Taylors Take on Edinburgh!

Today Taylor and I ventured to Scotland's capital, Edinburgh!

I have been a few times before already but when you're in Scotland, it's one of those places that you have to see.

It is a very old and beautiful city, full of greenery, old buildings/architecture and tourists!
First thing we did was check out the National Art Gallery, which is full of HUGE paintings, some good, some not entirely good but still worth looking at.

Next we ventured up The Mound and The Royal Mile towards the castle. We started to stop at every souvenir shop on our way up, but decided after a few that it would be a good idea to hit them up after the castle so if we bought anything we wouldn't have to carry it. We also took a few fantastic pictures in the mirrors at the Illusion House.

That eyebrow though...

"And beeeeend...and snap!"
[Legally Blonde]

How many Taylors is too many?
The answer is: you can never have too many
Taylors :)

aaaaand my head is gone.
Tall people problems.

Short for once in my life.
I'm a little teapot...short and stout.

It was a blustery, foggy, cloudy day in Glasgow/Edinburgh but we managed to get through the castle before the rain started so we were really fortunate in that sense.

Look at that pretty lady :)

The castle is a very cool place, it's very big and well maintained. I don't have a lot of pictures from today, mostly just pictures of Taylor being a tourist and enjoying the history and awesomeness that is Edinburgh Castle.

Classic tourist 

Taylor is actually in this picture in the right side but you can't see her.

Love this. My fantastic photography skills.

Military Prison doors were made for Taylor, clearly. 

McCreadie! Back in the day before our last name changed
to ending in a Y!

Taylor & Mons Meg.

A grand old lady.

My bff. :)

And that's all she wrote.

Just kidding. On our way out it began raining a lot. Not quite a downpour but more than a drizzle. It was gross. We hit up the souvenir shops (all of them) on the way back down the Mile eventually stopping for dinner. And a very traditional Scottish dinner it was!

Taylor's bangers and mash ->












<- My Haggis, Neeps & Tatties








So after dinner it was very miserable out and we headed back for the train station! Stopping at just one more souvenir store beside the train station and getting some tea from Starbucks.

It was a really good day overall despite the weather but that's all part of the Scottish experience! We had a great time (like we always do) and enjoyed the travels, even if it was only an hour expedition by train. :)

Next we are headed to beautiful Croatia Tuesday morning till Friday and a Highland trip on Saturday! Busy, busy, exciting week ahead! Can't even wait!

Stay tuned friends!

T.

London with the Bestie!

So last Tuesday morning my BFF in the whole world Taylor flew into Glasgow for a nice 3 week visit!
No sooner was she off the plane than we were on an overnight bus to London for a couple days! The bus is about 8 hours long and we arrived (without so much as a wink of sleep) at London Victoria Coach station at 6:40am.  We stopped at a nearby Cafe Nero and sat and had breakfast for a little while before heading on our way.

We walked about 10 minutes before coming to the palace. There wasn't a lot of people since it was so early so it was good time and good weather to take lots of pictures. The changing of the guard was scheduled to happen at 11:30. We decided it would be a cool thing to experience, which gave us a little more than 2 hours to kill. We ended up walking around the large park right beside it, talking and taking pictures and eventually sitting for a bit to recouperate and enjoy the warm sun. When we returned to Buckingham Palace it was a zoo, and continued to grow while we sat on the steps waiting for the guard. The Metropolitan police were kindly going around and telling tourist to keep an eye on their bags and to beware of pickpocketers that frequent the event.

We were kind of far back to really see and know what was going on. We just heard bagpipes from the marching band and saw a bunch of guards walking back and forth a lot. We ended up walking across the park again to Costa Coffee quickly and back one more time to head for Westminister -- good thing we like to walk. Incase you're not entirely aware - Big Ben, Westminister and the London Eye are all in the same area so you get to one and you can see them all.

 Anyways we headed there and took some pictures and did the touristy thing before meeting up with Kelly (who I had met through Amanda) and her friend O'Shieve. We ended up walking to the Boroughs Market which had all sorta of different stalls with lots of food and free samples. Taylor ended up trying wild boar pepperette type thing (which more or less tasted like salami) and then we all enjoyed some sangria.  Next we took the tube (or underground) to Camden where there was another market - like a flea market. Which was very cool, you could find everything there and it was huge. We wandered about, I bought my souvenir London bottle opener, Taylor got a few keychains and we headed onward to find some food. 

It was a pretty cool experience - we definitely would not have found these places on our own. Having people who know the area and stuff is waaaaay better when travelling. 

So after a meal we took the tube back to Waterloo station and went and had drinks on a patio. It was getting dark and kinda cold but it was still fun - we also witnessed a fight break out breifly. One guy got a swift punch to the face but that was about it. 

We then walked back to Waterloo where we parted ways. Taylor and I took the tube to the west end of London where we found and settled incomfortably into our nasty grimy, cheap hostel. It was gross, needless to say - hostels are not really my thing. It was late though an Taylor had already fallen asleep so we survived and were up and out bright an early. 

Friday, we had intentions of doing a hop on hop off tour but we were unable to find the main office of the place we were looking for so we ended up a little lost, in some business district. We ended up renting/riding bikes - like those city ones that you can drop off at various places and can't go outside the city. We went all around, biking on the left side of the road through traffic all the way to the London Bridge - and on the bridge!  Then we headed back to central London. We biked up to Trafalgar Square, found a rack to park the bikes, got some lunch from Pret A Manger and settled in on the ground at Trafalgar to watch 'The Passion of Jesus' - an Easter play put on by London's Bible Society. It was about an hour long and very well done. There had to be hundreds of spectators. We couldn't actually see the people, we just watched it on a big screen. But it was still cool. 

London Bridge

We bike on the left side of the road :)

Taking pictures while biking - mom would be proud

Look at that beauty :)

Us at the Canada House!

Had to take a picture of this spectators socks.

After that we wandered up to Picadilly Circus - checked our a handful of souvenir stores and all that fun stuff. We ended up wandering down the street with all of the most expensive and fancy stores. 

English Breakfast Tea in England? I think so.

We met Mr. Bean :)

<- Golf Sale that way. Advertising at its finest. 

On our way back we stopped in at Caffe Concerto, a little Italian restaurant/cafe and had an absolutely incredible meal. I had a hot duck and pear salad with wine and a (free) strawberry tart for dessert. It was so good. I'm really sad that it's over. 

Doesn't that just look delicious??

Free dessert!

Classic picture of the Ritz. Tea with the Queen anyone?

After dinner we hoofed it back through the park to Victoria to catch the bus home. We stopped in WH Smith for books, snacks and a neck pillow before catching the bus home. The bus was sooo long and uncomfortable as usual, I barely slept. We also unknowingly picked up two friends at our stop in Manchester but didn't realize it till we got to Glasgow at 6am. 

Anyways, we got back to my room and crashed. I ended up sleeping 10 hours after 3 nights of no sleep, so that was nice. 

We had an excellent time and have lots of pictures and memories to prove it!

Next trip: Croatia 

T