Last Few Days in Scotland July 8 - July 11

Well, lets just say that had my parents been able to come, they would have gotten full use out of their waterproof gear. 

Scotland weather was bi-polar the past few days--we would wake up to blue skys, go running, come back to the apartment, clean up, eat something, get really to go out, look out the window.... and it would be down pouring.  That happened on Friday, July 8.  So we ended up hanging out in the apartment for quite a while, soaking up the last of our free British TV.  Eventually we did venture out and buy a few last minute souvenirs but as soon as it started pouring again, I went back to the apartment.

Saturday July 9, 2011:  Same situation as above.  We had a beautiful morning.  We woke up, got ready, went to the farmers market for lunch and ate under the sun in the terrace.  We ventured down the Royal Mile, entered the Parliament building for the last time, and then hiked to the point of Arther's Seat--turns out that our past hikes were only to Salisbury Crag (? I can't remember the name).  We got to the very base of the last little hill and FLASH LIGHTENING BOOM THUNDER.  Greeaaatt.  We were at one of the highest points in the city during a horrible thunderstorm BUT by some miracle, it blew away from us and we didn't get the rain... yet.  We could see it all around us though, which was really cool.  Eventually, we walked back up the royal mile and went back to our apartment.  That's when it started pouring and it didn't stop until about 9pm.  Daniel and I watched a movie and then went to bed.

 The real Arthur's Seat (the point behind me)

 The ruins in Holyrood Park

 The storm / rain behind Daniel

Sunday July 10, 2011:  We went to church.  It was another couple in the wards last week so there was a "munch and mingle" afterwords, and then we went home and began to pack.  It really didn't take us that long but it was slightly depressing so we took lots of breaks.  For instance,  I watched Twister much to Daniel's torture-- apparently it's one of the worst movies ever made.  Whatever.  I was entertained.  Around 7pm we were headed to go visit some of our friends for the last time, but then we remembered a ton of stuff that we had to do and by the time we got ready to walk over.... it started pouring.  I didn't want to pack wet clothes.  So Daniel talked to his family on skype for awhile and I talked to Nate, April and Edison after that. I love that family.  Then Alyson and Alan Adam (our friends we were going to go visit) came to our house and visited us.  It was really nice of them and I'm so glad they did.  We just talked and laughed.  It was a good time though.  When they left,  we finished packing, cleaned up and spent our last night in Scotland.

Monday July 11, 2011:  We woke up early (as in 4am) and Daniel ran to drop our key off at the landlords before heading to the airport.  For some reason, we both couldn't remember where the Landlord's office was and by the time we did, we had to call a taxi to get us to the airport in time.  Lame.  Then when we got there, 18pounds later (instead of the 7pounds the bus costs us), the lady at the desk made us pay 140 pounds to check in a third bag which we already paid for.  I won't even go into those details because I'm still livid about it.  Lets just say that I've already written a complaint, demanded my money back, and am in the process of drafting a letter to the CEO of the company.  For the record... the 140pounds they made us pay for a small US carry-on size bag cost, us more than our tickets to London.  


It's currently July 18th, 2011.  I'm way behind on my blog (coming home will do that to you), but I'm determined to finish my summer in Europe.  I'll update Daniel and my London adventures later.  :-)