What a wild time to be in the UK! The day I arrived in Edinburgh votes were being cast far and wide. Much to my surprise, and to the surprise of almost every young Brit I had talked to, the UK had voted to leave the European Union. However, other than the stock markets crashing and many jokes about how Departugal, Italeave, Byegium, and Slovakout are soon to come, there have not been any noticeable, immediate changes to day-to-day life. That being said, I think many citizens of the UK are noticeably nervous about what the ramifications will be as no one really knows. Additionally, Scotland is already full of calls for a referendum to leave the UK again, as they almost left a year ago, and a majority of Scotland voted to stay in the EU on last week’s vote. The Scottish people I have talked to said that many of the people who voted to stay in the UK last year would now vote to leave the UK because they want to stay in the EU. This could cause another referendum to take place in Scotland.

But on to less important things: my time in Edinburgh! I arrived at my hostel and immediately really liked it! There were tons of people to meet and an awesome bar + restaurant in the hostel. I stayed in a 30 person room (!!!) which was fun, but also loud…

The first day I met up with Mehrdad for our third city meet up! We had breakfast at my hostel before setting out to see the Edinburgh Castle. It’s incredible because it lies in the center of Edinburgh on a large hill. It was constructed in the 12th century. Research undertaken in 2014 identified 26 sieges in its 1100-year-old history, giving it a claim to having been “the most besieged place in Great Britain and one of the most attacked in the world.” Pretty incredible!

After that, Mehrdad took off for his next city, but of course we will see each other soon in Norway. The rest of the day I lazily walked around Edinburgh, taking in the incredibly old architecture and admiring all the bagpipers playing for tourists.

The Royal Mile

Parade through Edinburgh

That night I met another Californian (this time from Monterey). I feel like all of California has taken off the month of June and is traveling through Ireland and the UK because I have met SO many people from CA. The two of us also started talking to a New Zealander and spent the rest of the night talking at the bar in the hostel.

My second day in Edinburgh started off with a free walking tour put on by the hostel. We walked by where J.K. Rowling wrote some of Harry Potter and we saw the graveyard where “Thomas Riddle” was buried. Our tour guide went to school with J.K. Rowling’s daughter at the school that inspired Hogwarts. Always fun to have a local show off his city and it always helps to learn of other things I want to do during the rest of my stay. In this case, Arthur’s Seat was mentioned as a great hike so I knew that was something I would try to do.

Where J.K. Rowling wrote some of the Harry Potter series

Grave of “Thomas Riddle”

I ran into the New Zealander again and we played cards in the hostel while the rain pounded down outside. Luckily the rain subsided later in the afternoon as he was going on a Ghost tour (which is pretty popular in Edinburgh) and I planned to go on a run through a park in Edinburgh called The Meadows. It was a beautiful park with tennis courts, play structures for kids, and big grassy fields where people were picnicking, playing soccer, and playing cricket. After 6 miles in the park, I headed back to shower and get dinner with Sage, the New Zealander. After dinner we had some yummy frozen yogurt and ate it while people watching in the the Grass Market area. Plenty of hen and stag parties walked on by as it was a Saturday night. I guess it is a tradition here for the groom-to-be to dress up in a tight girly dress, as we saw about 6 different grooms in this attire. After dinner the girl from Monterey took us out to some clubs that she had been to the night before, and while I had a good time, I was also glad to be in bed by 1:30am.

The next day started with a hike to Arthur’s seat in Holyrood Park, which is a 640 acre Royal Park next to Holyrood Palace, which is where Queen Elizabeth resides when visiting Edinburgh. The park’s highest point is Arthurs Seat, an ancient volcano, and it sits 251m above sea level giving excellent views of the city; it is also the site of a large and well preserved fort.  This is one of four hill forts dating from around 2000 years ago. It was an awesome hike, and the views were incredible.

The view from half way up the volcano (Holyrood Palace on the left)

The hike up to Arthur’s Seat

View from Arthur’s Seat

The next day I went on a tour of the Highlands of Scotland and Loch Ness where “Nessie” the sea monster lives. It was nice to get out of Edinburgh for the day and see some of the other regions of Scotland. I can’t stress how beautiful it was. It is so rural and untouched, other than the sheep that roam the farm land. Scotland has thousands of lochs and many are very deep as glaciers created large valleys within the mountains and then they were filled with water. Although it was a long day with many hours in a bus, it was a fun. Also, I sat next to a Belgium girl on the bus and she was also traveling solo. We ended up hitting it off and spent the whole day exploring each stop together. It was awesome to have someone to talk to on the long bus rides. After the tour dropped us back off at the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, we decided to go to a pub together to get dinner and watch England take on Iceland in round 16 of Euro Cup. Although England was heavily favored, Iceland pulled out huge upset and won 2-1. I was rooting for them because they were the underdog but I was still shocked that they won.

Train tracks in the Highlands of Scotland

With a bag piper in Glencoe

Loch Ness

Loch Ness

Because the day of the tour wiped me out, I decided to sleep in the next day and take it easy. I had seen much of what I wanted to see so I found a cafe and curled up with a book and a hot chocolate.

Next, I took a 5 hour train to London and then a 1 hour train to Southend on Sea, which is about 40 miles east of central London. I stayed with Lauren, who I met last summer in Barcelona with the guys I stayed with earlier in my trip! After she picked me up at the train station we went bowling with her brother, her cousin, and her cousin’s girlfriend (also named Meg!). We became UK Meg and US Meg. Lauren and UK Meg dominated at bowling and proceeded to beat the boys, which was fun to watch! (I didn’t fare so well… coming in last both rounds).

What a winning technique!!!

After bowling, I was lucky enough to be included in the birthday dinner for Lauren’s cousin. It was his 21st, which sounded exciting until he reminded me that he’s been drinking legally longer than I have. We all went out to dinner to a lovely restaurant and it was so fun to be a part of the family for the night! After traveling solo for a bit, I enjoyed the boisterous nature of a family meal. Also, everyone in Lauren’s family was amazing and hilarious. It seemed every time I looked away from my wine glass, it magically was refilled… not sure if it was Lauren’s mom or aunt ;).

Birthday time

Lauren and I took a nice walk the next day around Southend and along the sea front. Quite a picturesque view! That night we settled in and watch “Everest,” which was a great film.

Low tide in Southend

After sleeping in, Lauren and I spent a lazy day around the house and watched some British TV. That night we went to a Make A Wish fundraiser at a school where Lauren’s friend works. It was a quiz night, which I was quite excited for… however I was not much help after I quickly realized that most questions were about British history and life. But I still have a great time!

Saturday brought quite an exciting day! Lauren’s cousin had a barbecue, and most of the guys that I met in Barcelona were coming so I was quite excited to see them all again so soon after seeing them back in early June. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and there seemed to be endless amounts of food and alcohol… so not much to complain about.

Backyard BBQ

Josh!

After a fabulous BBQ, a bunch of us headed out to a bar and then to Josh’s house to play some drinking games. I had a great evening, although I did not manage to get much sleep as I went to bed around 4am and needed to be up at 7am to catch a train to London, to then get on a bus that would take me to Amsterdam. This led to a very long, and sleep deprived day on an 11 hour bus ride. Not so fun… but the bus ride took me from England to France, through Belgium, and finally to the Netherlands, so again, I can’t really complain!

Until next time 🙂

Bonus photo of AJ with a plastic container on his head 🙂