Scottish Highlands | October 12-15, 2024

As many of you know, Scotland is one of my favorite places. A few months ago, I looked at flights and noticed I could visit Inverness and the Isle of Skye for a reasonable price. So, I booked a ticket and invited some friends. One said yes, and off we went.

An unexpected stop in London

After a red-eye flight to Heathrow Airport, we promptly missed our connection due to delays taking off in Boston and a short layover. We got onto the flight to Inverness that night, left our luggage at the airport, and took the Heathrow Express into the city.

I have a photo of myself sitting in front of the lion statues in Trafalgar Square, and I was thinking of recreating it until I saw the signs forbidding people from climbing Nelson's Column. Instead, we walked down to Buckingham Palace. From there, we walked down to see Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster. Since it was Saturday, it was packed with people, so we didn't hang out for too long. Instead, we decided to walk along the River Thames before we got too hungry and had to make a stop at Pret-A-Manger. 

It was too early to head back to the airport, so we took the train to Notting Hill and looked at the colorful homes. We looked at some of the Saturday Market stalls that were open in the streets and then walked a giant circle around the area before the rain became too much, and we chose to take the bus back to Paddington Station to the Heathrow Express. 

Inverness

We eventually made it to Inverness, where we promptly dropped our suitcases off and made our way to the Hootananny Pub. A childhood friend of mine, who now lives in Germany, decided to come to Scotland as well, so we caught up with her. Even though we thought we'd only be good for one drink, we stayed out until almost 2 a.m.

Sunday

The two of us met up with my friend from Germany and her friend for breakfast at Charlie's Cafe before deciding what to do for the day. We had planned to take a bus up to Dunrobin Castle but quickly realized that some countries and cities relax on Sundays. The bus wasn't running when we needed it, and a taxi would have been too expensive, so we started walking around Inverness instead.

We walked down to Dolphin Spirit, but there were only two spaces left on the boat, so we headed to Uilebheist Distillery & Brewery for a drink instead. Afterward, we walked down to the Ness Islands before returning to the city center.

We had lunch at the Highlander (I had a delicious steak and ale pie) before the two girls caught a bus to Glasgow, where they would return home to Germany. 

The rest of the day consisted of shopping in any open souvenir shop, getting dinner at Blackfriars, returning to the Highlander for some live music, and then one last drink at Ash before heading to bed.

Monday

Today, we took the Rabbie's Skye & Eilean Donan Castle tour. This was a big reason I chose to stay in Inverness, and it did not disappoint. Our tour guide's name was Dave, and he was very knowledgeable about the area and its history. 

We stopped for photos at Loch Ness and Loch Cluanie before our first big stop at the Eilean Donan Castle. At the castle, you can pay to go over the bridge to walk the grounds or enter the castle. After grabbing some hot drinks, we only had time to walk the grounds, but we were fine with that choice. The original castle was destroyed in the 18th century as punishment for its use in the Jacobite Rebellions. Lt Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap purchased and rebuilt it in the 20th century.

After driving over the Skye Bridge, we stopped for lunch in Portree. The two of us ate at Cuchullin, where I tried mussels for the first time. I ate a few but mainly stuck with the salmon and scallops. I also tried and enjoyed Cullen Skink, a traditional Scottish smoked haddock chowder. 

Our next stops were Kilt Rock, a view of the Old Man of Storr, and Quiraing, which offered some beautiful views. Our last stop was in Kyleakin, where we grabbed a drink at Saucy Mary's before the bus took us back to Inverness.

My only complaint was that we didn't get to pet any Highland cows. We saw some from the bus, but Dave wasn't able to find a good place to stop. 

I would have also done the Fairy Pools walk if we had toured the Isle of Skye alone. This tour didn't take us anywhere near them, which was fine, but they would have been a fun experience.

Tuesday

After checking out of our hotel but leaving our bags, we walked over to the Victorian Market for a hot drink at Milk Bar before taxiing to the Culloden Battlefield.

