Adventures in Edinburgh (WIS 2012): St. Patrick's Day and Spring Break in Scotland!

Hiya! It's been a very typical 2 weeks. Last weekend was St. Patrick's Day which is also my friend Erin's birthday. The girls who were at the house (most of the people traveled to other countries to celebrate the holiday) tried to convince me to come drinking with them all weekend, but we had a big paper due on Monday for my Globalization class. I promised to go out on Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, to celebrate with them. Erin just wanted to go to a few pubs in Dalkeith so we went to Blacksmith's Forge and The Buccleuch. It was a fun time. Then on Sunday, Lael and I finished our papers and rewarded ourselves with ice cream. One day Kaylee and I went to the Edinburgh Harley Davidson shop, I was so proud of us when we found it all by ourselves!

The weather was really beautiful last weekend and this weekend, too. People started to leave on Wednesday for their spring break destinations. They're traveling all over Europe! There are people in Ireland, England, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Malta, America (Kaylee went home for the week) and even Egypt! There are also some of us who are waiting for our families to arrive in Edinburgh this weekend :) I'm just trying to pass the time until they're here. My friend Chelsea is still here waiting for her mom to come tomorrow so we've gone on a few adventures around Edinburgh.

Yesterday we went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant called "Pancho Villa's". I got tacos al pastor and it was ridiculously delicious! I'm definitely taking my family there! After that, we found the Writers Museum. It's so nice to hang out with people who are also English majors because they understand my nerdiness for books and stuff :) The Writers Museum is a tribute to Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Burns. They were all born in Edinburgh and are very celebrated even today. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote many stories including Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He definitely had the most interesting autobiography because he was sick all of his life, yet he travelled all over the world. He died in Samoa, and he is actually buried there. I bought a handful of postcards and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because I couldn't pass it up!

After the museum, we went to the National Library of Scotland. We weren't allowed to go into the actual library part because we didn't have library cards, so we looked at the shop and the exhibition. It looked more like a museum than a library. We decided to stop at the Elephant Cafe for some sweets. They had gluten free brownies :) It was so nice to spend a leisurely day walking around. We stopped at Waverly Station also so Chelsea could buy train tickets to London.

When we got back from Edinburgh, we had to get all gussied up because we got tickets to the play "Spamalot". It was showing at the Edinburgh Playhouse so we thought, "why not go?" We were very pleased with our decision because the play was hilarious! It was largely based off of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I didn't like the first time I watched it, but we watched it a few weeks ago here at the house and I absolutely loved it. I think since I'm in Britain, I'm in the British spirit :) I know I'm going to be really sad when I have to leave because I really love it here. It's like home now.

I will add more pictures in another post :)