Edinburgh > Flers

Yeah, so I know you guys have all been just dying to know what I did with my last couple of days in Scotland, so I'm going to tell you.

First of all, did I mention that Edinburgh is the bomb? For real. Beautiful, big city, right next to this cliffy, mountain thing. So, it's basically everything I love in a city (old buildings + things to do*) and also lots of beautiful nature and parks. And bikes everywhere! Check this out:

Traffic lights just for bikes! I love it. Even more bike lanes than Minneapolis.

So yeah, it basically didn't even matter that I was struggling to understand everyone for the first-- well, for most of the time I was there. This only proved to be extremely frustrating on the night I arrived, when the bus directions I had written down for the hostel proved inadequate, and I had to ask for directions like 17 times. Because every time I asked (usually requiring at least one repetition), I would just sort of be like, "Um, okay left? Thanks." Because that would be the only word I would understand.

This was, however, nothing compared to the broadness of the Scottish highlands accent. On Friday, I took a 12-hour coach tour up to Loch Ness, which was mostly awesome for all the stuff we saw on the way up. Oh, and our super-opionated/seasoned tour guide/bus driver. There was also, unfortunately (for her) a very motion sick Spanish girl with her Spanish friends on the bus. I tried to help translate for her friend when she was looking for a train back (to avoid further motion sickness on the ride back), but I've been like speaking French a lot? And my Spanish is pretty remedial and Latin American to begin with, so I think I just made things more ridiculous.

See? Pretty! I don't know who that person is.

So after that 12-hour adventure (sorry, I didn't see Nessie), I decided to go to an Improv show in Edinburgh. I miss theater. Like, doing it. It was all games (I prefer long form), but fun in any case. Plus the crowd was really into it, which is always good to see. Did I mention I got the last ticket? Because I did. I tried to go with this other girl I had met at the hostel, but we got there and there was this long line and only three tickets left! Apparently two people took two of them, and then no one in front of us wanted to go alone. I braved the awkwardness of the crowded lobby full of socializing Scots to see the show.

On Saturday I did some more wandering around Edinburgh, then took the train over to Glasgow. I saw a show there called Defender of the Faith, set on the Irish border during the Troubles. The play started out with an unfortunately cast child actor (I couldn't make out a think he was saying, and neither could anyone around me, judging by the way they were leaning in), but luckily his character "goes away for the weekend," and then it got better. I would give a detailed review, if I weren't so lazy.

Saturday night, I stayed in Kilmarnock with another assistant who lives there, and we flew back to France at the ungodly hour of 6:45 the following morning. Just a quick hour-long bus ride from the airport to Paris, a hop or two on the metro, a long wait for the train, and a two and a half hour train ride back to Flers!

Boy, it's good to be home.†


*One part of this equation is missing from Flers.

†I do not actually consider Flers my home. Also, that was sarcasm.