"Cheers!" from Scotland!!

Hello for probably the final time from beyond the United States! This is Megan, typing without the aid of my trusty sidekick, Nikki, as she is comfortably back in Los Angeles in her own bed in her own home... I cannot wait to be able to claim the same in *my* life!

I am at an internet cafe in Edinburgh with 9 minutes to spare before I can check in for my British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Phoenix where I will spend the 4th of July holiday at a Comfort Inn before I fly two more Alaska flights, on Saturday the 5th, to Seattle and then to Sacramento... again, the joy of using mileage points!

To wind down the past few days, I will go back to Tuesday... which was Nikki's last full day in Scotland. We checked in to the Osborne Hotel, a place that I found online as was pretty darn inexpensive... for a reason. It is run by one Scotish woman and her team of Polish folks, and Nikki and I were eventually given the keys to a BASEMENT room (truly, the garbage cans were outside our windows) after we stored our luggage and toured the area a bit. After we got our bearings and Nikki checked in for her flights at this same cafe, we grabbed lunch at a local pub and made our way back to the hotel to get setteld for the one night in this family-sized room, complete with two beds (one queen and one twin) and a baby's play-pen! RANDOM room, truly, and we've been in MANY rooms along the way!

We then walked to the Edinburgh Castle, and has become our form when touring the sites, we had 45 minutes to check it out before they closed... and we concluded our exploration in about 20. Holla! :) What a beautiful, historical place, and I can now claim that I have seen the Royal Jewels in both England and Scotland in 2008! We then stumbled upon an excellent Thai restaurant, just around the corner from the hotel, and that was the end of that day.

The next morning came early as Nikki, like myself tomorrow morning, needed to catch a 5am shuttle to the airport for her 6:30am flight... and the shuttle pick-up spot is about a ten minute walk from the hotel. So I walked with her, to say good-bye and to get my bearings for my solo journey tomorrow, and I was back to the hotel to sleep a bit more. I then had to check-out and move into my own single room that turns out, does NOT have a bathroom. Special. That was not what I booked but after talking to the front desk, they apologized but had nothing else to offer me... so, it's like staying in a large mansion with friends (that is how I am choosing to look at the experience, anyway!).

And now I am checked in for both my British Airways flight and my little Southwest-Airlines-type flight on BMI tomorrow morning from Edinburgh to London Heathrow. :)

So, yesterday I decide to take a walk to the other end of The Royal Mile (Edinburgh Castle is at one end and The Palace at Holyroodhouse is at the other end, and it was my goal to walk The Royal Mile, see the Palace, and hopefully figure out how to hike this mammoth mountain-ish thing called Arthur's Seat. And I was able to do all of it except tour the Palace because The Queen is in town so the public cannot view her Royal Home when she is in town. Arthur's Seat took me about 45 minutes to hike UP (phew!) and the views were amazing. And still no rain, so I was counting my blessings!

I then went back to the hotel to check in to my little room and then I went to see a movie (Sex And The City, for the second time... why not, right?) and had dinner at the Thai place again! I went to sleep after doing some sink-laundry and watching the DaVinci Code, which features the Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh, at the very end of the film/book!!

Today has been rather mellow, but I was able to go to mass this morning at the Cathedral (which is right around the corner from the hotel... again, this is a sign!), listen to a cute bagpiper while eating lunch, and now I'm here! I will go see movie #2 today (Hancock, with Will Smith... why not, right?!) and try to get to sleep early because tomorrow will start early and end late.

Thank you all, once again, for following along with us on our fun adventure, and I will try to write once again when I return to CA on Saturday July 5th... to then begin MY next adventure of packing up my home and life to ship off to Seattle. :)

Bye!