Wonderful Weekend

I wish the weekend wasn't coming to an end (like always), because it has definitely been a good one. I got off of work a little early on Friday afternoon and took the chance to finally run a few errands. Every type of convenience store here seems to close at 5, and I can't figure out how people ever run their errands if they work until 5. I'll have to ask some locals what the reasoning for this is! My weekend quickly became exciting as soon as my flatmate and I headed off to the pubs in celebration of both completing the first week of our internships and the longest day of the year. The sun wasn't scheduled to set in Edinburgh until after 10, so we headed off with the sun still shining!

First stop: Finnigan's Wake. A quintessential Irish pub with live music and a happy crowd. Ciders in hand, we enjoyed the live band and the rowdy Scots. I couldn't help but laugh when the band started performing "American Idiot" by Green Day. Thankfully, both an Australian and a Scot complimented us on our American accents not too long after, making up for the embarrassing Green Day lyrics.

Next stop: Frankenstein Pub. Frankenstein's is pretty quirky. It's Halloween/monster/scary themed, complete with a Frankenstein monster that suspends from the ceiling at midnight. In Scotland, bachelor parties are called a stag do and bachelorette parties are called a hen do. A bunch of groomsmen were inside for a stag do, dressed as nuns and dancing the night away. I noticed pretty quickly that it's typical for men to dress in silly costumes for bachelor parties. I've seen nuns, nurses, French maids, etc. For the next few hours, we chatted with people from Canada, Poland, Ireland, and of course, Scotland. Scottish people have a more indirect form of communication than Americans and are frankly, hard to understand at times. Whereas Americans come right out and say it, the Scots will try to skirt around a topic. Speaking from personal experience, they use this tactic to their advantage to poke fun at the foreigners. As if hearing people in loud clubs wasn't hard enough, add a Scottish accent to the mix and you're sure to be saying "Sorry, what?" every two seconds. (The Scottish accent will  get its own blog post at some point)

Needless to say, it was a late night, so we slept in on Saturday morning. And finally, I got the real Edinburgh experience. RAIN. Subsequently, it seemed fitting to visit a museum. Off to the National Museum of Scotland we went! What a great museum. Each floor houses a different part of Scottish history, and as I made my way up each floor, I made my way into modern Scotland. The museum was complete with history on whisky, tartan plaid, and Celtic clans. After the museum, we were craving some greasy food and visited a Turkish kebab shop. The lamb kebabs and chips (french fries) were delicious, and a nice way to pass the time during the rain.

"Chips" and brown sauce

On Saturday night, we went on the Literary Pub Tour. This famous tour takes people from pub to pub, with one tour guide telling tales of how Scotland's famous poets and novelists partook in endless drunken nights all across the city's pubs, while the other tour guide told a rosier version of the story. Both recited poems and pieces of literature in the traditional Scots language, which is nearly impossible for a native English speaker to understand, but beautiful nonetheless. Courtenay, our coordinator for our time in Edinburg, joined us on the tour and then took us to the RatPack Piano Bar afterwards where we listened to a man sing the tunes of Frank Sinatra and Michael Bublé. Saturday was a success!

To finish the weekend off, we trekked to the nearest grocery store before heading off to the Royal Mile and Princes Street. On the Royal Mile, we stopped in St. Giles Cathedral, the principle place of worship in Edinburgh. As it contains memorials to over 200 famous Scots, the cathedral is a must see. On Princes Street, we found a store called Americandy where I bought an Arizona Iced Tea and spotted the otherwise hard to find Hershey's Chocolate. The Scots and English don't like Hershey's Chocolate. They think it's far too bitter and prefer much sweeter chocolate. I have yet to try Cadbury's or Galaxy chocolate, but it's definitely on my to do list. In the UK, a Mars Bar is the equivalent of our Milky Way, and if I'm feeling brave, I might also try a deep fried Mars Bar. As for the iced tea, Brits still give iced tea the cold shoulder and it's been the hardest food/drink from home to give up.

The Royal Mile with St. Giles Cathedral in back

Tonight, we are trying to figure out how to operate our washer/dryer and are making a Edinburgh/Scotland Bucket List. Dinner is some veggies and a traditional Scotch pie! Mondays aren't my favorite, but I'm headed to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary tomorrow, which is sure to be a great experience.

The Bucket List