"No Dancing"

"No dancing", that was the phrase I heard the most yesterday. What can I say, I was in a danc-y mood and Brandon would have none of it. But yeah...yesterday was an adventure and a half, lemme tell you:

First, alarm clocks suck ass and never work when you need them to. Nevertheless, we managed to be just on time for the train rather than the 15 min early we planned on. It was a pretty long train ride to Scotland, full of sleep, and eventually a whole car full of girls going out for a "hen party" which is the English equivalent of a Bachelorette party. I was stuck in a car with almost literal barbie dolls. They were almost all blond, and the one across from that talked to me was even wearing giant pink accessories!! A belt, a bracelet, hoop earings, and she was constantly applying perfume and lip gloss. Oh my GOD!!! It was okay overall though, she was very nice and talked to me about travelling and such. Anyways...on to the big event!

Scotland we weren't in the country 10 min and I can safely say that I am absolutely one hundred percent, totally and completely in LOVE with Scotland!! I am most definitely going back there for my last week overseas, Ireland will have to wait. It was so beautiful, so green, so everything I ever dreamed it should be like over here. The entrie center part of the city of Edinburgh, which is dominated by the castle which is up on a hill, is old style brick buildings, cobblestone streets, green parks and walkways, bridges and the like. In London the new and the old have started to mix together everywhere, but Edinburgh is mostly the old, with some new appliances and stuff on the ground floors. I think I took over 100 pics just in Scotland. We went for lunch at this little pub, which was awesome (for the record, when you order lemonade over here, they give you sprite with lemon in it) then we did some shopping. I finally got something for Dad!! Can ya guess what it was given where I was??? Huh??? Lets just say I found to coolest little "variety pack" that will put him in the lead over Dave for their "collection", if not for what kind it is, but at least for where it came from!! Mom, I got some traditional Scottish cookbooks, they look very spiffy. I got myself a pocket map book so that I can figure out where I'm going when I go back there later. I even found something there for Cole!! Be excited Cole, not everyone is getting touristy items, and this was just totally perfect for you!!

So we toured around Edinburgh for the day, and everything was wonderful. We saw the castle, drove all around the city, took lots of pics, toured the dungeons (which were similar to the ones in England, but with some of their own unique torture methods and such), and saw the best name for a store ever!! I hav e a pic, will show it to you all when I get home...plus I can't remember the name right now...am still exhausted from yesterday. When I go back, I am so touring the children's toy museum!! I wanted to when we were there, but we didn't arrive until just before noon and had to be at the train station by just after 5.

Onwards!! The train ride home...at first I thought it was going to be the longest trip ever, and it was!! But not at all the way I expected it to be. At first our train car was full of all these rowdy Scotsmen who were kinda rude to a group of special needs adults who had been on tour in Edinburgh. There was confusion in the seating in the train, and a bunch of people had been double booked in the same seats, while a bunch of other seats had no bookings. It eventually got worked out, but the Scots didn't want to move from their comfy table seats, though they had been reserved for the special needs group. Anyways, that whole thing made me a bit grumpy, plus I was tired from the very very long day. So the Scots continued to be rowdy for the trip. For all of you who have seen Robin Williams' Live on Broadway, he was definitley NOT exaggerating in the least in his impersonation of a drunk Scot telling a story. I shall choose not to repeat most of the language they were using, and the swear words were generally the only ones you could pick out. However, about an hour, maybe and hour and a half into our journey our train stopped. Apparently there was a problem with the brakes...THEY WERE STUCK ON!! And get this, no one on our train knew how to fix the problem!! We were stuck there for like 2 and a half hours wiaiting for a guy to arrive from another train to come and fix the problem. Hell and a half....but thennnnnnnnnnnnnnn.............................................................The Scots picked up the mood in the train. They started...get this...singing!!! A train load of drunk Scots singing the most ludicrous songs, it was like our own personal radio station. They sang everything like "I would walk 1000 miles" "American Pie" "Yellow Submarine" "My Ding-a-ling" and countless others. It was so hilarious!! I got some of it on video camera and Brandon had threatened to put it on YouTube when we get back. After all the singing, some of the guys started talking to us and one of the Scots had been to Prince George!! Of all the random places in all the world, he got sent to PG to fix ATM machines!! He knew where I lived!! So weird, and cool. Then a younger guy started talking to us and filled us in on some Scottish slang...new favourite inappropriate thing to shout out at a bar "Get your tits out!!" Imagine that with a Scottish accent!! Could not stop laughing. They were all great, and they encouraged everyone to sing and be merry, so they more than made up for their earlier rudeness. Apparenlty this group of guys (there were like 12 or 14 of them) go on a guys weekend at least once or twice a year, and this weekend they're going to Newcastle. By the time they got off the train we all felt like pals. Several of them shook hands while they left, and the one guy who knew good old PG shook my hand and gave me a kiss on the cheek! Such a cute old guy, he was so excited over that random coincidence.

Wow, this has been a long post...sorry guys...but Scotland was by far one of the best days I've had so far! I am definitely going back!! So the phrases of the day were "No dancing" and "Get your tits out" - oh my...weird. The rest of my day today will be spent organizing what's left of my time in London. Booking my little tour days, seeing what days I'll go to the Globe, and I may even mail a bunch of stuff home so that I'll have room to repack my stuff when I come back. Love and miss you all, thanks so much for your comments, they make my day every day!!

Hugs from Scotland's #1 fan!!
xox Mel