Ed was In Burgh this weekend

"They may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOM!!!!!"

Well I'm back from the land of kilts, haggis, and Braveheart. I spent the weekend in Edinburgh invading castles and mountain climbing. Actually.

Took a 7:30am flight out of Dublin and got to Scotland around 7:31am. Most of the flight consisted of taxiing or flying around in a circle waiting for the runway to clear. But as a suggestion to all, don't pull an all-nighter before an international flight. Better yet, don't book one for the crack of dawn. One of my friends was unexpectedly on the same flight, so that made it significantly less painful.

After landing, I hopped on a bus to Waverly Station where Christian picked me up. I was shocked at how old the city was. Doing a quick 360 gave me the impression I was trapped between two historical eras. Gothic cathedrals, castles, shopping malls, and mountains as far as the eye can see. I was amazed, but mostly tired. So I took a power nap back at the dorm and we headed to Elephant House cafe (which in case you didn't know, is where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter). Feeling sufficiently imparted with inspiration, we walked to the graveyard behind the cafe in which Rowling took several names from the graves. I found Lord Voldemort's grave (Tom Riddle), shouted out his name, and stuff got weird real fast with Deatheaters and stuff. Ok, not really. But it was cool nevertheless.

Because of my staunch refusal to try or even be in proximity to Haggis, we went to a French restaurant for lunch then headed up to the Castle. It was pretty unreal walking through 12th century dungeons, dining halls, royal apartments, and defense towers. We also caught glimpse of the Crown Jewels and where Mary Queen of Scots lived. No big deal. After galavanting through a time warp, we returned to reality and grabbed some food at a restaurant named "Biblos." I was convinced it was a bookstore until Chris corrected my foolish Latin-based assumption. The beef was good, and it was cheap. Win-win.

The nightlife in Edinburgh seems to be a bit different from Dublin's. Whereas Dublin is very live-music and dance oriented, Edinburgh is more pub and DJ oriented. I was actually pretty surprised by the difference. Also, people seem to go out earlier in Edinburgh since the pubs and clubs close earlier. But we had a grand time celebrating our birthdays and hitting on Scottish lasses.

On Saturday, we climbed a chair. Arthur's to be precise. It's a mountain- "Arthur's Seat." The views were beautiful. You get a brilliant panorama of the city and its suburbs from way up there. We were fairly trigger-happy with our cameras, but rightfully so. That took a couple of hours then we got ready to hit the town again. We stayed mostly in the "Old Town" district, where most stuff is, but there's also "New Town" which seems to be mostly shopping, government, and finance.

Sadly all good things must come to an end. And on Sunday, I had a flight to catch back to Dublin. In line for immigration, I saw a few of my exhausted friends who were returning from Oktoberfest. We made it back and I passed out til morning. It was an awesome b-day weekend.

Currently in the middle of the grind (i.e. going to class, reading, sleeping, eating), but I'm sure next weekend will be mad fun as well. Hoping to go to a big concert on Friday. Gotta get through this silly school stuff first, I suppose... hah. Secretly, I really like reading the material for these classes. But don't tell anyone.

Well, not much else to update, so I'll sign off and get to some "Ulysses."

Until next time.