and part 3 (4?) Saturday we went to Edinburgh on the bus- bought a ticket that included a city bus on/off all day tour, which we never did really find. (things in the UK are incredibly vague… noone seemed to really know about these deals, not even the tourist office people! Um???) We walked some huge hills to get to the Edinburgh Castle, and didn’t go in- ~$20 for a castle tour? no thanks. We did go see a cheesy thing- the camera obscura… basically a mirror/lens thing on a roof that lets you see the sights around you. The rest of the crummy museum was a bunch of optical illusions or posters of mc. esher type drawings. Bleah.

Went to the (free!) Weaving Centre, and saw tons of lambswool and cashmere scarves and blankets that I totally should have bought. Then we walked and walked and walked, down the Royal Mile. Saw one “yarn shop” that had a shelf or two of scratchy yarn. Saw a bunch of scratchy sweaters. (Is it necessary to be so scratchy? Does that somehow make it better for tolerating the rain? I realize I have high softness standards, but jeez!) saw some colinette for sale in another nicer, hipper clothing store, for a mere 9 pounds. If only I liked colinette more? or couldn’t spin similar yarn myself…

We walked onwards, to the end of the royal mile, and saw the Scottish parliament building… a totally hip modern building. thought it was apartments at first! Then, across the street, we see this… thing. a rocky hill? (was Salisbury Crag)… people are climbing/walking it. Looks neat. I’m wearing a skirt, tights, and clogs basically. *NOT* climbing attire! But I climb anyhow, along with man that is still slightly afraid of heights. Oh my. Going up was okay, aside from my feet which kept turning sideways (though really, they can’t walk properly on flat pavement) Coming down was a pain in the ass! my feet kept sliding forward so my toes kept getting knocked. Ugh… Long story short, we miss the bus, so the bus that comes won’t take us since he’s on his last circle of the city. So? No city tour. No rest for the tired. We get a nice long walk in search of food! We did find some tasty pub food though- had steak and potatoes and veggies and a nice beer. Tennents? Then we wandered about some more.

The big thing of the day seemed to be hen and stag parties. Completely bizarre. The girls would all be riding around in limos, hanging out the window screaming. some fancy limos- pink even! the guys were all dressed to match one another. You know, in case one gets drunkenly lost, he can just follow the ones that look like him? I have no idea. Better than this though, was the appalling lack of clothing on 13 year olds out on the town for the evening. Gaggles of them! All half nekkid! Having to hold their skirt down in the breeze. But jeez- I had two shirts, a sweater, a winter coat, hat and scarf, and I was cold! peculiar. Haha…. after this, I decide I’m hungry for dessert… we walk and walk some more and find an Italian place that has “cheesecake”… and I decide I’m actually hungry… so have a second dinner! spaghetti carbonara. tastyish, aside from being from a crappy Italian place. then we get the “cheesecake” and it’s covered in SPRINKLES! there are two tiny bits of strawberry on it. and no cheese. at all. some sugary custardy crap! ah well..  ¶ 19:35