We arrived in Edinburgh at the wonderful hour of 6 am on a Saturday morning.  We waited in the airport for a little bit before taking the bus to the city center.  The three of us, Cristina, our classmate Cody, and myself, walked to the Royal Mile.  This was a unique site for us.  The Royal Mile is probably the most famous street in Edinburgh and is usually full of activity.  At this time, it was not.  It was pretty empty.  We knew it was too early to check into our dorm so we did some window shopping. Whisky and kilts lined the windows of most shops.

We eventually made our way to the place to find out where our dorm was in a futile attempt to store our luggage with them.  They had no lockers or anything. We asked the guy at the desk where to get a good meal.  He pointed us to the City Restaurant.  I ordered the Midi breakfast which consisted of thick bacon, a fried egg, 2 sausages, beans, toast, and haggis.  This was my first trying of haggis on the trip.  It reminded me of rice dressing without the rice.  It was not served in a stomach but just in a small patty. It was an easy introduction to haggis, and I, for one, enjoyed it.  After breakfast, we went to large book store across the street and took a nap.

Around noon, two hours before we were supposed to be allowed to check in, wewent try the dorm place again.  Other members of our trip, who were on different flights, were there right before us.  The guy was giving them the keys so we got ours as well.

Then, he drew on a map the precise location of our dorm.  He forgot to tell us he failed geography.

The place where he marked our room as being was three blocks away from our actually dorm.  Cody and Cristina took over and eventually solved the problem after plenty of walking with all of our luggage, which for Cristina and I was a slightly overfilled backpack.  We finally figured out the building by using the key code to get into it’s courtyard.

Then we found another problem.  The numbers on the keys only corresponded to the number of keys they were and not to the building or flat. We just had to try keys  in every building.  Once we gained access to a building then we had to try for flat.  In the states that would probably get us shot.  Once in the flat, we had to try the keys for every room before finding ours.  By luck of the draw Cristina had the largest room.  Cristina and Cody had the best view with the Salisbury Crags right outside.  I got the room by the bathrooms with a view of another dorm.

Our two other flatmates arrived later in the afternoon while the three of us were to take naps. The entire group later convened in the courtyard where our professors met us and told us the basics of the trip.  I have no idea if we ate in for supper, our flat had a kitchen, or if we went out.  I just know that we took some Benedryl early and went sleep around 7 that evening.

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