After much needed rest I felt much better the second day. The breakfast selection in the cafeteria was quite interesting. There were various items that I had no clue what they were, and had a feeling I didn’t want to find out. One thing that struck me as very peculiar was that they had fish in there for breakfast. Now I know that people in different cultures have different tastes in food, but eating fish for breakfast definitely takes the cake for me. I passed on the fish.
After breakfast we went on a bus tour through Edinburgh. This was a really neat tour that took us all over the city, and the tour guide was very informative in talking about various spots in Edinburgh. It was a good way to get us oriented with the city so we knew where everything was, as well as the history of the different parts. We then got our bus pass so we would be able to use the bus system to get around the city. While we were over there a few of us went down to find a restroom down in the train station, and saw a guy with a combination mullet, spiked hair, and dreadlocks. It was pretty interesting. We then took the bus back to the University of Edinburgh and then set off for Holyrood.
Because the explorer passes we have that let us into different spots around the country didn’t include Holyrood, Chelsea and I decided to explore the city and walk around. This turned into a long journey walking around the city down random streets and taking buses around from about 2 pm til about 10.
We visited many spots around the city and gave the newly acquired bus pass a hefty workout. We found an old graveyard with graves from the 1800s, but it had been vandalized. It was cool nonetheless.
We were stopped by a lady who gave me a lavender flower and some weird stone (probably plastic), and she asked for change. Being the newbie I am to Scottish money I handed her a handful of coins without thinking about it. I don’t know how much money I gave the lady but it was a few pounds as I found out later. Lesson learned about money in the UK. That is a big difference between money over here and money in America as they mostly use coins for one and two pounds while we mostly use paper money. The woman also claimed to be psychic and read Chelsea’s fortune. Could this woman be one of the famed Highland Seers of Scottish legend? Probably not, and I am still ticked that I gave her so much money, but heck, I’m keeping the lavender and the stone as a reminder of my first newbie mistake with pounds.
After walking out of the heart of the city into a more suburban area we decided to catch a bus back. We noticed that the stops didn’t have the usual numbers that we needed to get back to the University of Edinburgh, so we decided to take a different number to get back into the city limits. This bus was going in the wrong direction however and we ended going into some town out of the city and then our bus broke down. We ended up at some other college outside the city and then switched buses to get back.
It was a great day to kick off my Scotland adventures, and after walking around the sickness I was feeling went away for good. It was a lot of walking which helped me to get back going with my usual daily walks that I was doing back home before I got sick, and I think that is what helped to drive away my sickness.