Scotland

I'm on the train passing the coast and eating a yummy ummy scone with strawberry jam and clotted cream. Hello deliciousness.

Edinburgh is just plain sweet.

When we got there on Monday we headed straight to Edinburgh Castle. There was a butt load of wax figures, and they creeped me out like nobody's business.

 This one was by far the worst. This dude fought with his baby in a bag on his side. I couldn't decide who was creepier though, the father or the baby with the water enlarged head.

Tuesday we had the day to ourselves. It was simply superb. The sun was shining and we went out to conquer the city. After a tid bit of shopping and me agonizing over two dresses that I fell in love with (I may get one at home in London...), we were off to the National Gallery. (Did you really expect me to go to anything other than an art museum?) And as usual the Impressionist gallery was my favorite, but they also had some Romantic marble statues that I fell in love with.

"The Wave" (by Courbet) reminded me of "The Great Wave off Kanagwa", which is my favorite woodblock print. 

 We had lunch at the cafe at the museum. I've found that I love eating at the museums, the food is usually really good and not campy like it sometimes is in the States.

After the Gallery, we were off to the Royal Botanical Gardens. It was the perfect day to go. The sun was shining and we took a small nap on one of the grass areas.

This old fashioned green house reminded me of Miss Rumphius.

That night we hung out at the lounge in the hostel (which was crazy nice and had better showers than the center...) and tried to avoid being hit on by the group of French boys playing billiards...

This morning I hiked King Arthur's Seat. It had been raining all morning, so I was slightly scared that I wouldn't be able to see anything.Thankfully it was clear. It was so beautiful. You could see all the way to the North Sea and all of Edinburgh.

We booked it down the slippery rocks and past the leech slugs to the parliament building where we got a tour. After all of the classic buildings we've seen I found the building slightly ugly and too modern for my taste, but from the sounds of it a lot of the MSP's hate the building as well.