Leaving the UK

Friday was my last day in Edinburgh, and therefore also my last day in the UK. 

David dropped me off at the train station, so I could leave my bag there and do a little more exploring before my 16:00 flight to Oslo.   I will definitely miss him.  He was a little quieter than my previous hosts, but he was very knowledgeable about Scotland and other important things.  I wish I had had more time to pick apart his brain, as I am so uninformed about anything on this side of the Atlantic.

After checking my bag in a locker, I headed DIRECTLY to the castle. 

I wasn't leaving the country before I had seen it.

Everything was even more beautiful in the morning.  All the buildings, churches, and statues were shrouded in fog.  I wouldn't say that it was cold out exactly.  More, crisp.  It was supposed to be another lovely day.

The castle didn't come into full view until I was practically tripping over its flagstones.

Victory. Finally.

Edinburgh Castle really consisted of a wall around several different buildings.  I spent a bit of time in the war museum there, which included history from just about every time period.  I can only imagine what fighting in a kilt was like.  As with Britain, some uniforms were for function, but a lot of them were just meant to look sharp and intimidating.  Fashion them to death I suppose.  There was also a military monument that honored all the different types of soilders in all the different wars and conquests undertaken by the British Empire, that of course Scotland participated in. 

Then came the real castle-y part.

Short history lesson (of course).  Scotland used to be its own independent nation.  There was a bit of back and forth where England would take over the castle, but the Scots would regain it again not too much later.  Each had their own monarchs, but they were all distantly related in some way, just as the monarchs of France, Norway, etc are also distantly intertwined (I do believe).  Anyways, in 1603, Queen I Elizabeth of England died without an heir, and King James VI of Scotland happened to be her first cousin twice removed. So he became the monarch of both countries.  He left for England and promised to return to Scotland tri-annually.  He only came back once before he died, when Edinburgh threw a party for him.  At this time the two nations, Scotland and England, remained seperate even though they shared a monarch.  In 1707 is when they actually joined to form Great Britian.

The castle held the portraits of the last sole monarchs of Scotland, as well as the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny, which has its own interesting story, including a theft from Westminster Abbey.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_of_Scone

After the castle, I went to the National Museum where I spent 2 hours in the Egyptian exhibit.  I had plans to go see the Scottish History part, but I just couldn't help myself and got a little carried away in Egypt (an obsession I've had since I was fairly young).  I WILL go there someday, but I can wait until things are a bit more stable if I have to.

It was an uneventful bus ride to the airport.  An uneventful check-in at the airport (thank goodness),  and an uneventful flight to Oslo, Norway.  I did however get a little worried as we were preparing to land.  There were frozen lakes and patches of snow I could see clearly from my window seat.  I was prepared for cold, but not THAT cold.  Getting off the plane proved that the weather in Oslo was just about the same as the weather in Edinburgh.  Not what one expects at the same latitude as Anchorage. 

If you've never flown with Ryan Air before, this is how it works.  The seats are plastic. You pay for your own peanuts.  You pay to check any bag that isn't your purse.  You also fly to a smaller airport that isn't quite in the city you think you're flying to.  Its usually a half hour to an hour bus ride into the real city.  However, because of all this, Ryan Air flights are dirt cheap.  I've taken an 8 Euro flight before (approximately $11).

I was so excited to be paying in Euros again, after switching back and forth to GB Pounds.  As soon as I got on the bus, I remembered that they don't use Euros here.  They have Norwegian Kronors.  For those of you that were fooled by the whole "unification of Europe under one Euro", I'm right there with you. 

Its not the exchanging that bothers me.  Its converting what I am spending back to American dollars in my head that's the pain in the ass.  Its hard to keep a budget when nothing is ever the same rate.  In case you were wondering, 57 Kronor is 10 US dollars.  Luckily, this country has embraced Visa, which makes things a little easier.  (If I could log onto my Wells Fargo account that is).

The bus took about an hour, and then we pulled in to Oslo's central station where my next host, Erkki, would be meeting me.

God kveld Oslo
Tegs