CRAZY?!!! Yes, I am, and yes I did...

[Mum, Dad, I must warn you that you will freak out, but know that I was very protected and with a friend that I trust greatly <3]

SO.. as some of you may know, I was given the opportunity to go see Switchfoot live in Edinburgh on Thursday night! Well, OF COURSE I jumped on this excited to see a new part of Scotland and hear a band that used to be one of my favorites. There was a group of five of us who were planning on going together, and we were going to be driving down and then back right after the concert so that people could get to work the next morning. WELL... one of our group broke his leg and he just so happened to be our driver; well, because he could no longer go, his fiance didn't want to go without him (understandable). BUT, because he was no longer driving, our other friend couldn't go because he had to work late and wouldn't make the concert if we took a bus (buses are awful and long) AND (it's not normal for people to borrow other's cars here because of fright of crashes and craziness with insurance problems). WELL, that left me and my friend David. (OH.. and the boys decided not to tell me this until the night before, so I had to basically figure out transport and board for us)

Thursday.. quite a lovely day, I must say. I went to my first class, met with a friend, and then headed out to Starbucks where I was meeting David for our escapade. (got a free coffee from our lovely friend Mike who was supposed to go with us but couldn't because of the stupid slow buses: YUM) anywho, I showed David the plans that I had for what to do; laid them out very nicely and orderly too. We decided that the bus would be the best and cheapest way there and that we would have to stay the night in a hostel and then catch the 5:30am train the next morning in order for David to make it to work on time. We were ready, excited, and just itching to get started on our adventure.

We accidentally missed our first two buses, but hit up the third after wonding about the mall and eating a small lunch where we were kicked out of the cafe area ;] (hehe.. just because they didn't allow takeout items to be eaten in the cafe; silly silly) So we people watched instead on the balcony. Then we got onto the bus, (oh and we found some motion sickness pills for me to take before hand too!) and sat for what seemed like 5 hours (it was really only like 2.5-3 hours with a bus switch in between too). We had some great chat and learned about each other more though I don't think that I prepared David for the rest of the night with me lol... :}

When we got to Edinburgh, we easily found the club where the concert was being held.. after I took a few dozen photos (hehe; it was a very beautiful city). Well, we waited for a bit, checked out coats, and got some wonderful tap water to sooth our parched throats. Then the opening band came out: In Case of Fire.. they were most definitely a rock band. They weren't bad, but they were not what I care for. AND some of their lyrics, from what I could understand, were not that great... Well, then SWITCHFOOT came out! OH GLORY BE... they know how to put on a performance!!!!! The music was great! Jon Foreman was hilarious! He was jumping into the crowd and climbing up into the balcony... He sang right over the top of David and I, and... well, I can now say that I've tasted Jon Foreman's sweat which I still don't know if that is really cool or just absolutely disgusting because MAN was he dripping NO pouring out sweat.... (I'll leave that to you to decide) GREAT performance!!! Would definitely see them again; they were so good <3 (two encores!!!)

David and I were quite hungry after the show, so we decided to find a place to eat where we could sit down and just relax. You might not believe it, but Edinburgh really doesn't have anything open except pubs (with no food; very fascinating to me) that a person would be able to enjoy a nice sit down dinner after 10:30. So, we wondered around, looking for the people; it was SO weird!! Like NO one was out at this time, and it took us quite awhile to find where the people where. When we did finally find everyone, they were all walking away from everything.. probably because everything had just closed now that I think of it lol, but we were finally directed to a fish and chips place. They actually had a little sitting area, so we were able to sit for a bit which was nice. It was at this small shop that I had my first taste of fried HAGGIS!! and might I add: YUM! I greatly enjoyed it; I'm now excited to try cooked haggis which I guess tastes very different.
[Oh, I did forget to add that while we were looking for a place to eat, we saw two life sized metal giraffes, half of a gigantic foot, and I, might I emphasize, I danced in the middle of a round about ;]p David sadly would not join me.. which I still don't understand, but well, whatevs]

