Second Star to the Right: Scottish Sunny Saturday

Somehow this sunny weather has kept up for most of our trip here in Scotland, and it's sort of freaking people out. If it doesn't start raining soon I will officially feel cheated of a real Scottish storm. Today was a beautiful day which, combined with the festival, has made Edinburgh very busy. First thing this morning our group woke up and went to see Edinburgh Castle. It's a huge castle that sits at the top of a hill in the middle of the city. You can practically see it from anywhere in the city, and we were able to explore it a little more today. The tour guide that showed us around for a bit was hilarious, and she was commenting on the weird weather as well. It's a sign of the times my friend. It's either that or the sun just loves us and insisted on following us here. Silly sun, save it for the people over in Utah.
In the castle I saw sights like the old prison and the war museum they have there. I was even able to go and see the Scottish royal jewels as well as the Stone of Destiny, which is present at every coronation of British monarchy! It was quite a sight to see, and I even managed to get through the exhibit without waiting in line after finding a secret passage. Seriously, it was cool.
The festival was even crazier than it was before. Today I encountered Jack Sparrow, a martian, more zombies, the Mad Hatter, characters from Jane Austen and a man made of gold. All of them wanted to be my friend, but I had to keep walking to find other things to do! Also, I tried haggis. ALl I can say is.....BLEH! Glad I gave it a go though.
A handful of us went with Wade to go and see the Scottish Parliament. Where the parliament in London is known for being old and full of history, the parliament here is in a very modern building. It was only built about ten years ago and was quite the sight to see. It had some strange but beautiful architecture. The man that gave us our tour is a member of the church that has worked with lots of people from BYU before. He was quite excited to be giving a tour to a bunch of BYU students, having never done one for any before. The professors were able to pull some strings to make it happen. I wish that I had taken some pictures. I had assumed that they would not allow photos and so I didn't take any, but then found out afterwards that they didn't mind if we did. If you are interested in seeing what it looked like, give it a google. They have a few good images!
After the tour we were given the rest of the day to have to ourselves. We decided to go and find some fringe shows to see, as there are tons of them available during the festival! Seriously, there is probably one on every street with people just waiting to pull you into doors. I went with a group of people to see a free fringe show called Austen-Tatious. It was an improv group that performed skits based on recommendations from the audience combined with some Jane Austen influence. Today's show was called, "What your Momma Gave You." It was quite ridiculous but very funny. We arrived a bit late and so we had to stand in the back, but it was fun enough that we didn't really mind.
After the Austen-shows I made my way over to Subway. I have avoided American food for the most part here, and decided it was about time to go. I just walked past the building and it smelled so good and I was so hungry that I could not resist. I bought myself a good ole Italian sandwich that I ate by myself in the park. I then explored the local bookstores some more (I managed to break away without buying things) and then went back to the hostel to update my blog a bit and attempt to get some of my homework done. Yeah, I almost forgot that I actually have homework and responsibilities and awful stuff like that. I managed to be decently productive….but the Olympics were on in the pub…..so…..yeah

In the evening, after resting for a bit, I went with Chelsea, Kristina, Celeste, Aubrey and Matt to do some shopping and get some more food. Chelsea and I bought some great Scotland hoodies and then we made our way over to an Indian restaurant and got some curry! The worker there was hitting on Celeste a lot and it made us smile. We then stocked up on some snacks and then made our way over to another Fringe show. I was ID’d for the first time in my life as the show was being held in a night club/bar. We went and saw the “Ninja Wizard”. We had front row seats to quite an amazing show! I thought that I had seen it all with magicians and magic tricks, but my mind was blown! I was called up on stage to help with one of the tricks and he somehow made the card in my hand change. He also did a lot of other mind tricks with the audience and just things that I could not figure out. None of the typical rings, sawing people, levitating stuff was done here. It was a low-key free fringe show and it was loads of fun. Though mister Ninja Wizard had quite the potty mouth…

Then came Tattoo, an amazing performance that blew my mind. A stadium was set up around Edinburgh castle where we watched bands, bagpipes, dancers, singers and various different performers. There were songs played from many different countries and nations in the common wealth. A section of the performance had songs from Brave, which I am quite happy to have seen before hand now. The composer of the songs was even in the audience tonight! The USA had some of their band perform songs from the US as well as “Super hero” songs like the themes to Batman, Spiderman and Superman. The bands were all excellent and the rain still did not come, despite reports saying that it was supposed to pour. The show concluded with a firework show and the lone piper. I found myself in tears at the beauty of it and the dedication they made for the troops all over the world. It was such an amazing experience!

And so it seems that our North Trip is coming to an end. We leave tomorrow morning to go back to London bright and early. I am actually really sad to be leaving Scotland behind, as I have come to love it here already! We kept busy though and I can say that it all felt like time well spent! I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to experience many new things, even haggis. We have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow and then finals week. I know I should be freaking out at this point, but I can’t help but feel that everything will be ok. This trip has been awesome and I am fully planning on enjoying the last week I have here in the UK!

Bring. It. On.