Dave gave us a summary of the battle during our Rabbie tour, but walking through the museum and reading about everything that happened was very informative. We saw clan grave markers and walked around the battlefield. 

There were Highland cows here, but they refused to come to the fence to be petted. I asked two cabbies if they knew anywhere nearby to pet some Highland cows, but we were out of luck on this trip.

We headed straight to Leakey's Bookshop, the largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland. Neither of us bought anything, but it was a really cool bookshop to look around in. 

We ended our trip with afternoon tea at Best Western Inverness Palace Hotel & Spa. It was delicious, but if I were to go back and had more time, I'd go a little outside of Inverness to Bunchrew House or Quila Cridhe. The Mustard Seed is a nice restaurant, and we couldn't get a table Sunday night for dinner, so we decided to have a goodbye wine to end the trip.

The Inverness Castle is closed for renovations, but we would have done that Sunday or Tuesday.

Where We Stayed

When booking our trip, we were between two hotels and decided to treat ourselves and go with the slightly more expensive Royal Highland Hotel. It was a great choice. This hotel has so much history, and it's absolutely gorgeous. We heard someone say the stairs were designed by the same architect who did them on the Titanic, and we believed it. They look very similar. 

Included with our booking was a complimentary drink and a 2-course meal ticket at the connecting restaurant Ash. When we returned from the Rabbie's tour, we got an appetizer to split, an entree each, and a dessert to split. 

It's also in the perfect location. Right next to the ScotRail, a block from the bus stops, and across the street from the Victorian Market.

Overall

It was a great trip. We could have used one more day since we ended up in London on Saturday, and a lot of stuff was closed on Sunday, but we saw everything we could in Inverness. The weather was a little chilly but not as rainy as I expected. Seeing a part of Scotland that I hadn't visited before was fun.

5 Days in Edinburgh, Scotland | What to do

Many of you know that I studied in Scotland for the 2019-2020 school year. I was a postgraduate student earning a MSc in Creative Writing. However, due to COVID, my time in Edinburgh got cut short and ever since I've been itching to go back. I finally got the chance, and some family and I went to Edinburgh in early May 2022. There were nine of us traveling together.

Where we stayed:

We got hotel rooms at the Wilde Aparthotels By Staycity Grassmarket. This location was fantastic. It's at the base of Castle Rock and on a street lined with pubs. The famous Victoria Street is at the other end and leads you straight to the Royal Mile.

We considered getting an AirBNB, but the houses that could fit all nine of us were pretty far from Old Town and my sister was concerned that there weren't enough bathrooms for us to all get ready in a decent time every morning. It was an interesting concern for her to have, but at the end of the day, it was valid. Plus, after spending all day together, it was nice to go back to a hotel room with only one other person.

What we did:

My family members had flight vouchers because they were supposed to come visit me in early June 2020. For that trip, we were planning on doing both London and Edinburgh, but since a few travel restrictions were still in place when we were planning our new trip, and we didn't want to have to take off too many days from work, we decided to only visit Edinburgh. I did my best to cram as much as possible into the short trip, and not to toot my own horn, but I think I did a pretty good job.

We really lucked out with the weather. If it rained, it was a light rain that only lasted for a little while.

Thursday:

Our red eye flights were scheduled to land in Edinburgh around 9:20am, however we ended up getting slightly delayed. No big deal, we grabbed our luggage and headed to the hotel to drop our bags.

I reserved lunch at The Three Sisters because it was one of my favorite places to go while I was at school. It has gone through some updates since 2020, but it was still great to visit and it was nice to start our day with a meal. On the way there we walked through the University of Edinburgh campus, where I had most of my classes, and stopped into the gift shop.

