Two Full Days

The last couple of days have been totally packed with activities, starting at 6am on Saturday when Stephanie and I got up to catch our 7:15 train to Edinburgh. We were going on an Arcadia-run day trip to the Borderlands. On our way from the Edinburgh Waverley train station to the Arcadia study center, Stephanie recognized a friend from her home university crossing the street, and at the same time, I saw that her friend was walking with my friend Moriah from Denison. It was so weird, but awesome, that they had happened to meet each other at St. Andrews and that we all happened to be going on the same day trip. The four of us ended up hanging out together in a group with another one of their friends from St. Andrews.

The tour consisted of riding around on a coach (we weren't supposed to call it a bus because it has seat belts), and our guide Gavin was the most entertaining tour guide ever. He was from Alloa, which is very close to Stirling, so he pretended to be offended that we hadn't been there.
Our first stop was at the Rosslyn Chapel, which was built in the 15th century. It's most famous for being featured in The Da Vinci Code, and for that reason, it became a major tourism spot right after the movie came out. The lady who gave us our tour of the chapel was really nice and knowledgeable. She said that there are meanings for all of the intricate carvings on the walls, but some of them are largely speculation because the records about their meanings were destroyed during the iconoclasm of the Protestant Reformation. Some of the carvings were even vandalized beyond recognition. It's still a really beautiful church though, and a lot of people have added things onto it and tried to restore it throughout its history. We were told that, before the restoration team sealed the walls with cement, they used to be a light shade of pink, which is the natural color of the sandstone in the Borderlands.

An example of the red fields we saw, which are so colored because of the sandstone that made the original  walls of the chapel pink (not my photo)

And the current inside of Rosslyn Chapel

And the outside

After visiting the chapel, we headed to Melrose, and I tried to take some pictures of the lovely scenery along the way.

Which was hard to do on the coach.

At Melrose, we saw the ruins of an old abbey. For ruins, they were still pretty amazing because of how huge they were.

People included for scale

The view from the top of the abbey

Walking back from the bathrooms actually provided the best view.

Melrose was a really cute little town. I bought a brie and cranberry sandwich there for lunch, which is apparently a very delicious Scottish thing. I also tried a lemon bar and a Booster candy bar, which has a really good crunchy chocolate center. My bottle of water was kind of funny because it was "tropical" flavored, but the brand was Purely Scottish Water. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think there's anything tropical about Scottish water.

On our way to Dryburgh Abbey, we stopped at the Leaderfoot Viaduct, which Gavin said is next to two other bridges. Moriah asked where they third bridge was, and he said we were standing on it. None of us had realized that, so we all felt kind of dumb.

Leaderfoot Viaduct: obviously a bridge

Dryburgh Abbey was another collection of ruins, but they were cool too. Sir Walter Scott's grave was the highlight there.

Scott's Grave

Dryburgh Abbey

The last stop was Scott's View, where Sir Walter Scott liked to go to be inspired. After his death, his horses still stopped automatically at the spot because they knew, out of habit, that he loved to stop there. It's really gorgeous, and there are no pictures that do it justice.

It was hard to take a good photo there because the vista was too huge to fit in the frame.

When we arrived back in Edinburgh, we all decided to hang out a bit before leaving the city. We stopped at an Indian restaurant for dinner, then at the Elephant House restaurant where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter and where I got some awesome shortbread (another famous Scottish thing). Finally we went to Whistlebinkies, which is a pub that has live music every night. They had a cool blues band, and it was super busy, so we had to sit at a table next to some crazy ladies having an awkward bachelorette party. 

We decided that we should meet up again later and visit each others' schools. I really want to see St. Andrews some weekend because they made it sound like so much fun.

The thing I want to see most is St. Andrews's beach. (not my photo)

On Sunday morning, I woke up and immediately wanted to go outside because I saw how blue the sky was. I was sad that I had reading to do instead, but then I found out that my flatmates were planning to go hiking in the massive hills around Stirling. I decided that I couldn't miss out on that, especially on such a beautiful day. Although it was really tiring, it was totally worth it to see the hills and the views from them. Everywhere I turned was a great photo opportunity, and I came away with a ton of pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

We got a little lost on our way back down the hills, but it allowed me to take some more great pictures. Also, my tennis shoes didn't have the best traction (although I avoided falling over!) and were totally muddy at the end, so I had to wash them in the shower. If I'm going to be doing any more hiking, I seriously need to get some hiking boots.

So now I'm taking a break from homework. I feel like I'm not very social because I'm always working on something instead of hanging out in the kitchen with everyone else. But I really need to focus on my reading, since I have the first meeting of two of my classes tomorrow, and I want to start off on the right foot. I did come in for Olivia's happy birthday song and cake, and then we watched a few episodes of Dr. Who, which is one of her favorite shows. 

It's been a great day, but I guess my punishment for not working during most of it is having to finish my reading instead of sleeping. Oh well.

Song of the Day (because of all the hiking):

P.S. Here are few corrections to my last posts: 

1) Monty Python was also partially filmed at Stalker Castle, not just Doune.

2) Princess Street is actually called Princes Street. I'd never actually seen it spelled out until my second time in Edinburgh, but they sound the same, don't they?