I cannot even believe it has been a full week since I have blogged. So much has happened! The first of which is that I got to go to Prime Minister's Questions last Wednesday, which quite possibly may have been the coolest thing I have done so far. Having the opportunity to sit in the House of Commons while it was full of MPs and the entire cabinet was something I will never forget. After PMQs, I was heading back from the chamber to portcullis and walked right next to David Cameron's Jag. In case you are unfamiliar, every Prime minister has had a jag for as long as I can remember for security reasons. All I could think about was that I would never have been able to get that close to any of Obama's cars ever! The best part is that this was not all for that day! While waiting for my coworkers to come to lunch I waited by the escalator and Nick Clegg walked right by me. I mean right next to me!! It is so crazy that the Deputy Prime Minister just strolls around.

After that, I did not think it was possible for things to get any cooler, but yesterday definitely gained an advantage. I was heading down the escalator in Portcullis and I look to my right and on the opposing escalator from me, not even 4 feet away, and was David Cameron and his entourage of security along with George Osborne the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I was so giddy in a way that only a complete political nerd could be after the weeks and sightings I have experienced.

Now on to my weekend in Edinburgh. By the way, it is officially pronounced Ed-in-bra (one of the many cool things I learned this weekend).I had the opportunity on the first day to really explore the city with its beautiful old town and massive amounts of green and hills before dinner. Our hostel was very nice, but it was a bit of a walk from the city center. On the second day, Friday, we woke up to have a tour of the Scottish Parliament. If you did not know, it was reinstated in the mid 90s and commissioned an entire new complex, which is very modern. Look at my pictures on facebook, or papa and mimi have tesser show you! After that, we decided to climb Arthur's seat to see above the entire city. It was quite a hike but so worth it with the amazing views. I took so many pictures highlighting the landscape, the water, and the height we were at. After we climbed the first hill which took about an hour we decided to be very adventurous and climb the much bigger mountain behind it. Did I mention I was wearing Sperrys, a dress, and luckily, spandex shorts because Edinburgh is very windy. It took about 3.5 hours and was straight up. At one point, we actually had to climb a rock, but the views were amazing. Once again, see my facebook pictures. It was such an amazing day, but after I was so exhausted. I decided to venture from the group once we got back to old town so I could buy an ornament for our Christmas tree. My goal is to get one from every city I visit. On my way home, I was a bit turned around, actually about 2.5 hours of walking to get home turned around, and ended up near the water. I was then officially exhausted but I could say I really explored the entire city. One of the guys started laughing when I walked in the hostel because I looked so dead and he knew I must have been lost. We had a good laugh before I went up and passed out.

On Saturday, we toured Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the queen’s official residence in Scotland. Both were very cool and well worth the cost and crowds. After, each of us decided we had to try a local favorite called haggis. It is actually Sheep heart liver and lungs minced and served with spices in a sheep’s stomach. It sounds lovely I know... but actually, it was quite good. I decided I would just take a bite of Adams and order a grilled chicken sandwich for myself. I got a bite of his haggis and he got my fries. On Saturday night, we all went to dinner at Elephant House, which for those who do not know is where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter. The coolest thing this that out the back window you can see Edinburgh castle and the grandstand with flags for when the queen visits and it actually looks like Hogwarts with its quiddich field. It was the inspiration, but seeing it was so incredibly cool. In addition, another interesting fact is that the ceiling of Westminster Hall , the oldest part of the Palace at Westminster where I work actually inspired the ceiling for the Great Hall at Hogwarts in the movies.

It was such a great weekend overall and the train was not bad at all. We took it both there and back for 4 hours each way, but the train went along the coast, which was completely breathtaking to see such uninhabited coastline with beautiful fields, cliffs, and waterfront beaches.