From there we walked to the Monkey Barrel Comedy Club because it is the meeting place for the Mountebank Comedy Walk. I knew we were all tired from traveling, and a two hour walking tour might not have sounded awesome to everyone, but I figured it was the best way to get a quick overview of Old Town and keep us from falling asleep too early. I had done the tour when my friend, Casey, came to visit me and loved how Daniel led his tour. We laughed hard while we learned about famous serial killers and the history of the Scottish national animal (it's a unicorn!). Daniel does a fantastic job of getting to know each of his tour groups enough to make them feel included, and crack jokes at their expense.

After the tour, we grabbed a drink at The Last Drop, since we had learned about it on the tour (it was where prisoners got one last drink before being hanged) before going back to the hotel to regroup.  

We ended that first day at Biddy Mulligans. 

Friday:

Friday we did the Rabbie's Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Highlands 1 day tour. This day started early, which I did partially on purpose to get us up and moving and partially because the weather that day was the best when I was scheduling this event. The tour left at 8:00am and got back to Edinburgh at 8:00pm. It was long, but it was fantastic. Our driver/tour guide Pete was amazing at storytelling - he was able to recount Scottish history while pointing out landmarks that we were driving past.

The tour stopped at Rannoch Moor, Glencoe, Great Glen, Fort Augustus, Loch Ness, Grampian Mountains, and Highland Perthshire before making one last stop to see Highland Cows. The Highland Cows were my highlight, but the longest stop was in Loch Ness where we were able to take a boat cruise on the Loch and learn about Nessie. 

When we got back to Edinburgh, we ended up grabbing some food at Mamma's American Pizza. This was unplanned, and what felt like the only open kitchen in Edinburgh by the time we got there. Afterwards, my sister and I grabbed drinks at The Black Bull.

Saturday:

My sister and I got up early to try to find a place for breakfast before dragging our whole group around the city. We walked to Em's Kitchen, which is delicious, but ultimately decided it was too far to make everyone walk to and ended up at Alba Bistro right in the Grassmarket, which was perfect.

We spent most of Saturday in Stirling. Stirling Castle is a lot of fun because it has tours and actors in costume to talk about what the castle was like when Kings and Queens lived there. After we explored the castle, we stopped at the ice cream truck that was parked outside (I got a 99 Flake), before walking towards the gin distillery. The Stirling Distillery ended up being closed for a private tour, so we walked right down the street to The Settle Inn, which is Stirling's oldest alehouse. It was the perfect Scottish pub: quaint, wood burning stove, great bartender - the works!

When we got back to Edinburgh, we grabbed dinner at City Restaurant. My friend from Grad School met us for dinner and it was great to see her again! My sister and I brought her back to her apartment and then met some of our group at The Black Bull.

Sunday:

Happy Mother's Day! At least it was for us/America. Because of this, I made a reservation at Tigerlily for brunch. We all loved it and agreed it was something we would do again if given the chance. On the walk from our hotel to Tigerlily we stopped in Princes Street Gardens to take a picture in front of the Ross Fountain.

My mom really wanted to see the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, so we walked there, but it was too early in the season and there weren't many flowers to see. We also accidentally walked to the entrance further away which added like a half hour to our walk. So all in all, not the greatest addition to our trip, but it was still nice. We could tell it would have been beautiful if it was further into the season.

We took a double decker bus back to Old Town and some of us did some shopping on the Royal Mile, while others went back to the hotel to relax before dinner. On the bus ride back, I made a reservation at The Pear Tree because they were able to show the Bruins game for us. It was a great addition to our week because it was a playoff game that was an afternoon game in Boston, so timing wise worked out great for us in Scotland.

Monday:

Our last full day. We had breakfast at Alba Bistro again, before climbing the stairs to Edinburgh Castle. Unfortunately, they weren't doing any tours at the castle the day we were there, but we spent about 2 hours walking around. From there we went to the The Scotch Whisky Experience. The experience starts with a ride in a whisky barrel and tells you how Scotch Whisky is made. Then you get to watch a short video about the different regions of Scotland and you select which Scotch you want to try. The Scotch Whisky Experience is home to the largest Scotch collection in the world, and looking at the different bottles is very interesting while you taste the Scotch.  

