"If I'm not back in five minutes just wait longer!"

So this weekend was one of my favorites since I've been in Edinburgh.

Wednesday and Thursday I pretty much just worked and relaxed after my long trip to Copenhagen, but I did manage to come up with my topic for my internship's massive research project.  I think I'm going to do Communication and Voter Targeting in Scottish Politics.  Both of my bosses are really interested in voter communication and I already know a lot about the topic so now all I have to do is actually start my research paper...still coming up with the topic was a pretty big achievement for me. 

Reunited in Edinburgh!

Anyways so Thursday night Caroline and John arrived in Edinburgh!!! I met up with them at their hostel after work which may seem like a simple  concept, but considering that Caroline didn't have a phone or a computer we basically had to assume that the other person would be at an arbitrary meeting place we had set days earlier.  It worked out, but I think its safe to say that we all formed a much greater appreciation for the convenience of cell phones.  After completing our complex meeting arrangement Caroline, John and I headed to a local pub for dinner.  Since it was St. Patrick's day and unsurprisingly Edinburgh does St. Patrick's day very well, we all headed out with a bunch of my friends from Edinburgh to one of our favorite Irish pubs.

With our free shirts!

The line was a bit long, but the pub was very fun and on top of that they were handing out free t-shirts which clearly all of us college students were very excited about.  John even got a St. Patty's day hat! So between the free stuff, the irish pub scene and the cheese fries afterwards it was a very fun evening.

Outside Holyrood palace!

The next morning we woke up to the most beautiful day I have experienced in my past two months in Edinburgh.  There was barely a cloud in the sky and I swear the temperature was almost 50!!! So amazing.  Since the weather was so nice Caroline, John and I decided to climb the Walter Scott Monument.  The Walter Scott Monument is a giant sculpture dedicated to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott right in the middle of New Town.  It was a little exhausting climbing the increasingly narrow stairs that led to the top of the monument, but the views were amazing.  I got some great pictures of the city and Caroline and John really got to experience just how incredible Edinburgh really is. After climbing the monument we walked around the Royal Mile for a bit, went to Adam Smith's grave and then ate lunch at one of the cafes where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter- this was an especially exciting experience for Caroline who turned to me and said "I'm drinking inspirational coffee!"

The beautiful Edinburgh castle from the Walter Scott Monument

After lunch Julia finally arrived from Berlin and we all headed to Parliament together. Not going to lie I felt pretty cool getting them all in behind the scenes and showing them where I worked and stuff.  They were all very supportive and even allowed me to drone on about how cool my internship was for a solid amount of time.  That's true friendship right there. After Parliament we all walked across the street to see Holyrood Palace, the queen's residence when she's in Edinburgh.  It was a pretty cool tour fully equipped with an audio guide and a ticket thats good for a year.  Not really that useful for Caroline, Julia and John, but I'll definitely be back with some of my other friends to see the gardens when they open in the Spring. 

A little scared for our ghost-tour!

After Holyrood palace Caroline, Julia and I ditched John for a bit in favor of TopShop where we spent a good hour of our afternoon.  Caroline and Julia found some cute things, but I obviously only wanted to buy swimsuits and since its gonna be a good two months before I'll be back in warm enough weather to enjoy them I ended up not getting anything which was a bit depressing.  After shopping we all went to dinner and then I took everyone to get fried Mars Bars (a traditional Scottish treat). After the fried chocolaty goodness we decided to go on a ghost tour of Edinburgh.  Apparently Edinburgh is on of the most haunted cities in the world so it's pretty well known for having scarey ghost tours. We ended up going on an underground tour of Edinburgh where our tour guide wove some seriously creepy stories about body snatchers and Caroline's personal favorite "baby-farmers."  They then proceeded to lead us into the pitch black and very claustrophobic underground vaults and without ruining the tour lets just say they freaked us out in ways that would never be allowed in the constantly lawsuit conscious United States.   So even though the tour was much scarier than I think any of us fully anticipated it was overall quite the exhilarating evening.
Saturday morning we all woke up early and went to have a traditional Scottish Breakfast a la a hole-in-the-wall place by Caroline and John's hostel.  Despite the fact that it consisted of black pudding (a.k.a congealed animal blood) the breakfast was delicious.  I personally feel that the British do breakfast better than anyone else.  Their bacon is pretty much heaven on earth.  So after that wonderful morning experience we all headed over to the Royal Mile to go to the Scotch Whiskey Experience.  For those of you who dont know (which should be none of you) whiskey was created in Scotland and Scotland's pretty much known for having the best whiskey around.  Also, just to clarify, what we call scotch in America is basically just whiskey from Scotland, and since almost all whiskey in Scotland is from here they feel no need to specify that it's scotch.  Thus scotch in Scotland is known as whiskey  Anyway, the whiskey experience was incredible.  It had a ride through the whiskey making process, a lesson in how to choose your perfect whiskey, a tour of the world's biggest whiskey collection and a free whiskey tasting! I think this was definitely a highlight of the trip for all of us, even Caroline and I who arent exactly the largest whiskey enthusiasts.

The world's largest whiskey collection and my delicious British Breakfast

Since Saturday was also the Scotland vs. Italy rugby game we ended up just hanging out in a pub for most of the day to watch the game.  Of course we did make a side trip to get the best baked potato in Scotland, which was completely worth missing some of the action. That night we spent most of the evening just hanging out in my flat drinking and telling stories before I had to say goodbye to everyone.  It was great having Caroline and Julia here and I feel so lucky that i have such amazing friends who would come all the way from America to visit.  It made me really sad saying goodbye to them but I know I'll see them again soon so I'm just glad we got to experience Europe together!

Today I had my first official campaign work day.  It was an action day getting everything ready for the gear up into full campaign mode so I spent the whole day working with the fellow interns and employees in the office.  It was super fun just getting to know everyone and I actually felt like I was doing something that would have a big impact on the election.  Plus Alex brought his adorable three-year-old son  to the office for the day.  Finn has blonde hair, blue eyes and speaks with a Scottish accent and is pretty much the cutest thing ever.  I may have gotten a little distracted from my work playing with him but it was soooo worth it.

Tomorrow I have a day off so I'll probably just try to catch up on some laundry and work I've been meaning to do, but then I leave for Amsterdam on Thursday and I could not be more excited!!!!

Talk to you all soon!