After our delicious meal, it would have made perfect sense for us to go back and find the hostel that was next to the club where the concert was, BUT we were in an adventurous mood. Instead of being sensible, we (really most of it was me.. hehe) decided to hitchhike! Why not we said; it would be the perfect time because there are two of us and we are both of different gender so we really shouldn't have to worry about anything. So, off we set walking down the streets of quiet Edinburgh sticking out our thumbs. Well, David didn't know how to do it, so I had to explain it to him and then he looked it up on his phone: HOW TO hitchhike 101.. LOL. Well, we walked a good bit and then I needed to stop and run to a toilet. Luckily, we just so happened to pass by a hotel who were nice enough to let us stop in. While we were there, David, in his wise ways, asked for some paper to write a sign saying

ABERDEEN

LIFT WELCOME

It was a great answer to prayer, for we had prayed not only to be picked up but that God would give us a sign.. not a "sign" sign but a paper or cardboard sign to use for our hitchhiking (the hitchhikers 101 guide told us that we should have a sign saying where we were wanted to go) Well, within 10mins with the sign, someone ACTUALLY pulled over!! Yeppers; so we were picked up by this lovely man who used to hitchhike when he was younger. We had some good conversations which kind of ended poorly, but you know, God works in all situations. Well, first of all he yelled at us for basically being stupid enough to try and hitchhike at 11pm in Scotland because NO ONE is awake at that time here, and for not really having a plan. THEN, he actually ended up basically calling David a BIBLE BASHER!!!! Can you believe it?! The funniest thing was that David was in NO way bashing the bible; he was simply telling him what he was doing with his life which just so happens to revolve around God. Anyway, we were dropped off in Dunfermline (our good friend, Mike's home town and the old capitol of Scotland where King Robert the Bruce and William Wallace's mother is buried)

(LeAnn, Amber, and Mum will appreciate this: a small taste of what's to come)

"Oh Dunfermline, Oh Dunfermline, how lovely are your alleys...."

Well, we were dropped off at the train station, so we looked to see when the next train to Aberdeen was.. hmm.... yeah, they didn't actually have any trains to Aberdeen which is kind of a problem, AND the waiting room wasn't opened at that time. You see, we did know a couple who lived in Dunfermline: Mike's parents, BUT it was like 12pm if not later by that time, and we didn't want to disturb them with begging or anything.. SO, we just kind of walked around the city. We saw the sites, NO people (well like 20 or so, at one some pub that was the only thing that was opened), and looked to see when the first bus was. Let's just say that we had a good while to wait yet until it came (about 5.5 hours) By this time, we were a bit tired, so we thought about where we could bed down for a bit.. Well, Dunfermline has no hostels and the hotels were not open or accepting guests at 12:30-1am, so we turned to our other options. We thought of the benches but they were in the open and spaced very far apart. Then we turned to the bus stop pavilions, but they just weren't very appealing, so we just turned down this one nice alleyway where the wind was not very strong and found a nice doorway that had an overhang just in case it rained. SO, David and I bunkered down for a few winks of sleep before continuing onward to home. Yeah.. the song up above is VERY sarcastic. It was not the best time of our lives; it was cold and uncomfortable, and literally bone chilling. But we were fine in the end, and got maybe like half an hour or 45 mins rest... All we can say is that God has now given us insight into the life of a homeless person and our hearts are filled with compassion. That kind of bone chilling does not go away easily!

So it was a lovely night roughing it, and we were SO EXCITED to see that bus in the morning. David was out as soon as his head it the seat, lol.. I dosed a bit and luckily, well it was probably God, we woke up in time to get off the bus and catch the next one just in time. We made it back to Aberdeen around 10:30am or so... David was however supposed to be at church at around 8am, so we were a bit late (and not very functional).. We stopped at Costa Coffee to pick up a hot chocolate for David because he needed a bit of energy, and God thought that he needed a bit more energy than can be found in chocolate, so his order was done wrong. David instead received a strange mixture of steamed milk, espresso, and some strangeness. LOL.. We walked to church, and talked a bit about our crazy night with people and then I walked home, ate some yummy food, and slept and slept and slept.

and slept

David on the other hand worked and worked and worked and snoozed and worked and didn't get to bed until 3am HOWEVER he slept until 4pm the next day.. I think that his schedule may be messed up for a bit lol...

Well, I think that's that.. I hope that you enjoyed and didn't freak too much! <3 love you all!!!
PRAISE THE LORD!!

xoxoxoxox