Ten ~ Feb 25th

We headed off to the see Edinburgh Castle, unlike London & Paris there is no tube or metro so we were walking. While walking I asked Mimi to take this picture so I could show you our hotel. It is the building being partly covered by the pointy spires.

When I was in high school we watched a video about Ireland and in the video they talked about how when it is not raining hard there is just sort of a mist falling they don't call it raining, the call it a soft day. I stopped doing my hair for a couple reasons, first we thought the curling irons had broke but really they had just been turned to high to work in Europe. And Second because my hair curled all on its own, something that does not happen here in Arizona.

We got to the castle a few minuets before it opened and decided that the mist falling was not enough for an umbrella.

Chelsea & I waiting for the Castle to open.

I may be wrong but I think this part was a church at the Castle. It was hard to picture what the castle must have been like when it was in use. But it was beautiful & we had some of the men watching the crown jewels start teasing us pretending to call security because they did not like the way we were looking at the necklace. They also gave us some history of the jewels, Scotsmen are more friendly than Englishmen.


We then headed out to check out some of the shops we had passed the night before on Victoria Street.

One of the shops is called The Red Door, a cool shop that had a lot of local artist works. You can actually see the window display we saw on their blog here. (Debbie you need to see their blog) I had to look at everything in their shop.
Then we were off to find The Elephant Cafe where Jo went to write Harry Potter.

This is the view we saw as we ate our lunch, does the castle remind you of Hogwarts, Harry Potter fans? Also this place was playing good music as well all stuff I had on my ipod.

After lunch we headed over to the National Museum of Scotland which the nice men from the Castle informed us was free and warm. After walking all over town looking for the Elephant Cafe I was ready to rest my feet so after the first floor I sat and rested in the museum. We then decided to go to Jenners the department store right across the street from our hotel, it has been there since 1838. It is known as the Harrods of the North. We could see it had a cafe from our window so we decided to go there and hang out while we waited for our train. I am sad it was so cold and we were so tired there are other things I would have liked to do. Like walk through the park & cemetery but being cold & tired will move you in doors.
It was more of a tea room but I got a croissant to snack on while we sat and relaxed. I saw the old man just waiting to pounce as soon as we were settled and as soon as Chelsea was seated he began talking to her. I couldn't hear all the conversation but I know he discussed America, the President, past world wars & Scotland. He was a very sweet old man.

For my Twilight Friends:
I guess I am not that observant because I missed the double decker with the wolf pack on in London. We also saw a couple of Bella Italia's one in London & one in Scotland. See the little sign in the top right corner.



We also saw some books on display in Scotland.


The night before when we were walking around I guess Chelsea had seen a few people walking around dressed like vampires. And said something about seeing a lot of vampires. I think I was looking at the buildings so I asked "where is a vampire" then oh there he was walking right towards me. Yep he totally heard me. That is one thing I learned about myself on this trip, I am a lot louder person than I thought.
The next morning when we got to the castle I pointed to the Volvo and said to Mimi "isn't it sweet that Edward followed us to Scotland." He probably wanted to protect us from the other vampires we saw the night before.

Nine ~ Feb 24th

We left Paris that morning and took a train to London & headed over to Kings Cross Station for our train to Edinburgh Scotland. Where we found the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4.

In Paris I bought some mini macaroons, then on the train they had these little mini cans, in case you couldn't guess I like mini things.

When we got to Scotland it was VERY cold but thankfully our hotel was just across the street on Princess street. Actually after we got off the train we found the exit to the street, it was a whole of stairs. We were looking at the stairs & Mimi was saying no way, when a girl with pink hair came up to us and said "ok here is the deal you need to take the lift up cross over the tracks take another lift down then there is a ramp." There were really just nice people everywhere we went.

See my princess bed.

We were so happy to be back in a nice hotel with our awesome view & heated towel rack. We rested for a bit, watched part of a Marilyn Monroe movie, Let's Make Love before going out.

We freshened up and were ready to hit the town. This is what we saw as we walked out of our hotel. The lights & the mist were just magical.

Notice the building that says The Scotsman,

I would like to take a moment to give a shout out to some of my favorite Scotsmen.






Chelsea kept trying to take pictures to twitter but said none of them showed how awesome it actually was. The below picture comes the closest to how crazy awesome Edinburgh was.

Here is a cool little alley way.One of the things on our list to do was eat at a pub, Mimi read about this one in Chelsea's book. It is called The Last Drop, it is suppose to be haunted because it is across from where the gallows use to be. The only thing it was haunted by was a cute waiter, good music, good food & a drink called Pooh Bear which Mimi adored (don't worry it was only steamed milk with honey & cinnamon, Imight be wrong about the cinnamon maybe it was nutmeg.

When going up the stairs Mimi said look Scottish chairs, so I ran and sat down in the Scottish chair so she could get a picture of me in it.

Chelsea told us to hurry because the lift was coming, all the lifts were small we could never fit all three of us with all three of our bags in one. Thankfully we didn't have any bags this trip up.

Do you see how pink my cheeks are, that is how cold it was outside.

When we got back to the room I closed the curtains to the window by my bed then went into the little nook it made and sat behind the curtain with my pillow looked out the window at the castle & wrote in my journal while listening to Travis.

Europe Countdown

We leave for London in a week!!!
I was thinking about how at comic con I ran into an Irish boy and batted my eyes at him & how I think I am going to be doing a lot of eye blinking next week. This should make Mimi happy because she seems to think I blink like Zooey or at least how Summer does in that scene about the Summer effect in 500 Days of Summer.

First up is London
Then we are off to Paris

Then we head over to be sucked into a Scottish Vacuum of Charm

Man it doesn't even seem real.