A week of Scotland

This was the first time I've spent more than a few days in any one place. I got to spend a whole WEEK in Scotland!

The first night was: me flying to Edinburgh solo and staying in the crappiest hostel of my trips yet (but that's alright! It was $10).
After that day 1, I spent the rest of my time with my awesome team and friends from the English Riding Club at CSU! And we were staying at a flat, which was pretty fancy for me :)

It was so amazing to get to see people from home and spend a week together!
We spent two days in the city: site seeing, exploring the castle, going on a whiskey/scotch tour (I'm not a fan) and doing three "lovely" haunted tours. I'm still not quite sure how I got roped into doing 3 things that aren't my typical "cup of tea"
-Edinburgh Dungeon - a haunted house of sorts with actors and props to retell Edingburghs "bloody past" with cannibals, torture and grave robbers/murderers that sold bodies to doctors.
-Witches Tour - tour around the city at 9pm (but it was light out, so not very spooky!) about witchcraft in Medieval Edinburgh.. pretty much anybody for any reason could be accused and then no matter what they died somehow. It was horrible. But the tour guide was funny and kept the tour fun with lots of inappropriate jokes.
- Haunted Ghost Tour - (not sure on actual name) but this one was positively horrible! I know a lot of people that would have LOVED it.. but I'm not that kind of person. We went into the underground vaults that are supposed to be extremely haunted. A man had one of those supernatural voice reader things (I was pretty pissed when he showed us) and at one point it said his girlfriends name, and then it said "run".. now I don't know if I trust or believe in those things.. but at that moment I did NOT need that. Also a real/current wiccen covent is also down in the vaults which was kind of cool until we were shown the chamber that used to be their main sanctuary but now they won't go in there anymore after something happened to the leader in it. Lets just say I'm still not too happy about this tour! (I'm a chicken I know!)
I'm proud to say I survived all scary part and didn't wet my pants once!

Fried Mars Bars... oh yum

Edinburgh was such a cool city! I loved the people and how friendly everybody was! They also have an amazing goodie: deep fried mars bars.. oh yes! (a local said they will deep fry anything, even pizza!). I was also pretty stoked that I got as much ice in my pop and ketchup for my fries that I wanted... yes it is the little things that make me happy!

After our days in the city we got a rental car.. no big deal right? except that we were in the UK.. so Tiare, our brave coach got behind the wheel on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road in a manual car.. She successfully drove us to the Perth Racetrack. There I got to see my first hurdle and steeplechase races! I learned that hurdle races are smaller jumps and steeplechases are much bigger (and much more dangerous!). The day was extremely rainy, wet and cold so we ended up not staying for all the races and headed to St. Andrews, a town outside of Edinburgh with gorgeous remains of a cathedral and graveyard. We were all still very cold though (and my shoes and socks were soaked through) so it was a short trip!

Photo by Tiare- Steeplechase

The next day of the car we headed out for a road trip through Scotland! The driving consisted of spurts of hyperness, sleeping and eating. Thanks to Delani's amazing navigational skills we saw: Stirling Castle (Wallace Memorial from a distance), some hairy cows (harry coo in 'Scottish'), the Black Mountains, the highlands, numberous lochs, old buildings, and the Hogwarts Express train bridge! (I seem to find Harry Potter sites all over)

That evening we went to a "get together" for the RDSVS Horse Society's International Competition. We got to draw horses and orders for the next day (since I wasn't riding that was my job). The teams to be considered for team championship had to be 4 members. Because I haven't ridden in so long (almost 6 months now!) I had already said I was completely fine not ridding and just going along to see everyone and be team support. We still had 1 extra so two people were going to split dressage and jumping so that they all got to ride. However, London's team was short one person so Julie said she was ok with riding for them, which meant that everyone got to ride the full competition and both teams could qualify for champion.

The team!

Saturday bright and really really early we all got up and took a bus to the show! The girls all did amazing! Some of the horses were huge and very strong and there were also some cute little ponies! Everyone kicked butt with the horse they got. Emily earned 4th in jumping and 7th in dressage while Julie got 6th in dressage. Our team got 6th overall and Julie's team got 5th overall. It was a really fun day for everyone! (It definitely made me want to start showing Sox again though)

Our last day in Scotland was probably my favorite.. it ranks up there with the best days of my life! We took a short train ride outside of Edinburgh and got to ride horses on the beach! I've done my fair share of tourist trail rides before and this was nothing like those! Our horses were happy and alert and so excited for their job. (Even though I must admit I did not take my horse for a ride... he took me for a ride!) They all knew their job exactly and didn't need to be told anything! As soon as we stepped onto the beach they were hard to contain. As soon as we were allowed to loosen our grips they all exploded into a gallop! I was warned beforehand that I had the fastest horse. It was pretty amazing! I don't know if I've ever galloped so fast before (I won all of our "races"). After our gallops we got to wander through the water and then headed back. It was heavenly to be back in the saddle! By the end of the ride though I thought my ankles would snap, my knees would fall off and my back would be thrown out.. and the next few days weren't any better, I'm still a bit sore! But it was OH SO WORTH IT!

Scotland was such an amazing trip! The city was one of my favorites (even though I hated the ghost stuff) and it was such a treat to get to see and do things outside of the capital! I really love Scotland!

Racing on the beach!