Castle and Museum -- boo yea!

Our itinerary today seemed impossibly long, but we managed it all!

After breakfast, Lindsay and Sam had to go to the Society Fair for all the clubs and organizations for Edinburgh University—and I had to tag along. Not “had too,” really, because it was actually a lot of fun: there were more than a few clubs I wanted to join, so I hope they have similar things in Aberdeen, or at least that they let me attend some of their functions! Most clubs require fees for membership, unfortunately (totally foreign to me), so it makes you really pick and choose which ones you want to join.

This took most of the morning, after which Sam had some function to go to during which Lindsay and I sat at The Elephant House with coffee and a brownie to await her return. After this break, it was more walking: to the National Scottish Museum!

It’s a fabulous museum, and absolutely free to get in! We walked through the natural history section, prehistoric Celts, Romans, Vikings, medieval and Renaissance. Of course my camera battery, with all the pictures I was taking, dropped out on my right before we got to the medieval section, so I failed to get a picture of this—not kidding—eight-foot sword. I know no one will believe me until I get a picture, but museum entrance is free, so I’ll be back! One of the tour guide/museum helpers there gave us a talk through prehistoric man, and he had one of the thickest accents we have encountered yet. He was really old and sweet, and I think I understood most of what he said. But it doesn’t help that the people with thicker accents don’t even talk loud. (Whoever makes fun of Americans for speaking loudly and slowly and clearly to foreigners is a moron, and has clearly never been a foreigner. It’s not condescending: it totally helps.)

After the museum (and a quick stop for more batteries!) we walked to Edinburgh Castle! It was gorgeous. Lindsay and I both bought the year membership, which was only 17 pounds more than one day’s entrance fee, and we get to return for free to not only Edinburgh Castle whenever we wish, but also almost any other castle in Scotland (and ½ off of the others)! You can see from the pictures that the castle was amazing! It has four or five museum exhibits, including the crown jewels and—my favorite—a carving on a door in the Edinburgh prison from an American Revolution POW who drew a ship flying the American flag! Don’t Tread On Me! Yeah!

This doesn’t include a few stopoffs errands such as the bookstore (where I saw Terry Pratchett books, but my camera’s battery had died so I couldn’t take pictures—bring extra suitcases, Nate and Bethy!) and the dollar-store so Sam could (try to) return some curtains she had bought for her dorm room.

By the time I got back to Lindsay’s dorm around 7pm, we were all bushed! Sleep might be all that’s on the agenda for tonight…

Love & prayers to you all,

Megan

PS: Oh! Something random and funny that I’ve picked up on here that y’all might find diverting:

Okay, seriously, the driving on the left side of the road screws with people’s brains. When walking down the street, if you meet someone walking toward you, they naturally veer to the left. Me, wanting to go the right direction, end up running into them!

this last picture is the American POW's carving...it's a ship, with the US flag sorta sticking out the left side.