sister act, sightseeing, scotland, and st. paul's

I'll start off once again by apologizing for my lack of recent posts. I wish I could explain how being in London has redefined the word 'exhaustion', but I think the only real way to explain is just to say that I've been having to wake up early to fit in showers, literally, that's how strapped for time I have been.

Anyway, I'll drag this post back to last Wednesday. Sarah, Keetin, Madison, Christine, and I went to see Sister Act (the play, not the movie) in Oxford Circus. The play was really cute and relatively cheap (it kind of reminded me of dreamgirls...obviously a good thing), and it was fun to have a girls night. Thursday was my first free day so Sarah and I went to the Tower of London. We went on a free tour (coincidentally, our tour guide's last name was also Callahan), and it was interesting and entertaining. All tours may be like this, but tour guides here have a tendency to speak too quietly. This guy had a thunder-boom of a voice, so I had no trouble comprehending what he had to say. I've always found Henry the Eighth interesting, and there was a lot of information about him and his various conquests, so I was entertained. Plus, we got to see the crown jewels which are just ridiculous, and some other cool things like some graffiti that was left there from prisoners hundreds of years ago. We had a lot of fun playing tourists (it's weird...some days I feel like a total tourist, others I feel like I'm a native.)

Thursday night me, Christine, and some other girls took the MegaBus (pronounced by the Scottish as Meh-guh-boooose) to Edinburgh, Scotland. The bus left London at 11:30 PM and got in to Edinburgh at about 8:30 AM. Thankfully, I was able to sleep for most of the bus ride (I was the only one), but my body was aching when we arrived in Edinburgh. We checked into the hostel but they wouldn't give us our room yet so we found a common room with couches and crashed there for a few hours. We were meeting a bunch of our guy friends, who weren't awake yet...plus, it was really early in the morning so we didn't feel the need to start sightseeing just yet. Once everyone got moving, we wandered around the streets of Edinburgh on the Royal Mile, which is a mile stretch from the castle (right by our hostel) to the palace. Kevin, Christine, Brett, Dolan, and I broke off from the larger group and had lunch at a pub. We walked down the Royal Mile and then up a hill with beautiful views of the city. We walked through an old cemetery and stopped at a pub at the bottom of the hill. Dolan suggested a beer called Fruli, we all got it and it legitimately tasted like a strawberry smoothie. By the time we left the pub the sun was already setting so we headed back and met up with the larger group at another pub to grab dinner. We went back to the hostel after dinner and got settled, changed our clothes and stuff. Me and Christine were in a gigantic room with only one other girl, and the hostel was fun and pretty nice for what I had imagined a hostel to be (nothing like the horror movie of the same name). That night we went to a club where they played good music but wouldn't let you dance if you had a drink in your hand, which I found strange but it was okay. I left early and hung out at the hostel, Dolan brought back amazing noodles from a nearby late-night restaurant and I honed in on those before going to bed.

The next day we all went to get breakfast (Christine and I accidentally checked out of the hostel late...nobody told us that the check out time was 10:30...woops). I ordered (but shared with everyone) a nutella waffle which was literally one of the most outstanding things I've ever eaten. Then we went to the Scotch Whisky experience, which was Scotland's attempt to unite theme parks and alcohol. It started off with a Haunted Mansion-esque ride through the whisky creation process. Then it had a lecture about whisky, a tasting, and a tour of the world's largest private scotch whisky collection. It was definitely interesting, but it was also clear that some of the boys got a much bigger kick out of it than us girls. I mostly found it to be amusing. Informative, yes, but then again I think whisky is disgusting so I guess it's just more random knowledge to add to my arsenal.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around Edinburgh. Some people hung out at the hostel, while Dolan and I decided to go explore some more (I didn't feel like wasting my last hours there sitting...especially with a nine-hour bus ride ahead). We found some more back-street shops and stuff which was fun. Eventually we all re-boarded the bus which was far more treacherous than the first time because apparently the heat on the bus was broken and it was FREEZING (when I asked the bus driver very kindly if he could turn up the heat please he literally BARKED at me and said no. rude). Luckily, we got back at 7 on Sunday morning and I had nothing to do but sleep until noon. Later, Sarah and I attempted to conquer the dorm's laundry facility only to battle with the dryer which kept malfunctioning leaving our clothes soaked for hours. Good times.

Monday I had class from 10 until 5 and then Jason made me pasta for dinner. After dinner, we went with his friends Nick and Mallory to Leicester Square to explore some of the pubs over in that area. This morning I had no class and my internship doesn't start until Thursday so I woke up early to go to St. Paul's Cathedral with Jason. The cathedral itself was beautiful and we decided to walk up all 528 steps to the top of the dome to see the views of London from the top. It was relatively sunny out, and although the journey up was rough and my body is currently in shambles a little bit, it was definitely worth it. After St. Paul's, he had to go to class, so I went to the Tate Modern to walk around for a little bit. I was both sleepy and physically tired though, so once I got to the video installation of a man laughing maniacally wearing a clown mask and wagging his penis around, I decided I'd had enough modern art for the day and would have to come back another time. I took the tube home and grabbed lunch, watched a movie for class, and then took a nap. After which, I made myself dinner, and then hung out and now here I am.

Once again, I promise to get better at posting, I've just literally been drained and having no spare time. Hopefully once I get more into a routine I'll be able to set time for blogging or something? I start my internship Thursday which I'm looking forward to, and then this weekend I think Sarah and I and whoever else are going to take a daytrip to Oxford just to explore. I'll let you know how it goes :)