St. Andrews

Yes that is correct, we adventured to St. Andrews on Saturday. And for those who don't know (because apparently not everyone knows what St. Andrews is) it is a cit in Scotland, Prince William attended school there and it has the world's oldest golf course and the British Open is played here.

On Thursday, a few of us decided it would be a fun experience to adventure over to another part of Scotland on Saturday. So after waking up at 8:30, meeting everyone at the train station at 9, buying our tickets and getting some breakfast (mainly coffee, we were all extremely tired) we finally sat down to wait for our train at 9:29, not 9:30, but 9:29. Why can't trains leave at normal times; why does it have to leave at 9:29 and not 9:30 does the extra minute really matter? Anyways, after spending a few minutes trying to find a garbage, they don't have trash cans in train stations, apparently you are supposed to leave it out and people come around and pick up after you (gross!), we put our tickets through, get onto the platform, press the open button door and nothing happens. As we stand around trying to figure out why the doors aren't opening the train ahead of it pulls away and guess what...we were supposed to be on that train...oops. We all started laughing and blamed our misfortune on the fact we had to be up so early.

The train official very nicely told us to catch another train headed toward Dundee at 10 and get off at Leuchars. This time, determined not to miss another train, we waited on the platform and got on the train 15 minutes before it was due to leave.

The train ride was very pleasant and scenic. There wasn't too much leg room (public transportation never thinks about tall people), but it was fine. It took us through different valleys and for the first time we got to see what life looks like outside of Edinburgh. Mainly just land, groups of houses bunched together and then more land. Nothing to exciting, but of course we took pictures.

 After about an hour train ride (it didn't really feel that long) we got off at Leuchars and then hopped onto the bus. As we were paying for the bus two older women (probably early 70s) commented on the pair of jeans I was wearing and how there is a whole in the back pocket. They proceeded to ask me why there is a whole and if it is annoying, I tired explaining to them it was just fashion and they looked at me like I had two heads. I laughed and smiled and said, "I don't understand why they make jeans like that, most people throw them out once they get rips in them" and they said very honestly "well, if we had legs like you and your cute butt, we would wear jeans like that too"! I had no idea how to respond to such a comment. I quickly just paid the bus driver, grabbed my ticket and walked to the back of the bus, laughing to myself. The only thing I could think of was picturing my grandma saying that...oh boy!

After about a 10 minute bus ride we were in the center of St. Andrews. Got off at some random stop and started walking around. We went and took pictures at the church, or really what is left of the church, then went to the castle, talked our way into getting in for free, walked around, took pictures and really just took time to look over the water. It wasn't a sunny day, but then again there aren't really many of those here, it wasn't too cold or too windy; I would say we picked a pretty good day to go.

Here are a few pictures of what is left of the church...

Graves...kind of creepy!

Entrance of Church

Back wall of Church

Somebodies tomb stone

Yup we sitting on the wall of the church

No idea what this would be...but we thought it was a cool picture

The people would sit in here

Me sitting in someone's grave...couldn't quite fit

After we took numerous amounts of pictures of the church, we made our way too the castle...or again what is left of the castle. Here are a few pictures of our experience...

Everyone who went on the trip: Alexa, me, Katie, Morgan, Victoria and Kelsey

Morgan could stand in the door, but I can't 

The crew on the wall of the castle

Katie and I with the castle in the background

Caption Morgan anyone?!

Me sitting in the section they used to keep prisoners

After making ourselves look as touristy as possible, we decided it was time for lunch. We walked back into the "city" part of St. Andrews and found a cute restaurant that had exactly what we were looking for...BURGERS! As we sat starving and trying to think of topics to talk about to distract us from being so hungry our food finally came. We literally waited probably 45 minutes for our food and eat it in 10 minutes that is pretty gross, but the food was really good! After figuring out how much everyone owed, getting change, taking a toilet break, not a bathroom break we finally made our way to St. Andrews golf course. It was pretty cool opportunity to get to see a golf course so many people never have a chance to ever see in person. However, most of the time when I see the course on television, which I'm dying not being able to watch by the way, the grass is always burned and does not look very nice; the course was actually green! We walked around, went into the pro shop, took a few pictures on the green and of course on the bridge.

Us on the bridge!

18th hole of the Old course

Some of the winners grips...John Daly being one of them

I guess people don't realize golfers are actually playing

Some golfers brave enough to play in 40 degree weather

The flags

18th Hole again

The marker

Some part of the green

The Pro shop

After our walk around St. Andrews we decided it was time to head back to the bus station and catch the 5:29, again 5:29 why not 5:30, train back into Edinburgh. Once we got on the train, we all settled in and fell asleep for a bit. The trip was a lot of fun and I am very proud of us just deciding to go and going. We had no plan, and didn't know where anything was, but I would say it was a pretty successful trip. I am looking forward to the two more times I will be going...and one of them will be with the family! Maybe our next Christmas card will be us on the bridge; who knows, all I know is we will have more choices for our Christmas card this year than we have had in the previous years!

Cheers!

P.S only 80 more days till I get to see my family...I'm really excited (never thought I would ever say that)!