calling keira knightley...

I cannot understand how a period film hasn’t been made about Scottish history.  Mary queen of scots was a tragic woman. I now know, thanks to the past 3 days of being drown in Scottish history, more about her than I know about many American historical figures.  She was fascinating and tragic. Feel free to Wikipedia her, I’m refusing to perpetuate the cycle of forced education I’ve been subjected to. 

Today was nice, we slept in (to the late hour of a tad past 8) and did as we pleased. Breakfast is my most important meal of the day because its my only decent one. So after that we headed out into a rainy forecast.  after a hike in search of art for mom we got on a tour bus, but this one I could exit at any time so I was comfortable. the drivers are very bold with their parking... see photo. It was here that we met the only horrible person we’ve encountered abroad. Sadly she is American I think.  We got on the double decker bus and sat on the bottom to avoid the rain, plus we assumed it was full.  In the back row we were two of 4 passengers below deck. The closest woman was 4 or so rows ahead. Mom and I conversed about things as we passed and occasionally laughed (we are both highly amusing people, as im sure you know). This woman kept glaring (and I mean if looks could kill I would have died 1000 deaths glaring) back at us. We got head shakes, we got shhhhed it obviously only entertained us more, because we weren’t even being obnoxious. Her poor husband who was in the row in front of her was none the wiser. We got up a few stops later to venture up top. As we passed her this woman said wahoo or something to that effect. I snapped. I quickly turned around and as close to her as I could get informed her that there are no rules about not talking on a bus. She said she was trying to hear the commentary and I laughed in her face and walked to the steps. I turned around and said if you can’t hear the announcements over an intercom system how could you hear us? And she flicked me off. Aside from verbally assaulting her (I’m not a fan of attacking defenseless idiots with words they doubtfully understand) I had no choice but to feign shock and horror and grab my wounded heart. She was a beast. I hope she loses all hearing. 

We had lunch at spoons café. This is where j.k. rowling wrote the first chapters of harry potter! I was in love, since im a huge fan. And their food was actually decent! After this mom found some art she liked. We spent the better part of the morning wandering down a gallery lined street. She found nothing there which is shocking. The art ranged from pieces by artists who have been dead 100 years priced well over 2000 pounds, to paintings of naked girls asleep called “Where d’ya sleep last night” that im sure the artist can’t give away. Anyway the prints mom got are of highland animals. Adorable. We headed to Edinburgh castle.  Its very large and not that interesting. We saw the crown jewels which I’d have loved to have tried on but the massive sword next to the crown dissuaded me. there are canons here, since it was a castle that had to defend itself, and they are massive.  i was tempted to follow the lead of other tourists and take a photo while sitting on one but i behaved.  there are also guards here, they're not supposed to smile etc, all boring but its my favorite thing to wait until they blink, or force eye contact until they stop looking straight ahead. missing accomplished today! 

just before the flash flood

once we had completed our whirlwind self guided tour of the castle we headed home. it is here i'd like to mention that self guided tours are always best when in a hurry, they enable you to skip boring things and only take photos of cool things. also at this time let me add that it had started to pour down rain. we had no umbrella because we like testing mother nature. so i am now the proud owner of a black plastic poncho that says edinburgh castle on it... 

once home we barely made it to our spa appointments for manicures and pedicures...  i almost wish i hadn't gone. its always nice to have new polish on though. im not sure how long my polish will stay on because eva (idiot spaniard who did my nails) didn't even use a base coat. she stabbed me frequently with a wooden cuticle stick and scalded my feet in the pedicure tub. mom's little pal however was chatty cathy. i learned about her family, friends, her friends' families. so fascinating. she's 20... eva has her chin pierced and 7 holes in her ears and two visible tattoos. over all it was a nice end to our last day in scotland :( room service for dinner again as we frantically packed our ever expanding suitcases.

london tomorrow! can't wait to see stacey!! and we're going to the michael jackson musical. yes im excited. i can only hope bubbles is mentioned and or featured. if you don't know who bubbles is in relation to mj im ashamed to have you reading this. cheers!