my mama came to visit!! (and bobby!)

Hi all,

Hope everyone is enjoying their Tuesday! I have been thinking for a week now how to recap my mom and Bobby’s visit to see me here in Scotland. It was very fun- but also stressful at times. Let’s dive in!

Once they got here, they were really tired, so while I slept in (clearly I was tired too), they went to their hotel and had a nap. Then we met up for breakfast, where I brought Anna, Maddie, and Allie. It was so exciting to see them!! Sue even cried happy tears which was so cute. We spent the day exploring the city. I am terrible at directions so thankfully Anna came and helped me too :) Sue and Bobby were so tired that they went back to their hotel and were sleeping by 8 pm. Classic. I stayed up writing a paper. Lucky me!

So the next morning, they picked me up in the car that they were renting so that we could go to the highlands. It was a lot more relaxing than our drive through the highlands a few weeks ago, because if something was pretty or picturesque we could stop and look. Bobby driving on the other side of the road was a whole other thing because it’s obviously a lot different and hard to get used to. I kept trying to relax but damn. It was stressful and at some points scary. But alas we made it to Oban (thank god), our home for the next few days. It was a cute little town right on a pier.

The next morning Bobby really didn't want to drive, so we made a trek towards Iona. We first took an hour long ferry to the Isle of Mull. We then got in a bus, and drove across the island. It was incredibly beautiful.. a combination of huge mountains, flowers, waterfalls, etc. It was literally a dream. I wish we could've stopped and taken pictures, but Bobby definitely would have freaked out driving across the island (one lane streets with pull over areas used for passing going the other way). It was crazy small (only 3000 residents), but awesome. We even saw highland coos in the road! I was swooning.

Once we made it across Mull, we got on yet another ferry. This was only for a 10 minute ferry, and then we got to Iona! This was a tiny island, with only 170 residents year round. However, they get over 100,000 visitors each year. We spent about 4 hours exploring the island! It was FREEZING so when we first got there we went to a cute crafty shop and I got a wool sweater because I'm so Scottish. Then we went to a monastery which was pretty, but not my favorite because I don't love all the statues of dead people that are usually in them. After, we went to the most beautiful beach. The water was so blue, almost like the Caribbean, and there lots of rocks, and the sand had bigger grains but was still soft. I loved it so much. We also saw 8 or so rainbows Our venture back to Oban was tiring, and I wanted to stay awake on the bus because it was so pretty on Mull but I passed right out. Finally, we returned home to Oban. We went to an incredible restaurant for dinner where I had steak pie and chocolate mousse for dessert. It was such a great day!!

Our last day in the highlands consisted us driving back to Edinburgh and making some stops along the way. We stopped at Campbell Castle, and while reading signs found out that a John Linnell designed some of the furniture in one of the rooms. We were so surprised to see the last name Linnell as well as Campbell together in Scotland! That was our only real stop of the day, and other than that we just drove. Bobby's driving was making me a bit nauseous (sorry bobby it wasn't that bad!!), so I took another nap. Once we returned to Edinburgh, we went out to dinner with Susan and Anna. I had a "trio of mini pies" which were shepherds, steak, and chicken. They were very yummy, but not as good as the one in Oban!

I had to go to class on Monday morning (sad) so I met up with Sue and Bobby later in the afternoon and Susan came along too! On this day, we went to the royal yacht britannia which was amazing. I love the royal family and to me this was even better than hollyrood palace. It is the royal family's yacht that they used to used for trips. After this, Susan left and I went back to the hotel with my mama and bobby. We went swimming in the pool then out to dinner which was a nice chill night.

Tuesday I took the day off of school so that we could have a fun packed day. We started the morning going to Calton Hill and climbing up the Nelson's monument. It was a great view of the city! Then we just wandered around the city some more, going up and down the Royal Mile, Victoria's street, etc on the hunt for sweatshirts. It was quite a day. Sue and I got to slip away for a little bit and get manicures at my favorite lil manicure spot called the Nail Yard. After that we went and had our first "legal" drink date and we wound up seeing my program leader, Jeanna! It was so fun to see my mom and my "scottish mom" meet each other. We went back to the hotel to fetch Bobby then met up with Anna for dinner. Again I had steak pie because it is my new favorite! I had to say goodbye after dinner because Sue and Bob were leaving early in the morning :( It was hard to say goodbye but time has been flying by and I am sure that the next 6 weeks won't be any different! They headed off to Ireland for the next few days, so at least we would be in the same time zone :) What a whirlwind of a few days it was, but it was nice to get a little bit of home, and some homemade chocolate chip cookies! back to business as usual...#stayclassyscotland

I'm adding the pictures at the end so that they don't mess up my formatting again :)