Throwback Thursday

I've already given you a glimpse into our lives in England.  For the most part, it was a boring year.  I don't mean that it wasn't fun to live in another country - that part was very exciting.  It's just that... we didn't really DO much.  Every day was pretty much the same:  go to work, work, come home, watch British tv, go to bed, wake up nearly frozen to death, wash/rinse/repeat.

The other reason we didn't DO much was because it was stinkin' expensive to live in England!  Gas was the equivalent of $8 a GALLON, and our car was a gas hog with a 10 gallon tank.  We pretty much only drove to the grocery store (on the other side of town) and very occasionally we'd save up our pence (pennies) and go to my reigning favorite place in the world...

Scotland!

This is where I could opine about how my ancestors are from Scotland (which they are) so it's like coming home to the Motherland (which it is) and how I felt so close to my "roots" while I was there (which I... didn't.  Ha, made ya look!).  Truth be told, it was just a cool looking place that had fun stuff to do there.

My sister came back to England with me for 2 weeks after I traveled home to be at her high school graduation. And though both of us nearly died of heat stroke when during the 4 hour drive home from the airport I realized our car did not have air conditioning, we rallied and had quite a bit of fun during her visit.  I made sure she did all the local fun stuff like walking everywhere, drinking tea and eating "digestive" tea biscuits, and attending a service at the local cathedral.  I saved the best for last though.

I give you... the Scotland Experience!

First we harassed some Scottish cows.  Because, you know, cows are so much DIFFERENT in Scotland.



Then, we went on a bagpipe hunt.

I dared my sister to ask him if he was wearing knickers.  She chickened out.

Next, we spat on the Heart of Midlothian.  This is a heart mosaic pattern of stones in the middle of what is now a sidewalk.  Between 1640 and 1817, it was the location where public hangings and beheadings would occur, so it became a custom for people to spit on it, in homage to the many criminals which surely did the same right before the moment of their death.

See all the spit?  Grosssss!

After that, we ate a fried Mars bar. 

Then, we laid on a park bench for about 30 minutes while the deep fried sugar coma wore off.  Then, we went shopping!  But no McDonald family plaid kilts could be found for less than 50 pounds (about $100) so we settled for random tourist photos with symbols of local culture.

Me in a phone booth!

Sister with a sexy MANnequin

We rounded out our day in Edinburgh by eating dinner at the locally established Subway, also known as The Only Place to Eat in the UK Where You Get Free Refills.  Then we walked about 15 miles back to our B&B, after waiting for almost an hour at a bus stop without being able to figure out which bus would take us back home.  I should also mention we were too embarrassed to ask for help with the bus confusion scenario, and we've both got the blister scars to prove it.

The best part of the whole trip though was the part where Sister and I really bonded as FRIENDS for the first time.  We had a lot of fun laughing, talking, and making memories together (Lars, remember how we walked around for HOURS trying to find the exact corner to stand on where the castle would look like the one in The Wizard of Oz?  Sorry about that, haha!).  There's nothing like traveling in a (kind of) foreign land to bring people closer together!  I'm looking forward to our next adventure... I'm thinking I'm going to make her take me to Germany and show me all the cool places she went to while she summered there in college...