At the time of our trip, we needed negative COVID tests to travel back into the states. So, after we grabbed lunch at Deacon Brodies Tavern (I got a steak and ale pie - wicked good), we took a bus to a clinic right by Murrayfield Stadium. Thankfully we were all negative and got to come home with no issues the next day.

After our tests, we went to The White Hart Inn and Biddy Mulligans again.

What we didn't do:

There are plenty of more things to do in Edinburgh and surrounding areas, but of all the things I planned for, the only things we didn't do included extra walking. They were Arthur's Seat, Calton Hill, and the Meadows. Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill give great views of the city. We actually did walk to the Meadows on our way back from our COVID tests, but no one wanted to take the full lap. They would have been nice additions to our trip, but I can't really blame anyone for not wanting to do more walking.

Casey's Five Days in Edinburgh

One of my best friends from college, Casey, is now a teacher. Her mom reached out to me a few months ago and asked if it would be okay if she bought Casey a plane ticket to visit me over February Break. That happened to be my week off as well, which worked out great. Technically, Casey was here for seven days, but the day she arrived and the day she left we didn't do anything touristy.

So after Christmas, Casey and I planned an itinerary for her trip. That itinerary quickly went out the window once she got here because we had to work around the weather. Casey definitely got the Scottish weather that people talk about. Within an hour and a half, it rained, snowed, and completely cleared up, all while being incredibly windy.  

For anyone intending to visit Edinburgh, you can hit the highlights in about three days. However, because Casey was here for five full days, we spread everything in the city out over four days and spent one day out of the city. One thing we didn't do was go into any museums. If you're interested in the Scottish history museum or fine arts museum, you might need more than three days. But Edinburgh Castle, Palace at Holyroodhouse, the Royal Mile, Princes Street, Calton Hill, and Arthur's Seat (which we didn't do) could easily be done in three days.

As I said, the weather was wild, so we would go back to my flat in order to regroup at least once a day. We also were in no rush to start our days, because it was a vacation, so we didn't leave my flat until at least 11am every day.  

As the host, I was a little stressed because although I've been here since September, I've been focusing mostly on school. I go to the same four places every week and that's about it. I made sure that Casey felt like she saw everything she wanted to before she left, which she said she did. We also learned quite a bit about Scottish history throughout our different tours and activities.

Sunday, February 16

Casey landed in Edinburgh around 11:30am and was in my flat by 1pm. I spent the morning finishing up some homework and grabbing some candy from the grocery store. I showed her around my flat and then we headed to Civerino's Slice for lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and catching up. We ate dinner at The Pear Tree.  It was a relaxed day, especially because Casey had spent so much time traveling so we ended the night by watching John Mulaney on Netflix.

Monday, February 17
After grabbing breakfast at Black Medicine Coffee Co, Casey and I walked into the Old College so that she could see a little piece of my school. I don't spend much time at the Old College, but it's where the pictures from the brochure come from. We went on a Mountebank Comedy Walking Tour of Edinburgh which we both enjoyed. Our tour guide, Daniel, was hysterical and not only good at making the tour generally funny, but also relating it to specific people on the tour. It was also educational and allowed Casey to get an overview of the part of the city that I spend the most time in. We also booked a tour at The Scotch Whisky Experience. That was cool because you get to ride in a Whisky Barrel train type thing to learn how whisky is made. Then there were videos and the staff member, Jethro, gave a voice-over of information. At the end of the tour, we were standing amongst the world's largest Scotch Whisky collection and got to taste a sample for ourselves. Neither Casey nor I am whisky drinkers, but because whisky is such an important aspect of Scottish culture it seemed necessary to learn about it. I really enjoyed both tours and thought they were good first-day activities because they force you to dive headfirst into Scottish history and culture. We met up with my cousin, Katie, for drinks at The Piper's Rest and then grabbed food at BRGR.

