04.04.2009 - Saturday

Yummy!!

St. Andrews - first golf course

Course, right near the shore!!

I love doors!!

CHEERS!! This morning Jenny and I woke up at 8am and at 8:30am, we woke Amy and Mike up to get ready for the day. The girls and I went to Chocolate Soup for some bfast. I got pancakes with a cup of hot chocolate on the side. They were really good and I got a white chocolate double shot with caramel, no whip, it was delish!! There were some white chocolate chunks left at the bottom, so I ate them and they were sooo good, I love white chocolate!! :) While we were eating, Michael Jackson was playing…in Italiano!! Haha, I thought I was in Scotland?? The girls working there were Italiano, it was funny. After bfast, Mike met up with us and we went to the bus stop to find out about Lockness and St. Andrews. The bus for Lockness was a 12 hour tour and we missed the bus. We wouldn’t have gone on that anyways because that is the full day!! Crazeeness. We decided to take a bus to St. Andrews to see the first golf course instead. As we were driving to St. Andrews, I saw cottages which were soo cute!! I even saw one that said “Rose Cottage.” :) Aw, Nanny, I can’t wait to see you!! I love how their front yards are covered in flowers, especially daffodils!! They are like their weeds out here in Scotland, so pretty!! When we got off of our hour and 40 minute bus ride, it was raining in St. Andrews. Luckily I brought my umbrella because you just never know!! We left the bus station and walked towards the golf course. Once we were at the course, I found it rather confusing and there was NO clubhouse…what’s up with that?? Also, I didn’t see a beer cart girl so that doesn’t make it a golf course!! Haha. The men who were golfing were using wooden clubs, haven’t seen those in years. The golf course is right by the shore, so it was pretty chilly and still rainy. We walked around for a bit and then we went up to the city center of St. Andrews to check things out. We ended up seeing the St. Andrews Church, Cathedral, something to do with Harry Potter (I guess part of the film was shot in one of the buildings we saw) and we saw a lot of interesting buildings. I like how there are different store fronts and everyone’s front doors are different, very unique. It had such a ‘homey feeling’ but not AZ home, I don’t know how to explain it. Since St. Andrews is small, we took the 1:45pm bus ride back to Edinburgh where we decided to eat some lunch. Once we got off of the bus, it was raining pretty hard in Edinburgh and every restaurant/pub we were going into was PACKED!! I guess there was a horse race going on so everyone was watching it. Finally restaurant #5 or 6 had available seating, so I ordered fish and chips. The fish came out looking like an entire fish, I was a little scared, but it was fine, just shaped like a fish. Ha!! The water we got was free…we were all shocked, it has been months since I have had free water at a meal. After lunch, we stopped in a bunch of shops to check everything out. I ended up buying these adorable salt and pepper shakers that look like chickens, they are all different colors and are just really cute. I love them!! Ha, the man who rang me up for the shakers was like ‘would you like a wee bag for these miss?’ Ha, yes, may I please have a WEE bag!! Ha, I love their accents out here!! It finally stopped raining after a few hours which was great because I needed to get some pictures!! All the stores closed at 6 or 6:30pm, so we went to go see the castle which was just up the street from where we were staying. It was still light out because the sun doesn’t set until like 8ish. After the castle, we saw a man in a kilt, playing his bag pipes when we were walking back to the apartment. I am glad I saw that, because what would Scotland be without that?? At 9:30pm we went back out to a pub (right next to our gate to the apartment) where we had a few drinks and played some card games. We ended up staying at that pub and then we went across the street to this hole in the rock place to grab a snack because we didn’t have any dinner tonight. I got a garlic pizza (garlic bread sticks) and the girls got French fries, so we took it up to the room and ate. Shortly after, we went to bed because we have to wake up at 4am to leave for the airport tomorrow!! Today was so much fun, I reallyyy enjoy Scotland, all the people are really friendly as well, which is a great change from the Italianos!!

Love and miss you all!!

CHEERS!! :)