July 5th - Caledonia and the North!

In my title I mention Caledonia. For those whom are curious, Caledonia is another name for Scotland. According to Wikipedia, "Caledonia is a historical description of Northern Britain during the Roman Era pr as a romantic or poetic name for Scotland as a whole." (yes Romes at some point went into the UK and did what they did best: conquer.) Anyways, I may refer to Scotland as Caledonia in my blog because Caledonia DOES sound much more romantic than Scotland, so hopefully this blog isn't too confusing. 

Weather wise: cloudy with a hint of drizzle.

Morning involved hectic rushing to eat breakfast, double check that I packed everything, and get all of my luggage (2 totem bags and a backpack) to the back of King's College all before 9AM. Heavy luggage + short girl walking for .4 miles still = tiring. It doesn't help that I'm still weary from walking everywhere from prior days.

Anyways after that, I went to find bus 3 and to my relief and surprise I found out that Jason was on the same bus as me so he sat next to me. 

Because there are over 200 students, there are 8-9 buses. Since 200 + students is quite a lot of students, PKP has 2 different routes for Scotland. One route involves stopping by and seeing Fountain Abbey today before arriving at Scotland, and stopping by Richmond when coming back.  The other route is the exact opposite, and I was in this latter. 

Like many travelers, I was so excited that I got caught up trying to document everything.  Case and point?  I tried to get a picture of grassy scenery.

Ok bad photo but... It's soo luscious and green!

One thing I've noticed is that when you're traveling in England via bus, most of the routes don't involve seeing ugly freeways like those in America. Instead you're surrounded by gorgeous green trees and grassy green pastures.

Pit stops! There will always be someone whom wants to use the latrine or loo, so yes there were many pit stops. At the pit stops there are always some fast food restaurants, and a mini market (i.e. Tesco or Sainsburry).

Entrance with a bunch of PKPers.

Bus seat buddies!

Okay, so later we finally arrived at Richmond. Jason and I passed by a Fish and Chips specialty store, and decided to go see Richmond Castle first before getting their awesome Fish and Chips! 
 
It's been a long time since I saw a castle, so my first impression when I saw the castle was OH MY GOD I'M IN A MEDIEVAL FAIRYTALE! Seriously, Richmond Castle is HUGE and breathtakingly stunning. For those whom are picturing this, imagine a gigantic stone castle surrounded by a stone fortress overlooking cluttered houses in streets paved in cobblestone. Luckily PKP students didn't have to pay for the 5 pound admission to enter the castle. 

(next paragraph about the castle can be completely ignored if you don't like exaggerated purple prose and fantasy stories.)
 
In the castle, we ran into Katharine and proceeded to conquer the mighty castle!- I mean explore. Explore the castle. Our adventures began by entering the grassy green courtyard......through tiny stone archways...pass the narrow walls around the corner what did we spy? Treasure? The Holy grail? No- just an enclosed dead end. And turn back we did, and climbed stairs....and as our heroes journeyed to the top they landed in the attic where they found the book: A history of conquerors and weaponry past. Once they mastered the skills they could, our heroes carried on till they reached the top. There they saw the city from afar with its magnificent view! And there they stopped- realizing a journey began anew. 

Our heroes as they began their journey.

Entrapped in tiny spaces and dead ends, slowly our heroine Tina begins to lose her mind.

The skills they learned.

Mind your head! Luckily our heroine Katharine is short enough to go through the archway without a problem. Jason on the other hand.....

The magnificent view of Richmond our heroes saw from the top of Richmond Castle.

After the epic journey, I ended up falling asleep in the bus till we reached University of Edinburgh. After settling in, I proceeded to get dinner with my friends and discuss what we were going to do etc. At 7 o'clock, I met up with a few friends and PKP staff, walked down the hills and streets and began exploring Edinburgh.  We went to a pub called The Blind Poet and my friend Sesenu bought a pitcher of Pimm's Punch. Oh my god. Best alcoholic drink ever. We walked around the cities and later some of us opted out to get some sleep, while me, Katharine, Jason and John ended up exploring Edinburgh a little bit longer. 

Entrance to this awesome pub.

 

 

 

Sesenu pouring Pimms Punch.

 

US has Starbucks, Here in the UK they have a gigantic cup of Costa Express.

Anyways, I'm not a huge fan of horror, and was terrified of going on a haunted night tour of Edinburgh; however, since my friends really wanted to go I ended up going, and John paid 10-15 pounds for my experience. Thanks John! At least it comes with a mixed vodka cocktail? Anyways the tour guide and the walking tour was eerie and creepy. We entered catacombs underground, a museum of torture weapons, and other places (The Mercat Cross - where announcements were read and people were publicly shamed etc.) At some point of the tour the tourguide told us if we were paranoid and superstitious we could spit on some stone as to avoid ghosts following us back....I freaked out so I ended up spitting on the stone. Gross, I know and Too much information!

So interesting facts I learned about dreary depressing Edinburgh:
1. If you were pregnant and did not notify the authorities you could be hung.
2. People all crowded together underground to attempt to escape authorities and the lack of sanitation seriously did not help. 
3. The maiden...they're not referring to a young bonnie lassie (young pretty woman.) They're referring to an earlier form of a guillotine. 

This is a maiden.

So after the tour we ended up going to a pub called the Banshee Labyrinth and getting our vodka drinks. Vodka and coke is actually pretty good. We danced to dubstep and heavy metal, and I ended up teaching Jason and Katharine how to do the Pandanggo Saw Ilaw (Filipino candle dance) hand movements with our glasses. After that we pub hopped, and walked in and out of a few clubs. As we walked back it we sang Journey's "Just a Small town girl" and Beatles's "Let it Be."  By the time we got back it was wet and rainy on 4AM, July 6th. Wow what a first day, I'm so exhausted that I'm going to need a whole day week to recover from this.  

Until next time, Cheers!

Tina