Tuesday, February 18

When we woke up, it was sunny out so we decided the first activity we should do was climb Calton Hill and look at the views of the city. We grabbed a quick breakfast at Pret and made our way up the hill. As we were there, it started pouring out and we dipped into The Guildford Arms to wait it out. The sun did come back out, which allowed us to make our way down Princes Street to the Ross Fountain for some photos. Afterward, we went back to the Royal Mile, stopping in The Albanach for a Pimms before walking through a few of the gift stores. For food, we went to Civerino's restaurant in Hunter's Square. That night we decided to a comedy show at Monkey Barrel Comedy because it was free for students. I had been to comedy shows there before and really liked them, but this one wasn't very good. It was called Alternative Comedy, which Casey and I learned we don't like. But hey, you never know what you will and won't like unless you try it out.

Wednesday, February 19

We started Wednesday at Em's Kitchen eating delicious pancakes. I got bacon and maple syrup while Casey opted for banana and Nutella. We each got a hot chocolate as well. It was all amazing. We then walked down to the Palace at Holyroodhouse just to see it before walking the full length of the Royal Mile to get to the Edinburgh Castle. We went into the castle and took a quick tour before exploring on our own. I love the short overview tours that the castle has. They remind me of the Beefeater tours at the Tower of London. You don't go inside anything, but the tour guide points to a building and gives you its history and what you'll find inside. We liked the Honours of Scotland because it includes the crown. We learned that during the American Revolution some revolutionary soldiers came to Edinburgh and were held prisoner at the Edinburgh Castle. However, because they weren't technically Americans yet, they were treated as pirates/rebels of the royal crown and given fewer rations that the other prisoners of war. What is believed to be one of the first drawings of the American Flag was carved into one of the doors that the castle has on display.  That night we got dinner at McSorley's and booked a tour of St. Andrews.

Thursday, February 20
We didn't initially plan on this but decided to go on a Rabbie's day tour of St. Andrews & The Fishing Villages of Fife. The first stop was at a small fishing village in Fife. The stop was short to allow everyone to stretch their legs and we got some hot chocolate. The big stop was St. Andrews. There were two different drop-off spots, one at the golf museum and one at the cathedral. This became a bit of a joke because during the drive our tour guide, Grant, asked who was interested in golf and no one raised their hand. St. Andrews is the home of golf, so it was funny for him to have no one on the tour very interested in it. Casey and I walked through the cathedral but didn't buy tickets to the museum. Then we walked the path by the water and took pictures with the castle in the background. We walked past the castle, afterward, but again, didn't pay to explore the ruins. The University is spread throughout the city, so we pretended like we knew the exact spot William and Kate met and then went into the gift shop. We got lunch at Molly Malones before walking to the golf museum gift shop. This was also where we had to meet the bus.  We tried to find some golfing husbands in the last seventeen minutes of our trip there but were out of luck on that. The final stop of the tour was Falkland. Unfortunately the castle there doesn't open until March but we took a picture of it and then made our way back to Edinburgh. Because we had some extra time, we stopped to take a picture of the bridges as well.

Once back in Edinburgh, we met up with some of my friends for trivia at The Black Bull, which we do every Thursday. However, they changed their menu a little while ago and took off our favorite foods, so after trivia, we went to Civerino's slice for pizza and zeppole donuts.

Friday, February 21
Once again, we got Black Medicine Coffee for breakfast before starting our day. We decided to tour the Palace at Holyroodhouse. It's a nice tour, but it's a headset tour so it's very quiet. It was fun to be somewhere the queen and royal family actually spend time in when they're in Edinburgh. Then we did some final souvenir shopping for Casey. We were originally thinking of going to a rugby game at Murrayfield, but then it was so cold and rainy we said forget it.  We tried to go to The Three Sisters, but it was packed so we ended up back at The Pear Tree. We thought the rugby game might be on the TV, but it wasn't so we people watched instead, which was very entertaining. On the way back to my flat we went to BRGR for chicken nuggets and milkshakes.

