Throughout the trip so far, we have had to misfortune to ride on some buses that could barely carry all of our passengers, let alone our luggage. We assumed it would be the same scenario on our short ride from our hotel in Manchester to the airport. However, when we dragged ourselves and our belongings out to the bus in the morning, we saw the equivalent of a five-star hotel in bus form parked before us. There were two levels and tables with the chairs. It suddenly seemed a little silly that we were taking a plane to Edinburgh when we had this valiant coach that could more than hold all of us and our belongings. I’m sure that the tour company had a good reason for this choice but I couldn’t help but think back to the previous long bus rides we had already taken on the trip, and how much I would have preferred another long bus ride on this ginormous bus to a short airplane ride with the hassle of security. But nonetheless, the tickets had been purchased and so we had no choice. Off to the airport we went.
Once we got to the airport, I was willing to give the bus driver any currency I had in my wallet to drive us to Edinburgh. The security was absolute chaos. It seemed like every person either got frisked or pulled out of security to be questioned by officers. Most of our group was held back for at least five to ten minutes each to be questioned about something in their carry-on. By the time a solid group of us got through security, we couldn’t see any of our professors and we were unsure what to do next. We then found out our gate number hadn’t been released yet. So, we decided to go to the general area of the airport and find some food while we waited for our gate. Apparently everyone else had the same idea because the common seating area was absolutely packed. There were barely any empty seats. I wasn’t feeling very good when I woke up that morning and the tight space and warmth wasn’t making it much better. After a very uncomfortable wait, our gate was finally released and we made our way to our gate and eventually to our plane.
Once we landed in Edinburgh (probably around the same time that we would have gotten there if we took the bus, but that’s neither here nor there) we took a bus directly to our hotel and checked in. This was the hotel I was most looking forward to on the trip and I was not disappointed– it was absolutely adorable. Although our rooms were very tiny, they were decorated in the most adorable way and the showers were very nice. We had a small amount of time to relax before we had to head down for our next activity.
Edinburgh Castle, the next spot on our itinerary, was absolutely amazing. Not quite sure why there were approximately 75,000 stairs to get to the base of the castle, but the view was amazing. Unfortunately, I was still feeling a little under the weather, and so I had to sit down for most of our visit to the castle. Jan got me medicine and bread from the cafe (thanks Jan!) and David and Robin chilled with me to make sure I was okay. I felt a little better and I was able to go on the walking tour after the visit to the castle.
On the tour, we saw some things that made me love Edinburgh more and more with every stop on the tour. I saw a sign for Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland and coincidentally someone that has the same name as my dad. My dad had asked me to find a sign that had his and the poet’s name on it and take a picture for him. We also saw the street where J.K. Rowling got the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books. As someone that loves the Harry Potter series and binged all of the books in seventh grade to get through the nightmare that is middle school, this was a really cool moment for me. As I mentioned in the Beatles tour entry, I love seeing where ideas for influential art begin. This was a very special moment for current and childhood Mya.
Our dinner that night was a group dinner at an Italian restaurant very close to our hotel. After a day of walking, this short trip was very welcome. My pizza margherita was delicious and with a full tummy and feet that were very worn out, I went to bed that night ready for a day of media visits the next day.