Kilts, Castles, and Monsters...Oh My!

Hey Everyone!
Well, I am back safe from my weekend trip to Scotland! It was so beautiful and a blast. I traveled with 14 other people from my house, which I think was a good choice for the first weekend so I could feel safe and such, but I don't see it happening again in the future. It was difficult making sure everyone was always there and got to do everything they wanted.
So we began our journey Thursday night when we took an overnight coach/bus to Edinburgh, Scotland. We left around 11 and arrived the next morning at 7. The first thing we tried to do was find our hostel, which proved more work than it sounds. We printed off the directions the hostel gave us but they weren't very helpful. We took the bus basically to the other side of town and got off with no hostel in sight. The bus driver told us two options of getting there either down this road or through a path/shortcut. Of course we chose the shortcut which ended up not speeding things up whatsoever. We didn't find the correct one and some how ended up on a golf course! (Dad, you would have loved it!) So we back-tracked and went the other way which went on forever. Finally we called the hostel to find we were going to correct way, which no one believed was true. Five or so minutes later we were inside the lobby and thankful to have made it.
We next bused back into town to find breakfast and begin touring the city! We stopped finally at a cute little place named "Deacon Brodie's." Turns out, this man was the inspiration for the Jekyll and Hyde character! He was a wonderful locksmith with a wife and two kids by day but by night he would break into people's homes we had the spare keys to and take all of their possesions. Ironically, when the people of Edinburgh had enough they formed a committee to hunt down the theif and named who else but Deacon Brodie as the chairman. Needless to say he slowed everything down so he could get continue stealing. He finally was caught after he tried breaking into a house too big and prepared for him. Armed guards waiting captured one of his men who eventually sold Brodie out.
We then went up to Edinburgh castle which sat on 11 acres of land! It was so beautiful! We toured the castle and saw the royal jewels of Scotland--a scepter, sword, crown and a stone that all the kings/queens of Scotland must be crowned on.
Afterwards we went on a 3 hour walking tour of the city and saw lots of neat places, including where JK Rowling wrote most of the first Harry Potter book, the Hogwarts inspiration, a "haunted" cemetery complete with "watchdog" Bobby, where Sir William Scott probably lived, etc. Very informative and interesting.
We closed out the day with dinner and then lots and lots of sleep!
On Saturday we took a 12 hour bus tour of the highlands. It was gorgeous to say the least! We saw lochness and the "monster" (see below!), beautiful mountains and rivers, and much more I can't recall right now. In spite of it being super cold and other set backs by yours truly, we saw what Scotland was all about, the highlands.
We came back by night bus again last night and rolled back into bed this morning around 7. I slept until noon, and then got up to complete some homework and tell all of you about this weekend.
Just so you know, next weekend should be just as exciting! On Thursday night I'm going to see Wicked the Musical! Then on Friday I'll be traveling with almost everyone here to see Stonehenge and the Baths. On Saturday we are going to see a football (or American soccer) match. And finally on Sunday I think we are going to try to go worship at Hillsong!
I hope everyone is doing well. I love and miss you all! ♥♥♥

Oh...when I'm uploading the photos I'm not able to see them, just a long url or file address so I'm not able to put captions on them. If you would like to know what a certain building or photo is about, leave me a comment and your e-mail and I'll let you know!