Saturday, February 22
Our alarms went off at 5:15am and Casey was in a taxi on the way to the airport by 6am.

It was great getting to spend a week with someone from home. It definitely made me miss home a little bit though, but I'll be back soon enough! Check out the corresponding YouTube video to watch us make our way through Edinburgh!

Summer Travels

Now that we are officially into Autumn, I wanted to share a few summer travel memories with all of you. Most of these trips I've posted about on other forms of social media, but I never discussed here. And some of them I have video footage for, but never got around to editing . . . Is it too late to make them into videos? 

May 30-June 11: American Road Trip

The biggest trip of the summer was the cross country road trip I took with my best friend. She moved out to Colorado, so I drove out with her. However, we didn't drive straight to Colorado. Our course went Massachusetts>Niagara Falls, NY>Louisville, KY> Nashville, TN> Memphis, TN>Dallas, TX> Santa Fe, NM> Salida, CO> Erin's New Home, CO. I vlogged the entire trip, and you can watch every episode on my YouTube. 

Before we left, I was a little nervous about taking part in a road trip because I don't enjoy being in the car for long periods of time. However, I didn't end up minding the drive at all. Erin and I listened to some playlists and podcasts to pass the time. Not to mention, random topics of conversation that came up along the way. And I think my South Carolina trip last year helped me prepare.

This trip was amazing, and it was a great way to see cities I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. Some cities just don't warrant more than a few days, so making them stops on our road trip was perfect.

July 16: Martha's Vineyard
And just when I thought I had seen the last of Erin for a while, she was back a month later to go on her family vacation to Martha's Vineyard, MA. Erin's family has always told us to come to visit while they were on the island, but the scheduling never worked out until now. This was my first time properly on Martha's Vineyard (I had been once before for tennis, but it was during the offseason). We had a lot of fun at the beach relaxing and enjoying each others company.

July 20-21: New Hampshire
My aunt and uncle own a house in New Hampshire, so every year we go up and spend the day on their boat. We usually plan the weekend around the birthday of my aunt's sister so that we can celebrate that as well. There was a tense moment when we saw a snake in the water. It wasn't near enough to do anything to us, but being able to see it meant it was too close. This year we mixed it up with a pinata, which was hilarious to watch being smashed open.

July 27-28: Pennsylvania
My friend, Vanessa, who I met when I was studying abroad in London (if you watch my YouTube from that time, she's the one that we kinda, sorta, not really, almost got stabbed together), invited me to her apartment in Philly for her 21st birthday. I went back and forth about whether or not I was going to go, but in the end, decided to. Vanessa also let me bring my friend Megan as a travel buddy, which was nice. Before celebrating, Megan and I went to see the Liberty Bell, but we didn't have a lot of time, so we didn't spend much time in the little museum it's housed in.

August 24-25: Maine
When Megan isn't going on last-minute trips to Philidelphia with me, she lives in Maine. I really wanted to see her new apartment before I left, so a group of us made it a point to go up to Maine for a weekend. We ate delicious donuts, saw a moose made completely out of chocolate, and walked on the beach. It was the last weekend we were all going to be together because I was leaving for Scotland and another friend of ours, Jessie, was leaving for Montana. We had so much fun and Megan and Carli ended up throwing us a mini going away party with crowns and wine.

September 3-?: Scotland

And then, of course, I left the country at the end of the summer to study my mater's degree in Scotland. I'm still here, which is a good sign and I'll be updating you as the months go by. There are no direct flights from Boston to Edinburgh, but both flights went smoothly. Summer is officially over and school is in session, but that doesn't mean I don't intend on doing some traveling while I'm here . . . 

