Roz Saves the Day

"Are you kidding me? I gave them 80 bucks and I got 45 pounds! What a rip-off, eh?"
Although I was disoriented and really, really jet-lagged, I was still able to loudly proclaim everything that was wrong with the world (or maybe just the value of a U.S. dollar). And talk like a Canadian while I was at it.

While Pa was exhanging all our money, Grandma and I were sitting on a bench with all the luggage. A woman in a suit rushed up to us and asked us in a heavy Scottish accent if she could ask us a few questions about our time in the Edinburgh airport. They were pretty standard questions, but as she turned to go away, Grandma called out, "I like your accent!"

She turned back to us, and said, "Oh, I like yours too!" and hurried off.

"I like your accent?" I asked Grandma.

"It sounded so cool! It sounded so Scottish!" She protested.

"Yeah, and that's not a touristy thing to say at all," I replied, but I couldn't say anything more, because Pa returned with their money and my 45 pounds, and it was time to get our rental car.

Even though I hoped and prayed and hoped some more, our rental was not a Nissan Versa. It was a UK car with leather seats and the steering wheel on the wrong side.

"Why do you want a Nissan Versa so bad?" Grandma asked.

"It was on Heroes!"

Grandma just shook her head.

"It's like wanting to fly into Scranton for Jonathan's wedding because of The Office!"

As we talked about Scranton and the wedding and disputed whether or not The Office was funny, Pa loaded in our bags and figured out how to use the car. Not only was the steering wheel on the opposite side, but we had to drive on the opposite side of the road. To top it all off, the car was a stick shift. My contribution to it all was to give Roz the directions to our hotel.

Who is Roz, you may ask? We brought her so that we would never get lost while we were over in Europe. All we have to do is give her an address, and she'll tell us how to get there. Can you guess? She's Grandma's GPS! We named her last year when we driving to Disneyland because after she got us out of this scary little town called Maxwell, we deecided she deserved a name. And so she was christened "Roz" after the slug in Monsters, Inc.

The first 15 minutes or so after we left the airport and headed into the New Town, I was pretty convinced that we were going to get in a car crash. Having to drive on the other side of the road, on the other side of the car, all while using a stick was understandably very hard for Pa, and we had a few minor incidents (we actually hit a tour bus, but it was okay because only our mirror was scraped). Admittedly, we would probably still be driving the streets of Edinburgh if it weren't for Roz and her step-by-step directions. Most of Edinburgh's streets either don't have signs or are hidden on the sides of building, so we had no idea when to turn. Luckily, Roz was there to tell when it was time to turn. Thanks, Roz!

Our hotel was located on Cowgate, in the Old Town. The Old Town is the original part of Edinburgh, and many of its buildings are easily 400 years old. The New Town was built in the late 18th century to avoid overcrowding in the old town, and even though most of its buildings weren't erected until the 1800's, they were all older than anything I had ever seen in Everett! But as we drove down the main road towards Old Town, I kind of wished I could have been here 200 years ago, to see the town without all the roads and cars and modern buildings. I kind of got my wish when we reached Old Town, when the concrete road ended and it was all cobblestone. There were these amazing churches, like the one at the top of the page. Down the street from the hotel, there was one that was built in 1514!

After we got to our room and got settled, we decided to go exploring a little. We set off down the cobblestone street towards the Royal Mile, which is the main road that leads to Edinburgh Castle. Even the shops were in these centuries-old buildings! I wanted to take lots of pictures, but I quickly learned that in Edinburgh, nobody really cared that you wanted to take pictures. People would walk right in front of the camera without even an "excuse me". Pa had a little more success, but I didn't take two thousand pictures like I had wanted to.

A few minutes after we left our hotel, it started to rain. We all had our raincoats on, so we thought it wasn't a big deal. But while we were in a shop, it started to really rain. It rained so hard that you could barely see to the other side of the street. It rained so hard that there was about two inches of water rushing down the sloped road. It rained so hard that we decided that it wasn't worth it to make a run for it, so I stood there in the tartan shop, thinking grumpily that I had left Seattle to escape the rain.

When it had eased to a steady drizzle, the three of us decided to continue exploring. The drizzling eventually dropped off into sunshine, but there was about four inches of water on some of the sidewalks. We walked from Old Town to New Town and back, looking at all the cool old buildings. While we were doing that, we made a great discovery: there was a Starbucks about two blocks from our hotel! We were positive that there were no Starbucks in Europe, but here it was, in a 200 year old building! Grandma and I were ecstatic. I don't think Pa appreciated it as much.

All that walking made us hungry, so we decided to stop for lunch at a nearly-empty Scottish restaurant. An older guy came up and asked us if we wanted drinks. Grandma said no. Pa said no. The guy said, "Okay then," and walked away.

Gee, thanks for asking me.

For a split second, I considered ordering haggis, but I quickly came to my senses. In case you don't know, haggis is a sheep's stomach stuffed with oatmeal and sheep intestines. It's a traditional dish in Scotland, but I thought I would pretty embarrassed if I threw up in the restaurant.

After a lot of walking, Grandma and I went back to the hotel and Pa went to a pub to meet some of the people in his clan, clan Fraser. I it was 6:00 then, and I made it three more hours until I finally fell asleep. I was exhausted and jet-lagged, and I definitely needed it!

Today is the first day of the Gathering 2009. We're almost ready to head out, so I guess I should stop for now.

Love,

Kiera