Ed-in-burr-uh (Edinburgh for all you Americans)

Well, it is officially October! My favorite month (this is Lauren by the way). We are currently on a train traveling from Edinburgh, Scotland to Birmingham, England. We are sharing car B with a lot of native Scotsmen and their dogs. Apparently sheep dogs are allowed on UK trains...go figure.
So, here's what happened yesterday. After a PHENOMENAL day and night in Ireland, we woke up (ang woke up, I never slept) grumpy and tired. Turns out we booked a flight on Obnoxious Airlines, aka Ryanair. Loudest, craziest Irish plane in the world. When we got to Edinburgh, I'm sad to say our sour disposition continued until Angela's wonderful friend Anna let us take a nap in her flat. After a 4 hour nap we were new women!
Anna took us on a fantastic walk through Edinburgh University. It was uncommonly hot and sunny so people were out everywhere enjoying the weather. One Scottish woman referred to the day as "scorching", while to ang and I it felt like a crisp mid October day. We walked all along the charming shops and pubs and made our way up to Edinburgh Castle. It was closed, but gorgeous! Nestled on top of a rocky cliff overlooking the city.

We then took a historical tour of the old underground city of Edinburgh called Mary King's Close. Long ago this was a normal city street where people lived and worked, but 300ish years ago the city of Edinburgh built the current city on top of the old one. In doing so they evicted all the residents and closed up the old streets forever, making it as if they were never there. Now what is left is a very spooky, underground city full of creepy, dusty, dark, empty rooms where families lived. The black plague and the bubonic plague tore through Mary King's Close and all of Edinburgh, killing 1/3 of the population. Mary King's Close was hit harder than anywhere else in the city due to it's high density population.
The tour was awesome, and the tour guide was hilarious. She kept trying to scare everyone in the tour with loud noises and jumping from behind walls, needless to say she succeeded and ang and I were constantly spooked (I was the real baby, grabbing onto Angela every time I heard a noise).
We then had dinner with one of anna's flatmates, Ian. We ate at a pub/club called Frankensteins.  Then we had a drink at the Edinburgh University student union (they have bars ON campus! When the bouncer saw we were from Texas he let me know how ridiculous we are for not having alcohol on our campuses. I explained we could have them for tailgating before football games, but he still thought it was "rubbish").

Things we learned about Edinburgh, and ourselves:
1. Angela CAN get embarrassed! We went to a cafe called The Elephant House, which is where JK Rowling, inspired by the beautiful view of Edinburgh castle, first thought up Harry Potter. Needless to say I behaved like a starstruck teenager, wanting pictures from every angle and even borrowing a waitresses pen to pretend like we were writing on napkins. Apparently this is not cool...

2. Anthropology Majors are the BEST tour guides! Thank you so much Anna, Ian and Beverly! We learned so much from y'all and had an amazing time.
3. Scottish and Irish people are the nicest people in the world! Always helping us out even when we don't ask for it (shout out to the old couple on the bus who basically walked us to the train station).
4. We don't know anything about our own country. These people are so educated in politics and history, I'm almost ashamed of how little I've retained from my years as a student.

Ok, well ang and I are feeling a bit train sick, so we're going now. Next stop, Birmingham train station where my dear friends the Dencers are picking us up, and then off to Warwick! So very excited to see everyone!!

Love to all, and may the good Lord keep you in the hollow of His hand (Irish saying),
Lauren & Angela