Friday, August 22, 2008

Edinburgh pt. 2 and Culrain

Well I forget what I mentioned in the last update, but our hostel here in Edinburgh kind of stinks. It's ok though because it's the kind of suckiness that makes good stories. We have showers that go from freezing cold to boiling lava hot, we have a gushing fire alarm from the ceiling, a mouse crawling around and eating food and for breakfast we get two pieces of toast. Yeah. It was a bit rough. Did I mention that all 16 girls are in one room? Because we are. And that room has one very squeaky door. Haha. I laugh with crazy eyes.

So luckily we left a couple days ago to journey to Culrain which is a tiny town waaaay north in Scotland. It took about 6 hours by train to get there, but it was gorgeous. Mountains covered in heather with little streams, brooks and waterfalls peeking out. We got to stay in a beautiful castle that doubled as a youth hostel. And only 8 people in a room. And a library stocked full of fun books. Unfortunately, as this course is drawing to a close we had to study for our final! Weird right? We are all bummed to be losing Keith. There was a ping-pong tournament last night in Culrain and his faces were absolutely amazing and ridiculous.

Thankfully in Culrain I also got a chance to go running. I didn't really feel safe going in the big city so I've only been in York so far. I went running on trails back. I took the one labeled "Loch" and after a few wrong turns on bike trails, I stumbled upon this awe-inspiring view. I wish I could upload the picture right now but it was farmland with sheep and cows dotted on it, leading to a huge still lake. Mist was rising up on the mountains and the sun was just breaking through the clouds and of course everything was covered in the bright purple of heather. I don't feel as though I'm using the Lord's name in vain when I say, God it was amazing. I ran for 45 minutes and would've kept going, but I thought I would miss breakfast.

In other breaking news, I had the first good shower of this trip in Culrain. It was a good temperature, it drained, and no one walked in. So A plus to this hostel.

Now we are back in Edinburgh and starting our second class. It should be fun with all the crazy Fringe stuff going on! We are excited to see the last of this hostel though. We have access to internet here so you will probably get another update soon.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay, more updates from Devin!!

Dan said...

I have several of those awe-inspiring run moments in my past. Never running on the heather in Scotland though. Did you yell "Heathcliff?"

Also saw matt's great photos of the castle. What a neat place!

Love Ya.