After making it to Edinburgh still sick, I planned on doing the exact same thing I had a week before, take it easy by having some soup and watching a movie. This obviously has yet to work as once again 5 days later as I'm typing this I'm still blowing my nose... (tmi?)

Anyways I wasn't going to let a little sickness stop me from exploring so the next morning I set out to do some shopping and explore the sights. Little did I know I was about to encounter possibly the worst/best sight of all (depending on your view) ... Street Performers! Now these street performers are in no way ashamed nor afraid to not just ask, but beg, demand, and literally call people out for not tipping! Did I mention they also name there own price, and I quote, "I believe that I am worth 10 pounds, so if you're just going to give me coin, you can keep it!" .... Let me do the conversion for you: 10 pounds = 20 Canadian dollars. I understand you're juggling fire and swallowing swords, but that's my weekly food budget!! (Kidding kidding, don't worry I am eating everyone). Anyways needless to say I bolted when they turned their heads!

I later met up with some people I'd met in Belfast for a free walking tour of the city. This not only included all the historical sights, such as the area below the streets where they burned all the bodies from the plague, but also Harry Potter related landmarks such as where the book was written and the school that inspired Hogwarts! Was quite the mixture of fun facts! The next day we all ventured out into the downpour to see Edinburgh castle, built atop a once active volcano it sits high above the city and is extremely beautiful, I'll put a picture in the photos section. We got to see gunfire being shot from atop the castle to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. Which (for Justin's sake I will mention) actually took place in June... Aren't you proud of my history knowledge!! Later that night we headed indoors to a pub quiz night and despite a large majority of European questions and topics, we managed to win 3rd place (and no there weren't just 3 teams). With this came a bottle of what the British call "tonic wine" which contains an obscene amount of caffeine per bottle and has been linked to many crimes around the city because allegedly it just makes people go crazy... So I took that as a cue and gifted it to the guys as we parted ways!

The next day was onto the very very windy city... Liverpool. Better known as the birthplace of the Beatles! I got my Beatles fix in with a tour around the city to see key places like their houses, penny lane, and strawberry fields. I then took a trip to the exhibition where there is enough memorabilia and information to last a lifetime... Or more accurately about 4 hours! It was fantastic! I loved reading everything and seeing all the videos and pictures and hearing the music! Definitely worth spending a good part of the day learning all about them and seeing the real places where it all began.

I also took time to explore the actual city of Liverpool (despite being almost blown over and freezing my butt off) which I learned gets its name origins from the meaning "dirty pool of water!" At least that's what the tour guide told me! On my last day I took a short train ride to the picturesque city of Chester, which was occupied by Romans as far back as 80 A.D. There was beautiful old buildings and they even had the wall around the city still in the exact same place as when the Romans were there. Presumably it has been restored a few times since then!

Well that's all for now. Tomorrow I'm off to Wales !

Love,
Sara