first glimpse of scotland.

hadrian's wall, never heard of this before. 

i guess it is the wall that separated the roman's and the scott's. it goes on for miles! we stopped for a few.

view from above the city in edinburgh our first night in scotland. so beautiful!! i love that i can see the ocean from there. the air is so crisp and fresh. 

a small hike up to arthur's seat was planned on sunday afternoon. it was a hike and it's a good thing i wore my tightest pair of jeans! seriously. 

it was so so beautiful.

on monday, we took off north to inverness. driving of course. we stopped at the culloden battle field but i didn't take much too it... i had no idea what it even was! don't judge.

we stayed the night and drove west to fort williams. loch ness was on the way and we all hoped we could catch nessie out of the water. unfortunately, it didn't happen. still, an amazing body of water!

"nessie".

after loch ness, there was time to spare walking around the city because we couldn't check into our hostel. of course, we found a cafe with FREE wi-fi. yay! the hostel was seriously in the mountains. afterall, we were in the highlands area. the land where people go to hike the mountain. they are the serious ones with the hiking sticks and everything!

when i say camping, i literally meant that. thirteen girls in one room. no floor space. and bugs flying in the windows. a spider got a yummy taste of my skin. ew. 

kelsey's face speaks for itself.

we were on our way back to edinburgh for our last few nights in scotland and on the study! (can you believe that??) the area we drove through was amazing. everything is so beautiful, i feel like it's only things i've seen in movies! 

stirling castle and the braveheart monument were right in our path to edinburgh.

alas, arriving back in edinburgh, we were all pleased to find out that we have our OWN rooms. i repeat, our own rooms! it's been wonderful. 

spare time and a bit of a slower pace these last couple days has been the best thing. 

perfect.

lakey lakey.

one of my favorite places this whole trip, the lake district, more specifically, hawkshead. we were all so exhausted from our drive, lots of driving this past week and half! but we got settled in our hostel late and decided on a community dinner and it was just glorious! penne pasta with red sauce, salad, and garlic bread. let's just say, it was a warm meal and different from a store bought sandy (that would be sandwich)! 

our room in the hostel was spacious and quite cozy, at least i thought. we were in the lake district right near a lake, obviously. the air was crisp and cool. reminded me of fall time in utah. and man, i miss that! but soon enough, it will be here. and now that i think of it, i'm not quite sure how i feel about it!

the morning we left from that hostel, we went for a run at 630 am. it was SO beautiful! i loved it. 4 1/2 miles around the lake and so refreshing.

more bunk beds? check.

in the same area was beatrix potter's house. she is the author of the peter rabbit tales. her house was ancient and full of heirlooms from her herself. pretty neat. 

the house.

yorkie poo.

still traveling north, york was next. 


another minster, yes, york minster. (i swear, all of these pictures are starting to jumble together!)

we marched on this roman wall into the city.

this guy looks super comfortable, don't you think?

there was a neat crypt underneath the main part of the minster that held things from the history of this particular minster. this church had gone through reining's from roman's, saxon's, norman's, and a medieval period. the architecture was, again, amazing and articulate. 


after seeing the church, we had about an hour and a half to spare and we wandered through the town. we passed a little shop that was doing, yes, you guess it... deluxe aqua pedicures. guess what this means? a pedicure where fish suck the dead skin off of your feet!
catie and i were the only ones who would brave this activity. 

i could NOT put my feet in. i was so scared.

wonderful hot cocoa though!

it was the weirdest feeling! the fish were without teeth so they literally sucked on your skin. i was dying laughing and crying. it was hilarious. had there been others in the shop, they probably would have walked out. 


fountain's abbey. another historic abbey. it was huge! and there were gardens and grounds that went around for two miles.