Scotland Adventure!

So, I only had a phone camera with me in London, and thus have no pictures of riding the London Eye, or of visiting the Tower of London with Taryn, or of eating a ridiculously giant hamburger at Garfunkel's, or of the two girls in pink dragon pajamas chillaxing on Leicester Square. Which is SAD. But I met up with my older brother and cousin after London, and Brother had a new camera and was snapping photos all over the place, and I stole them, so woo.

Also, I passed my tests! :D I'm in the film music program, going to be a student for a while longer. Really happy about that. Thank you, faculty, for deeming me worthy.

ANYWAY, pictures:

Big Ben. The person in the hoody up front is named Barnabas, and Barnabas is very serious. Actually, I don't know who the person in the hoody is. . .

The coolest lampposts OF ALL TIME. Look at that crazy fish.

I like how politely the signs warn you of your possible death.

We were at Buckingham Palace just in time for a parade by the British marine veterans.

Castle in Yorkshire. Secretly a Best Western hotel. We had a room in that round tower and ate Chinese take-out while watching the worst Schwarzenegger movie ever made, ya know, AS one does when in a castle in Yorkshire.

This is Hadrian's Wall. Brother had us pose: Cousin was supposed to be the fearsome Scotch, and I was supposed to be the frightened Englishman, except I look a bit skeptical of the Scotch's efforts.

The Sea, the Sea.

Edinburghhhhh. I love this city so much. It's right up there with Prague now, I think. Also, people are all like, "You aw 'ight?" by way of greeting, which always made me like, "Ummm, I thought so, but now I'm no longer sure."

More Edinburghhhh. All the buildings are very sooty, which makes it feel historically accurate.

The Edinburgh Dungeon. It's basically a spook house; they herd you past historically-garbed actors and sets and tell you creepy stories, and you get to ride a boat in pitch-darkness. It's mostly interesting, sometimes funny, except at one point there was a mock witch trial and the judge pulled a certain Lesley from San Francisco out of the audience to stand in for the witch, and called on the other visitors to boo her, which almost everyone did with great gusto. I thought that was mean and unfunny and crowd mentality at its lamest, and did not approve, so there.

I didn't have 30 pounnnnnd with me, so alas I will never have a lord and lady title.

I thought this said "Cafè Nerd".

So, if you're a really, really good writer, people will build a 300 ft. monument in the middle of Edinburgh after you die. (This is the Sir Walter Scott monument.)

We climbed said monument. Looked down. Watched folk unrolling a lawn.

This cheery little shop is where you supply yourself with ELEPHANTS and BAGELS! :D Apparently.

At the top of this hill called The Law somewhere in Scotland. It was so windy. You could literally lean straight forward, and the wind would hold you up.

The view from our hotel room in a little town, in the middle of a dark wood, somewhere in Scotland. According to the concierge, Queen Victoria stayed in the room next to ours. Wikipedia says he DOES NOT LIE.

Cool avenue leading up to a big manor that we didn't go inside, because we're cheap.

ME. AND LOCH NESS. AND LIKE RIGHT BEHIND ME WAS NESSIE, PEEKING OUT OF THE WATER, because why not, how do you know?

We were on this creepy gravel road after ignoring fifty bajillion "Do-not-drive-on-this-road-or-we-will-shoot-you-with-cannons" signs, and we were being total illegal rebels and peering into the deep, dense woods and wondering if cannibals lived there. Annnd yeah, that's the story behind this picture.

Favorite food discoveries:

Tea Cakes

You can get things *like* this in the US and Switzerland, but the UK ones have some sort of cookie base and they're amazinnnnngah.

Candy Bar Milk

This is basically a candy bar in a bottle. It's super healthy. xD I got the Snickers version, but was dumb and didn't take a picture, so all I can show you is the Mars stuff.

Crayfish

Mmmm, don't those look delicious? . . . No. And now that I've googled them I'm a little bit grossed out. Seriously, look at the one at the top-center and tell me that isn't the most disgusting thing you've ever seen. But I had them in a garlic lemon pasta above a pub in Edinburgh and they were the best.

And that was that! I had a great trip. Really happy I got to go. Next place on my list of places to visit is Versailles and Venice. Hopefully this summer sometime.

Bye. :)