Wow, Day 11 already? Here I am chugging along to the 2 week mark!
Last night, I'm happy to report that I did indeed end up going out. When I got back to the hostel in the late afternoon, I was pretty determined to chat some people up so I headed out to the patio. Michelle noticed me just kinda aimlessly wandering out there so she asked how my day was and set about having a real conversation with me. She's Aussie (it explains her friendliness) who's been living in London but was getting sick of it so decided to live in Edinburgh for a month, just working and living. It's so amazing to see how many people are doing that who live in the hostel, it inspires me. Then a bunch more Aussies were out there so I chatted with all of them too. Then Michelle told me that I should come out with all of them later that night and of course I agreed.
I walked inside and as soon as I did, I saw the girl who I had met the day before from UC Berkeley, her name is Dalia (DUH-lee-uh). She had spent the day with three of her German roommates and another girl named Shannon. They offered me some wine and I just ended up hanging out with them. The boys (Alex, Timothy aka Timo, and Josh) were really funny and nice, I definitely wasn't expecting to make such good friends with Germans, I don't know why. Alex was particularly nice in offering me a beer and goding me into going out with them. They were so funny, trying to get us to help them better their English (which was quite good already, I feel like such a stupid monolingual American bastard) and just joking around.
(This is a point in my trip that I regretted not having at least my Converse and a nice sweater. Dancing in New Balances and a sweatshirt (although I did wear my nice tank... and of course everyone is casual) is not my ideal way to go. But, no matter, it's not like anyone really notices. I mean, come on, everyone's drunk.)
So around 11:30pm, a group of 7 of us headed over to Old Town. Two Aussies named Scott and Kirsty met us in town along with Michelle who found us at the first pub, The Advocate. The band was this acoustic pair playing such favorites as, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Under the Bridge," and "Good Riddance (Time of your Life)." Ha ha ha. We all sang along though and were already somewhat toasted at that point before the lights went up around 1:30am (the time pubs close but clubs stay open till 3am) and we had to head out. We ended up at "Subway" and stayed there till closing. Michelle somehow lead us home the long way and we got back to the hostel around 4:30am.
Oh, while we were in Old Town after we had left "Subway," we passed by this youngish guy who was singing kinda loudly to himself so I yelled, "Where's the party?!" and he goes, "I don't know, I'm trying to find it!" and went on his separate way. Well, when we walked into the hostel, another group of guys arrived right after us and it turned out to be that guy and his friends! Turns out they're from England and their friend is about to get married (I'm not sure if this was a bachelor's thing or what, there was a lot of loud chatter and confusion in the hallway). I tried to get everyone to be quiet because it WAS 4:30am but it failed (as there were about 15 of us now in the front hallway) and Daniel (the manager on duty who lives in my room actually) had to shush us to the lounge downstairs.
Finally got to bed around 6am, having had a wonderful night out on the town (finally). The people I met at the hostel are wonderful and I feel grateful for the fact that I tend to meet really genuine people in my life (for the most part). Are my friends and I just naturally drawn to each other because of that? Walking through the streets of Edinburgh in the middle of the night felt comfortable and I really trusted these people like I'd known them for years. The only thing that would have made it better would be if the Dork Crew had been there too :) Yeah, so now I am totally in love with my hostel, it truly does just feel like a big house and family. So now I know, little hostels are the way to go!
Today I was quite hungover, which if you know me, doesn't usually happen. So of course I was a big baby about it and woke up late (10:30) before schelepping around the hostel, said goodbye to the Germans, empathized with Dalia, before finally getting some greasy fast food to settle my stomach. I had promised myself to go see the National Gallery so I went over there. Luckily it's a somewhat small collection and I was able to just kinda amble as my head felt a bit detached from my body.
Now I feel fine except I need a shower and a nap. I may not end up going out tonight but possibly tomorrow since it's my last night in Scotland!!! Then off to Barcelona, I can't believe it. Of course time flies when you're having fun.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment