to the Sea Bird Centre. But before we got there, we came across a craft sale in a church. The ladies had many, many cute items. I bought some home-made cards. Once on our way again we wanted to take a boat tour, but it was just a little too expensive for us. We walked out onto the rocks and took some amazing pictures. We then walked down the beach. There were quite a few people out because it was just such a beautiful day to be out! Words can literally not describe the views. There was a museum about the town and such, but when come to find out it was closed. Kari had mentioned that there was a great fish-n-chips place that she had went to with her host family. It sounded like a great idea after quite a bit of walking. After enjoying the fish we headed back down the main street to the train stop. Then last night I just uploaded a lot of pictures from the past two days.
Today Mac, our education director who is an older man, made us a feast for breakfast again! It consisted of eggs, waffles with walnuts in our syrup, mini doughnuts, ham, fried potatoes, cantaloupe, and strawberries. The most fresh fruit I have had besides apples and bananas. After breakfast I went to church at St. David's. One of the girls that I went with had met a couple of the ladies and afterwards we had tea and biscuits with them. It was so nice talking to them and just seeing everyone with their families. Then this afternoon I just did a lot of chumming around the castle and working on homework.
I am excited for next weekend because a group of about 15 of us is headed to Firbush Outdoor Centre that is owned by the University of Edinburgh. We get to do activities like hiking, cross country skiing, canoeing, kayaking, and biking. I can't wait to be in the country side again!
So look for another update next weekend! ttyfn.

Oh and I am trying to make photo albums on Picasa so if you see the smaller picture box that has a caption under it, click on it, it is a photo album, it also might be a slide show HOPEFULLY!