Friday after class I went home and ate a quick lunch so I could hop on the metro and head to the airport so I could get on my plane to Edinburgh!! I had been looking forward to this trip for a while because I was finally going to get to see my best friend Julia who is studying abroad in London. After sitting next to the most fidgety 15 year old girl on the plane there I finally arrived. I went through customs (I was the only one with a non EU passport), then made my way over to domestic arrivals where Julia would be coming in. I waited there for about an hour and 20 minutes until I saw her plane had landed, at which point I could no longer concentrate, so I paced around the terminal waiting for her. 
Finally I saw her come through the gate and I assaulted her with hugs. It was teary, on my behalf, because I was so happy to see her. She had bought some chocolate in the airport so we nommed on that while we took a bus into the center of town. We chatted the whole way, something I'm sure the other people on the bus didn't really appreciate as much as we did. We had to pick up a city bus to get to our hostel, but finally we arrived. We checked in, dropped our stuff off and went out to search for dinner. We ended up doing Chinese takeout from the restaurant across the street from the hostel and eating it in the kitchen. As we stuffed our faces we started to catch up on everything we had missed during the semester. With our tummies content we headed off to bed. 
The next morning we got up, got ready and left the hostel by a reasonable hour. Our first stop: The Elephant House, the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books. We had a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, and tea. They even had a toilet seat dedicated to Harry Potter. It was pretty awesome. After we finished that, we made our way to the castle where we picked up a guided tour. After the tour was finished we walked around the castle by ourselves. We went into the dungeons, saw the royal jewels, tasted some whiskey, and bought some souvenirs in the gift shop. After we had finished in the castle we walked along the Royal Mile and went in all the touristy type shops, listening to some bagpipe music, and dreaming about haggis. 
Finally we decided we'd go to the hostel a bit and chill. While we were on our way back I saw a place that said PIE, and thinking it was going to be things like apple, pumpkin, etc I made Julia go there. Well, they weren't sweet pies, they were meat pies. Nonetheless, we had to try one, so we split the cottage pie (beef and mashed potatoes). It was quite yummy. Then we finally walked back to the hostel. On the way back we stopped at the grocery store to buy snacks for later. When we finally arrived back at the hostel my poor boots were soaked, so I left them next to the fire in the living room to dry while Julia and I watched the Scotland vs. South Africa rugby game. Scotland won! Meanwhile, it continues to rain rain rain outside. Eventually we knew we were going to have to leave the warm confines of the hostel to go out into the rainy abyss. We drank some cider together and eventually decided it was time to brace the weather.
Bundled up (and with plastic bags on my feet), we left the hostel and went to dinner at a restaurant Julia's guidebook had recommended called Monster Mash. Julia had haggis (which was actually good!) and I had shepherd's pie and we split come french fries (or chips if you want to be a UK-ish). We were so full of potatoes and meat we had no room in our tummies for dessert!
After dinner we walked to the meeting spot for our ghost tour... ooo scary, except not really! The stories were more gruesome rather than scary. It was really cold and still rainy during the tour however, so although it was interesting, I couldn't wait for it to finish! When it was finally done we went to a pub and got a pint! Neither of us finished our drinks because we were so tired. Finally we made our way back to the hostel and packed up our bags since we were leaving fairly early the next morning.
The next morning we got dressed, finished packing our bags and took the bus back to the airport. We ate breakfast there and chatted for a while. We visited the souvenir shop where Julia bought a sheep named Nessie and I bought some awesome plaid tights. We chatted for a little while longer until Julia had to board her plane. We said our sad goodbyes, our promises for an amazing spring semester together, and parted ways. I went to my gate and read a book while waiting for my plane to arrive. Finally I boarded, and who sat next to me but the same crazy family from the first flight. Needless to say I wasn't a very happy camper, but finally I made it back to Madrid and took the metro back home. 
I absolutely loved Scotland, not just because I got to go with my best friend, but I felt like I had some connection with the country. Edinburgh was like a medieval story book. I can't wait till I have the opportunity to go back and see more.
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