Home again

Farewell, bonny Scotland! You treated me well. I'm home again in one piece, without whiskey or hair products (thank you, airport security), and excited to see my friends again!

Before I left I tried to do all the things I had wanted within two days. This included a trip to St. Andrew's, home of golf and the school where Prince William attended. Though we'd been having perfect weather for much of the trip, the last couple of days turned chilly and rainy, and the trip wasn't as good as it could have been. My friend Rachel and I had planned on taking a train, but when we arrived at the station discovered it had been canceled due to flooding. Luckily we found a bus that went there.

We'd heard it was a precious town, and you could tell it was, though the charm was slightly marred by the poor weather. We spent our first hour in a cafe sharing a pitcher of "Ocean Breeze" and choking on over-cheezy macaroni and cheese. After that we spent a little bit exploring the town. It looked like they were setting up for a street carnival, and I wished we could go. We found a museum in a little castle, which was...boring. Sorry, it just was. I think the most exciting thing I did was use the restroom. After that we explored a bit more, found the ruins of a castle by the sea, then almost got blown away by the fierce wind as we tried to get close to it. My umbrella got caught in a gust and ended up dragging me into the middle of the street, but luckily no cars were coming. Rachel ended up regretting wearing a skirt that day.

My final day in Scotland I went on a class trip back to Edinburgh to visit the Scottish Parliament, which is in the strangest, most modern-art building I've ever seen. It's nuts. The politicians also have little "thinking pods" in their offices, which are like little enclosed patios where they can go be alone.

Lucky for us, the Edinburgh festival was going on at this time, and after we got out of Parliament we spent the rest of the day exploring the famous Fringe festival, where artists, musicians, and actors all go wild and put on free shows. It was like a cooler, modern Renaissance festival. I saw a lot of midgets that day. Dancing, wearing sparkly red suits, being paraded upside-down through the streets by people in masks....very strange. They were totally into it though. There were also a lot of living statues and people with wild piercings.