The Chews Conquer Edinburgh!

The Chews + Yee!

Chaucer & Asian politics since 1884 want me dead. The work load here is intense and overbearing. With that said, I have to meet up three of my classmates to discuss Chaucer at a pub. We sit down on the comfy leather seats of the Pear Tree and exchange our insight on the good ol' G-dawg. Lyle (I just want to be his friend because his name is Lyle!) has his pint. And as the pint progressively diminishes in the glass, Lyle gets gradually more insightful. Good times. Discussing Chaucer while inebrieated, oh the English/Scottish drinking culture...

On Friday the parentals flew in from Dublin! After class I walked to their apartment (literally the opposite side of town from where i'm living. Luckily, the bus system drops them right off at my door!) It was actually quite a lovely walk. I had never been to their part of town. I brought them back to my flat with two giant suitcases filled up with all the requests I made. We dropped the suitcases off and took Sara out to Lemongrass, a Thai restaurant (that always tempted us, but due to the fiscal crisis and our ever-shrinking wallet, Sara and I never dared to enter) It was down right expensive. Outrageously so. 2 pounds something for a bowl of rice?! How can it not be included with curry?!? How are you supposed to eat curry without rice? Later I returned to my room. As I unpacked, Melissa, Semeli, and Sara were astonished at how much ramen, tuna fish, and macaroni and cheese the suitcase held. It was quite hilarious.

The next couple of days was a whirlwind of walking and exploring the quaint town of Edinburgh. I took my parents to Grassmarket street (where they used to trade livestock AND watch public executions. There is nothing like killing two birds with one stone. Person 1: "Hey, let's go pick up some chickens as we watch Burke hang!" Person 2: "That sounds like a bitchin' good time!") On a side note, for you history buffs, William Burke and William Hare were two Scots who went on a rampaging murder spree to collect bodies. This was around the time when they were really into disecting bodies for medical research. A doctor, Robert Knox bought each body (depending on condition) for 10 pounds (most men back then made roughly 25 pounds a year, so the Williams were rolling in the dough!) Unfortuantely for the Williams, they were not too bright and were caught. Burke was hung before a crowd of 26,000. Oh man, what they did for entertainment before the clever invention of television...

A little street, Victoria's Street, connects to Grassmarket where there is a delectable eatery called Oink. It literally has a roasted pig in the window (head and all!) You go in and order pulled pork on a roll with crackling. Yummy. It was GOOD. We then perused the Royal Mile, Princes Street, my campus, the writers museum, and various other Edinburgh highlights. Sunday we went to the Walter Scott monument and climbed the 287 steps. It was marvelous. Excruciatingly narrow once ontop and really weird vertigo, but it provided a paraonmic view of Edinburgh. It was wonderfully sunny, and bright out the whole day which made everything more vivid and worthwhile. We also went to see the Impressionist exhibit and Ocean Terminal (which is a mall with that the Britiannia is docked at--the Queen's private yacht) In addition we went on a bus tour around Edinburgh which was helpful, and took me to new places I had never seen. It was a wonderful day!

Tonight my dad is cooking for my friends and I (Sara, and her entire apartment!) and i'm quite excited! Wednesday we're off to London for another adventure! =)

Victoria's Street, ain't it cute?
Yum!

Ocean Terminal, look at the clouds reflected in the water. Gorgeous.

Do you understand? This WHOLE telephone booth belongs to Lionel Richie. I thought it was HILARIOUS.

The Jolly Judge Pub! & look, there's a jolly judge standing in front of it!

The Parentals!
Part of the Castle, can you imagine scaling those rocks?
Prince's Street from the Walter Scott Monument
Another view from the Monument!
The Walter Scott Monument, Look at those spirals! I climbed em'!
The Monument at Dusk.

Hope all is fantastical!
<3