All By Myself (sung loudly, mournfully)

It's 9:00pm, and I'm back at the internet cafe for the evening. I didn't manage to make any friends today either. In my defense, everyone had already left my room or was still alseep when I was getting ready to head out this morning at 10:00am. Since there were no prospective friends, I went back to the internet cafe to look up some information for the rest of my travels. Unfortunately becoming a regular at this place hasn't led to me finding friends. Instead I spent the day alone.

I started off at Edinburgh Castle. It was £12 to enter, so I thought seriously about whether or not it was worth it to me. Ultimately I decided that I would probably regret it if I didn't enter and, as my dad's daughter, I made sure that I saw all of the parts that were open just to get my money's worth. I definitely didn't spend as long as he would have though. Surprisingly, it was roasting - I thought it would be drafty - and I ended up having to rush through one of the exhibits. As much as I wanted to know the history behind the Honours of Scotland, I didn't want to smack my head against a stone wall if I fainted from the heat.

Once I wrapped up there, I headed out to explore the Princes Street Gardens. There was a winding path leading down from the castle into the gardens and crossing over the train tracks. It was a bit secluded back there and I couldn't help but be slightly worried that a psycho would attack me while I was strolling along. I know I was just being paranoid though - the most dangerous person I saw was a girl posing for pictures wearing a tee-shirt that said "Daddy's Girl" just before I crossed over to the more populated part of the park. Feeling safer, I sat on a bench and wrote in my journal to kill some time. Since I haven't had anyone to talk to all day, I had to write to myself.

From the gardens, I headed back to the High Street and walked into the other direction until I reached the Scottish Parliament and Holyrood Palace, the Scottish residence of the Royal Family. The Parliament building was really interesting looking because it was partially made of stone in the old castle-like style, but then it had a newer design over it that looked sort of like a cross between the Sydney Opera House and a bird cage. On the other side of the street, there was the palace, but having just seen the Edinburgh Castle, I wasn't that excited by it. Instead, I wandered into the park, and then decided to hike up a bit into the Salisbury Crags. You should google them. At the edge of the city, there are gorgeous cliffs that have a phenomenal view of the city and surrounding areas. I got as far up them as I could and took some pictures before heading back down.

At the bottom, I meant to sit and rest on the benches outside Parliament to take a minute to look over my trip budget, but there was a man walking around with a hawk-like bird that he was letting fly away and then calling back to him. I had this image of the bird attacking me, so I decided to find somewhere else to sit. There was a bench a little ways up the road, so I settled down there, and then I continued on to buy postcards. There was a Starbucks on the way back to the main part of High Street, so I wrote the postcards there while drinking another yummy hot chocolate.

By the time I was done, I didn't really know what to do with myself. I had seen everything that I planned on seeing in Edinburgh and it was getting dark. I decided to go to the movies again, but when I got there, I still had over an hour and a half until the movie started. I wandered around a nearby shopping center during that time and wrote in my journal again, and finally it was 6:00. I went to go see Up, expecting to be the oldest person there without kids, but there were actually a bunch of young adults there. I was the only one by myself though. I have to say, it's a little depressing going to the movies alone, but I didn't have anything better to do - my hostel only leads a pub crawl on Thursdays.

I'm not sorry that I came here by myself, but I am very excited about meeting up with Chelsea tomorrow in St. Andrew's. To be honest, I don't really know what's in the town other than the university, but I hear it's beautiful and I can't wait to be around someone that I know.