A Visit To Scotland

Some friends and I traveled to Scotland last weekend! It was beautiful! Edinburgh was very similar to Dublin with a big city feel about it. And yes, they diffenitely played up the plaid skirts and bagpipes thing. We saw about 5 different guys just hanging out in the streets playing there bagpipes in full Scottish attire- kilt and all. It was great. We finally made it to our hostel after getting off the one hour flight from Dublin, changing all of our euros to pounds, and dragging out suitcases through town. On our first night we went to the three sisters bar which was a lot of fun. Met some cool people (that were drinking out of sand pals?). In the morning we visited the Edinburgh castle:

Here is our group on the castle grounds. A great view of Scotland in the background. From the left: Chelsea, Becca, Alex, Vanessa, and me. Below is the first panorama I've ever made of photoshop. 

Beautiful! It rained all morning so I was really excited when it finally cleared up enough to get this shot. We also visited the Holyrood house which is where the queen of England stays when she and the prince visit Scotland! On Sunday we went to Roselyn which is where the Holy Grail was discovered in Da Vinci Code! Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures inside. After that we climbed this really tall tower that is right by city centre. It was a small tower with what seemed like a never ending spiral staircase. And what worse, the stairs got skinnier and skinnier as we ascended. Here are a few pics:

This is the tower

 

Now, back to work in Galway. It is finals week!!! I have already had one paper due and two presentations. Now I have an 8 page paper in Irish Myth and an exam in Irish Literature still to go. All done by tomorrow though. I am going to enjoy my last two nights in Galway and then its back to Dublin to catch a plain to HOME SWEET HOME!! =]