St. Christopher Hostel aka a HUGE FRAT HOUSE!
This is Kayla she is the only other girl on the trip besides Lois (one of the coordinators). We are rooming together in all of the hostels and hotels.
According to Google Haggis is... a kind of savory pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a sausage casing rather than an actual stomach. Gross I know...but I tried it!
Today we arrived in Edinburgh! We took a bus from the airport to the St. Christopher Hostel where we are staying until Saturday. When we got to the hostel we could not get into our rooms yet until 2 p.m.. We dropped off our suitcases into a lock room aka a storage room with creepy stuff. To help us adjust to the time change David and Lois urged us to not sleep and just go about the day. So we went to find phones at O2 (phone company like ATT) and find different items people needed. After that we decided to go back to the hostel and eat lunch. I got a hamburger and chips (french fries). I know so original! To my surprise the food was very good they had a large variety! We then checked into our hostel rooms it was very sketchy Kayla and I are rooming together in room 32. We noticed when we got in the room we had two roommates.
Afterwards we walked to a bus stop and got on a hop on hop off with a tour guide and rode around the city. It was very interesting seeing the sights but I did fall in and out of sleep. After that bus tour ended we got on another type of bus that had a headphone guide needless to say I definitely slept through most of that one. One of my favorite stories from the tour guide was the story of Edmund Burke I believe his name was, a scientist, who at night would make his money by taking unsuspecting people out and getting them drunk, and then taking them back to his place and smothering them to sell their bodies for 60 pounds a body at the local medical school. He was found out and hanged in Edinburgh. They also told us about Dr. James Young Simpson the man that discovered chloroform. Dr. Simpson and his friends would go out to the pub and drink then come back to his house and smell things. Well one night Dr. Simpson smelled a chemical and passed out. When he woke up and realized the effects of the chemical. When chloroform was first used it was used for women in childbirth to help with labor. The tour guide mentioned that Queen Victoria even used it for the birth of her son. After the tours we had sometime to go back to the hostile so a bunch of us came back and got on the internet for the first time.
We met for dinner at 6:30 and went to Deacon Brodie's Tavern. I ordered beef pie (shepherds pie without lamb) it was rather good! The waitress talked us into trying Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties (mixture of meat parts with oatmeal, turnips, and mashed potatoes. It was rather interesting flavor I don't think I would order it on my own but it was good. Afterwards we went to a few stores on the royal mile. Then we came back to the hostel to chill in the chill out room (it has couches and internet access..crappy internet access but it sometimes works). I went up to our room to grab a few things and I met our roommates. There names are Analese and Vicki they are from Venezuela. Vicki did most of the talking she spoke some broken english but Analese did not really know any words. Vicki said that in their country they eat really late so they have had a problem with no food places being open when they typically eat. Most stores here close at 5:30 for the night a few are open but not many. She also told me that they would be leaving tomorrow for London. I then went back downstairs and tried to get on the internet so I could email Austin, Mom, and Dad. I finally got on for a bit then I went upstairs to bed. I was very weary of the beds because it was just a sheet and a mattress needless to say I am slightly scared there maybe bed bugs:( Luckily I brought a blanket and a sheet. So I laid the sheet down on top of their sheet and then my blanket so there was a slight barrier between me and the possible bed bugs....I am so glad to get to go to bed I am EXHAUSTED!
Sounds like a pretty eventful first day! Glad you could see the city and try some new foods! And you thought you wouldn't get hamburgers and fries over there haha. WRW
ReplyDeleteWell I did not know I could get hamburgers here but they were good only they put onions in them...but they were at least juicy!
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