13 1/2 Hours in Edinburgh, Scotland

Hello! This past Saturday (January 20th) I got to spend it in Edinburgh, Scotland.  However, the adventure actually started Friday night.  My friends and I took an overnight bus to get to Edinburgh that left Victoria Coach Station at 10:30pm and arrived in Scotland at 8:00am.  We then had until 9:30pm to explore before getting back on the bus and coming back to London at 6:50am.

Let me tell you guys, National Express overnight buses are great in theory, but in practice trying to sleep on a 9+ hour bus ride is hard, which makes your ability to explore crash around 6:00pm.  However, it was the cheapest option, and it worked with everyone's schedule so if necessary I would probably do it again.  I was definitely happy it was an overnight bus as well because I think if it had been during the day I would have felt a lot more restless.  Even though it was hard to sleep, I was tired, so I had my eyes closed for most of the time.

Anyway, back to Edinburgh.  It was a beautiful city, but it was so cold and icy as well.  We decided to climb up to the top of Arthur's Seat, and it was all ice, but we made it, and it gave us a beautiful view of the entire city and beyond.  Getting back down, however, was quite the challenge and involved a lot of falling, which each caused a lot of laughs.  Everyone on the hill was wondering what they were thinking trying to attempt this hike, but it was absolutely hysterical.  At one point my friend just sat down and slid for a good thirty feet.  I wish I were filming it, but there was no way I would have been able to hold my camera and try to walk/stumble/fall down at the same time.  I left that adventure with a bruised knee.

From there we made our way to Edinburgh Castle.  We got to see a canon fire at 1:00pm, a few different museums showing the Scottish military throughout the years, prisons, the crowned jewels and we got a free sample of whiskey, which we all ended up buying a small bottle of because it just felt like the right thing to do.

Next, we went to Calton Hill, which is home to a lot of different monuments and gives you another fantastic view of the city.

After that, it was about 6:00pm, and we were cold and tired, so we decided to the Grassmarket and found a Pub to get food and hang out until we needed to get to the bus station.  13 1/2 hours is simultaneously a short amount of time and a long amount of time.  We may have been up to do a little bit more if it was warmer out, maybe we would have gone to the botanical gardens or something, but I still had a great time, and I would recommend doing some type of whirlwind trip like this.

BONUS STORY: HOW I GAVE MYSELF A BLACK EYE
This is so embarrassing, but it's also funny which is why I am willing to put it on the internet forever...

So, I already told you I bruised my knee pretty bad, and when I got back to my bedroom, my arms were sore from having my backpack on for so long.  However, I also managed to give myself my very first black eye.

It happened on the bus ride back to London.  I was leaning my head against my hand on the window. The bus hit a bump, and gravity took over, and my head slipped, and I bashed my eye on this tiny windowsill that doubled as an armrest.  But the most embarrassing part: IT HAPPENED TWICE!  You know that saying 'fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me'?  That's how I felt when I crashed down the second time, like how could I let that happen to myself.

I thought to myself that maybe it didn't bruise and it would just be a little red.  That is very wishful thinking due to the fact that I am wicked pale and bruise if someone taps me too hard (a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point).  When we were walking to the Tube station I could see out of the corner of my eye that it was starting to swell and knew there was going to be a bruise.

The good thing about it is that nobody has called me out on it and I can't tell if it's because they're trying to be polite or they just don't notice it/think it's a shadow.  I had to point it out to my roommate the next day because she didn't see it, but today it's started to turn brown and purple so I think it's beginning to look a lot more like I got punched in the face.

I told my mom about what happened and she told me I needed to come up with a better story since this one is embarrassing.  So naturally, I put a poll out on my personal twitter and apparently I got a black eye in a bar fight while I saving someone's life in a near robbery (All of the Above won the poll), which does make me seem a lot cooler than someone who lost against gravity twice in about twenty minutes.

Somebody, please tell me you have hurt yourself accidentally in a similar manner!  Comment below so we can all benefit from each other's fail moments.