Since my homestay, life at Stirling has continued on - classes, adventures, reading, getting sick, deep fried pizza.... Yes, that's right. I said it. Deep. Fried. Pizza. Looks appetizing, doesn't it?
Little known fact - apparently Scotland loves to deep fry pretty much anything and everything. Including Pizza. And Mar's Bars. Have yet to try that one, though. I'll let you know when it happens.
Moving on - So Stirling, like most places, has ice cream trucks. Normally, this wouldn't be something I'd need to comment on, as everyone loves ice cream, so it is only natural that there should be a truck that drives about, handing it out to children in need. Even on campus. The strange thing about it, however, is that it plays Yankee Doodle....
That's right. The Scottish ice cream truck plays a very American Patriotic song. Confused? So am I....
My mom has visited!! Yay! It was lovely seeing her (<- note my use of 'lovely'... it is used everywhere here. I am also attempting to work 'Cheers' into my instead of thank you.). She flew into Heathrow airport in London and took the train from Kings Cross up to Edinburgh, where I met her. However, her arrival to Edinburgh was not, as I believed it to be, 1 or 2 pm. It was 6. This was due to some misunderstanding. So, at 2 pm, at the bed and breakfast that we were to stay at (called Ard Na Said - very cute place right by Arthur's Seat), I sat quite confused and quite worried, wondering if her plane had crashed into the ocean on the way over, with no way of communicating her. However, as I was also getting sick, I ended up passing out for 2 hours. Upon waking up and realizing that my mother was STILL not there, I gave in and chose to call her, regardless of the international fee it would call me. Thankfully, she was fine and had just taken a later train out of London and would be there by 6. Well. Thank goodness.
Upon her arrival, my mother immediately desires Fish and Chips. And she already has a place picked out. But no directions. Adventure time? Yes. First things first - finding our way out of Edinburgh Waverly Railway Station.
Sidenote: Streets in Edinburgh (well, I guess all of the UK for that matter) change names. A lot. Which makes finding streets and restaurants confusing.
So, after finally making it to the fish and chips (which were delicious), we were ready to head back to the Ard Na Said and get to bed. So we get on the bus. Funny story - Right bus, wrong direction. Well, we certainly got to see a part of Edinburgh we never would have seen otherwise!! We spent about an hour riding the bus around the city. Which would have been fine and all if two pre-teen girls obsessed with Justin Bieber did not come on. And sang. Almost the entire time. All Justin Bieber songs. I thought I hated "Baby" before, but 'oh baby baby baby oh' do I hate it now.
As you can imagine, we did finally get back to the Ard Na Said after our little detour and quickly climbed into bed, setting the clocks so as not to miss the breakfast that awaited us in the morning.
Next morning - A much more successful day in Edinburgh, my mother and I walked down to Haymarket and wandered around the Royal Mile. Though we did not do the Edinburgh Castle, my mother did, however, want to do the Scotch Whisky Experience. So, as before, here is a picture of the largest whisky collection in the world (3,384 bottles - all unopened)
After Edinburgh, my mother and I headed back into Stirling, as I had to attend class. Unfortunately, we could not do as many fun Scottish Sight Seeing as I'm sure we both would have liked, as I had to go to class during the week, but we did, however, get to see some HIGHLAND CATTLE (AKA COOS!)!!
This is Hamish, the highland coo. His mate is Heather. She is/was pregnant, and was to have her baby coo on Wednesday :-) I definitely need to go back and see it!
As I had already started this post, I am splitting it in two. So this is the end of the first part of the post.
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