If I Were Any Farther Away I'd Be Closer...: Stirling, Edinburgh, London, Rome, and Paris...in that order (Part 1)

I'm finally settling into London (still having phone problems, but I'll iron it out by tomorrow night. Phones are dumb).

So I thought I'd share you some stories and highlights of the past two weeks:

Before I even arrived in Scotland, I had a very strange encounter. I was at the Newark airport, waiting for my flight when I noticed a women who looked curiously like my friend's (the one I was visiting in Scotland) mother. She didn't seem to recognize me, and I thought that Alex would have told me if she was on the same flight as me, but she looked JUST like her.

Well, it turns out it was her. It's a small world.

SCOTLAND Day 1

When I (and Alex's Mom) arrived in Edinburgh, it was 7:30 am the next day and unusually rainy. *sarcasm*. I was then whisked away to Sterling by Alex's Grandparents, who drove Alex to meet me.

I hadn't had much sleep on the plane, but I wanted to see the town, so Alex and I took off in the dreary rain for some coffee, and a trip to the historical jail. (A very cheery start).

We also visited the graveyard near Stirling Castle, but it became too rainy, so we retired to the flat to have a lovely afternoon of being bums.

SCOTLAND Day 2

The next day I went off to Stirling Castle by myself while Alex filled the empty space in his head with knowledge, and when I mean that I mean he went to class. Afterwards, we took the train to Edinburgh, where we visited Edinburgh Castle, Mary King's Close, which is the underground foundation of Edinburgh.

Stirling Castle

Yes, a women's place was certainly not in the kitchen. Found this on a informational sign in Stirling Castle. :)

Some of my pictures seemed to have disappeared. I had a lot of Edinburgh Castle and Mary King's Close, but they must have accidentally been erased.

At eleven I took the night bus to London, where I would meet up with Eric.

LONDON Day 3

I arrived at the hotel early in the morning, while Eric arrived about an hour later. We had a relaxing first day and went to Buckingham Palace's Mews (where they keep the royal coaches and cars) and the Queen's Gallery (where there was an exhibit on Leonardo DaVinci). We unfortunately missed the changing of the guards, and tickets for the actual Buckingham palace sold out. We were able to visit one of the smaller churches though and Westminster Abby (we didn't go inside.)