Scotland Trip

This past weekend we decided to take advantage of the 3 day weekend and headed up to Scotland! It is something that we have been wanting to do since we first got here - we even had a trip planned this past September, but had to cancel at the last minute because Chafin got sent to Tampa, FL on a TDY instead. So - Saturday morning we caught the train in Ely and snaked our way though Peterborough and Newcastle to finally arrive in Edinburgh. We had two friends, Jess and Jon, come along on the adventure! We arrived Saturday evening - checked into our hotel - and headed right to the closest pub, The Scotsman (aptly named). They had some great live music, a guitar and an electric violin...it was pretty awesome. Then we just hopped from place to place to enjoy the nightlife. We made it to The Advocate, The Three Sisters, and Espionage (Chafin and Jon even got activley recruited by the IRA at this place...proof that nothing good ever happens after midnight!) The next day Chafin and I went to check out Edinburgh Castle!

We didn't get any good pictures of the castle - so I 'borrowed' this one from National Geographic...the castle did look really pretty at night time!

Jess and Jon did some shopping and other things around town as they were both in Edinburgh for Hogamany (Scotland's New Years). After the castle, we all met up at the Scotish Whisky Heritage Center to 'experience' the whisky. This was on the top of Chafin's to-do list for our trip... It was fun doing the taste testing - some enjoyed it more than others.

Later in the evening we checked out several other well known pubs on the Royal Mile: The World's End pub (where the main gates to Edinburgh used to be back in the 1500's!) and The Bank Hotel...as a final touch we decided to partake in an Auld Reekie Terror Ghost Tour! It was pretty good - they took us around the Royal Mile and then down into The Underground Vaults (the proclaimed home of the South Bridge Poltergeist *creepy*)...umm, I was scared.

We were hoping ghosts would show up in the pictures....no such luck.

The tour ended at Nicol Edwards - the most haunted pub in Edinburgh. I'm pretty sure Chafin started 'dance party 2009' at this pub...it's amazing what 12 straight hours of drinking whisky can do to a man :) It turned into another 4am walk back to the hotel...you only live once, right? The next day we had to catch the train back home...so the trip was quick, but it was a great time had by all!

*if you click on the pictures you can enlarge them!