Adventures in Scotland Continued...

So this piece of weaponry is also located at Edinburgh Castle. It's called Mon Meg, and this massive gun in capable of firing 300 pound cannon balls up to 2 miles. Right after I took the picture this man inthe picture stuck his entire head into the cannon and shouted hello. It echoed very nicely and was much cooler because of his accent. I wanted a picture, but unfortunately I was not quick enough and he didn't do it again. You'll just have to use your imagination. We also went to this restaurant called The Elephant House which is important because:

On the third day in Scotland we went on a bus trip and visited Stirling Castle (which I'm still not entirely sure why it's so important),

the William Wallace monument and Inchmahome Priory on the only lake in Scotland. It was yet another hike up a steep hill and a climb up nearly 300 stairs to reach the top of the Wallace monument.

And if you're not entirely sure who William Wallace is just refer to the picture above, and that should help. However, people from Scotland supposedly don't like Mel Gibson's Braveheart too much as evidenced by the defacement and eventual removal of the William Wallace statuemodeled after Mel Gibson.

Here is a picture of the Wallace Monument from Stirling Castle:

After we finished looking at this stuff we headed to the priory. It was a beautiful day in Scotland. Every Scottish person we met made sure to tell us how unusual the weather was. This is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful places we've been so far.

We took a boat over to Inchmahome Priory on the island. The whole place was green with lots of sunlight and it smelled wonderful...like heather.

Finally on our last day there we just walked up and down the Royal Mile. I did some shopping and ate a banana and toffee muffin from this wonderful place called Chocolate Soup. Luckily this glorious cafe isn't international because if I could go there regularly I would probably quickly weigh about 1,000 pounds...which would be bad even though the food is oh

so good. And to top the day off while I was shoving

the last bits of the muffin in my mouth we heard drums and penny whistles, ran out to the street to see what the ruckus was, and it was a parade!!! It was a little disappointing because it is the first parade I've ever been to in my life where I did not have any candy thrown at me. But there was lots of Scottish music including drums, cymbals, penny whistles, and even a few accordions. There were also a lot of badly dressed old women, almost a brawl, and lots of men with tattoos. And these guys did a little dance for us when the parade had to stop for a bit.

And of course I cannot go to Scotland without sharing one last picture:

Whit's 'at caad in Scots?

I AM SOOO EXCITED!!!

I just back from Scotland, and I loved it. It was beautiful. Edinburgh is a much more manageable town to see than London. Don't get me wrong I love everything about London, but at times it is overwhelming because there is just so much to see. I feel like I got to see everything I wanted to see in Edinburgh in just a few days, and it was good to be able to leave feeling like I have not missed anything.

And partly I'm excited because:

My very first picture is finally uploaded!!! This is Scotland. This hill you see is the top part of what's called Arthur's Seat and we hiked up the entire thing(this pictures is just the very top)...and it was definitely a hike. This is the

very first thing we did after arriving in Edinburgh following the 4 1/2 hour train ride (which was rather miserable seeing as I had a backwards facing seat). So after a good long up hill hike I celebrated making it to the top like this:

and this:

All in all it was a fun day.

The next day we visited Edinburgh Castle. Unfortunately the day before I lost my Explorer pass to get in to this castle. Luckily, the guy was very understanding when I explained my situation he let me in anyways. Once we got inside the gate we asked the man at the audio guide booth if there was a map of the castle. He said yes but they are only in Gaelic. However, I decided to take a map anyways because the nice man made sure to tell us the numbers were in English and would lead us to signs that were in English.

This castle is where Mary Queen of Scots lived and had her first and only child

,James VI, who became King James I of England. We also learned some interesting things about the American Revolution and how prisoners of war were kept in the castle dungeons. To the left is a carving of a boat and an early American flag that a prisoner made in a door.

And if you can't read this delightful sign to the right it says "Because the Americans were officially regarded as pirates they received only 1 pound of bread per day". Everyone else got 1 1/2 lbs of bread per day. By far my favorite part of this castle was this exhibit in one of the small museums about the Scottish army. There was an exhibit that explained how during a battle a woman had fled the city and left her small child with the father. This might not seem like too bad of an idea. However, the father was a soldier and not long after the mother left he had to fight. Having nothing else to do with the child he simply put the baby in his knapsack while he fought in the battle. What you can't see in this picture is that on the ground at the father's feet he

is just about the stab a man with the knife on the end of his musket. But you can see the baby in the bag under his right arm.

That about sums up day one and two in Scotland, and I will update the rest of the trip tomorrow when hopefully, though doubtfully, the internet will be working faster. It has already taken much too long to upload just these few pictures.