They made me tired again

Today started when my alarm didn't go off at 8:00, and I woke up at 8:54 instead. This was a problem because I was supposed to meet Mom and Dad at 9:30 at their bed and breakfast, and it was a full half an hour for me to walk there (as a poor college student, I don't spend the pound it takes to ride the bus). I quickly showered, changed, and walked over, only to find that I missed them by five minutes. We caught up again when I found them on Nicholson.

We began our day by going to Holyrood Palace, a really cool experience because it included a view of the Queen's Gallery, where Flemish paintings are currently on display, as well as an audio tour of the palace itself. We saw Mary, Queen of Scots' bedchamber, as well as the king's apartments, the queen's apartments, the throne room, and more superfluous rooms galore. We also went through the Queen's Garden and the remains of an abbey beside which the palace was built. Our time between the gallery and the palace was well spent having a cup of tea in the courtyard between the two.

We then went to a pub for lunch before attempting to climb Holyrood up to Arthur's Seat. I'm not sure Mom was prepared for the hike, but she waited a good way up while Dad and I took the rest of the journey to the top. Dad liked the free entertainment, as well as the impressive views of the city, even though he was sure that Jamie, Monique and I are all in cahoots to kill him for his life insurance, and this was how we planned to do it. (It didn't work.)

We climbed back up the Royal Mile, then down to Prince's Street to see the Scott Monument and to show them around a less touristy part of town. There was an Andy Warhol exhibition that ended today at the National Galleries on Prince's Street, but we got there twenty minutes before the museum closed. Oh well. We got some cool pictures of the Campbells Soup cans that currently adorn the pillars at the entrance.

Back up to the Royal Mile, and we went to a place called Chocolate Soup for some of the best hot chocolate Mom and I have ever had. Dad had coffee. We stopped off back at my flat for a bit in order to grab scarves, because we were going to go on a ghost tour to round off our night.

After dinner at Garfunkel's, we walked to the castle to see it all lit up in the darkness. It was really a cool sight, and similar to one that I quite often see walking through the Grassmarket on my way to clubs with my friends. We also decided on a couple of ways Mom and Dad could spend Tuesday without me (alas, I have class until 3), then went back to St. Giles cathedral to meet our tour guide for the ghost tour.

Our tour was actually quite entertaining, mostly due to our tour guide. We were told some (highly embellished) stories of the history of Edinburgh while walking through various closes (thin alleyways). Dad was whipped and had his ears cut off for treason, and Mom and I were accused of being witches - me because of my red hair, and Mom because the tour guide didn't want me to have to stand up in front of everybody alone. We ended up inside chambers built in the pillars that hold up bridges that cross over the lower-level roads in the city, something that I never would have been able to do if it weren't for the tour. These chambers are in the Guinness World Records as the most haunted place in the world. It was quite cool. After the tour, we each had a glass of lager as our tour guide told more stories to the group.

I left Mom and Dad at their bus stop, again hoping that they would make it home safe, but I don't see them until Tuesday because tomorrow they are daytripping to Glasgow. They will take the train there and back, and then spend Tuesday in Edinburgh before we all (well, my accompaniment is still up in the air because of class on Thursday) toodle off to St. Andrews on Wednesday for an overnight journey. Should be a fun time.

Look for Dad's pictures at pinkplaidwellies.shutterfly.com