Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

Yup Missy and I went to the Royal Botanic Gardens, mostly cos it was free and I figured that as someone who recently worked in Parks I should check it out and see if it was any good, plus I'd heard they were real good.

They are massive, and to sum up what I thought as I walked around it was basically, 'oh look tree tree tree, oh pretty tree, plant plant plant, boring plants, oh goodie lots of green blah blah blah'.  Did decide there are either not enough purple flowers in the world or they just don't have many there, this is very sad, purple is a cool colour so you would think there would be lots of plants that are purple.  Did find a couple of purple plants that I liked though so that was all good.  My fav part was definitely the Rock Garden, though to be honest I expected a garden of rocks, that would have been logical, instead it was an alpine garden with alpiney plants and stuff and signs about what grows at what altitudes.  I didn't read these signs of course, just like I didn't read any others that were there.  Am sure if you liked stuff like this you would have gotten more out of it that I did but I did have some awesome music playing so was happy just bopping along and chilling out :)

Saw a super cute duck and squirrel and didn't even need to use zoom on my camera for photos as they were just chilling out with us and let me and Missy walk right up to them to photos :) def made the visit to the gardens worth it :) hehe

Cute duck

Super Cute Squirrel

Cool seat

Me on cool seat :) hehe

Cool trees :) just a couple of the cool ones I saw :)

Rock Garden

Purple flowers I like :)

Cool thing I can't spell in the Chinese Garden

National Musuem of Scotland part 2

Yesterday I went to the Scottish history part of the National Musuem of Scotland (the part I was a bit too bored to look at properly last time hehe). It was pretty interesting, still don't care at all about geology (that's the rocks and forming of land and crap etc aye) totally just bypassed that section while bopping along to my iPod hehe :)

The old school stuff was the best I thought, gotta love seeing a actual guillotine that was used to behead ppl (or so they say), and a pike (holy cow was that more massive than I thought it would be), and a massive as two handed sword (pretty sure it was taller than me) and lots of other cool things. 

Also chilled out in a old school church, they had bits of one set up that you could walk around and check out. There were heaps of touch-screens that you could find out more information about the different things. It was really good  you could totally spend hours there (dad and bro I think you guys would), I spent a couple hours and I didn't even read most of the things just wandered past vaguely looking in the displays and stopping when saw something interesting. 

Went to the Botanical Gardens today, will post photos etc tomorrow for that one :)

From the church

Cool old school hearse, me wants to be taken in one of these I think :)

Seriously cool book stand

And just cos :)

National Museum of Scotland

Now this was a museum that I loved, there were lots of interactive parts to it and fun things for kids and big kids like me to do, thought of Dofus and Bro while doing most of them as well, you guys would like this place to :)

I had heaps of fun just wandering around, doing the interactive parts and reading the stuff on the interesting looking parts.  The only part I think they got wrong is that Aussie was in the country part with a section on its history and NZ was in the Pacific Island part with stuff about NZ with all the other Islands, and here I was thinking we were a country like Aussie :(

I am not sure which part I loved the most, it is probably between the music section (playing a massive xylophone and big drums has a certain appeal that results in a big kid grin hehe) or the trying to run faster than a Cheetah (turns out I can't but I can run faster than Hippo, Elephant, Black Mamba (though they don't run they slither), Roadrunner, Crocodile, Bandicoot and a Rat).  It is not very accurate how they test this running fast than but it was still fun (you cycle not run lol and so wrong cos apparently I can go 33.3km/h).  I also found out that I am not as heavy as a chimpanzee :( I am as heavy as a Giant Anteater though, I know who woulda guessed :p

I also discovered I find it creepy to see how a cockroach does, maybe it was just the thought of cockroaches themselves that creeped me out.  One creature I wish I didn't know about is the Giant Spider Crab, ewww to them, they have a leg span of nearly 4 meters, so wrong and hope I never meet one.

There was also an Extinction Wall of Honour which I found rather moving, there are so many animals on it and the years that they became extinct, some have been quite recent which kinda shocked me.

Turns out I am rather good at reintroducing wolves to the Highlands, there was a game where you got to add wolves back into the Highlands to control the deer population.  You get to pick how many wolves and where you want them and the game/challenge spans 10 years and there are a few things that crop up during the time that you have to say yay or nay to.  Haha I won all the challenges cept the Eco-something-or-other one cos I let the local duck hunters build a hut to shoot and watch from and I think I was meant to say no to them.  Oh well Uncle Frank would be happy and that is all that counts hehe.  I won the tree growing, the keeping deer under control and the citizens loving me and a couple other ones :) woot woot :)

By the time I got to the Scottish history side of the museum I was pretty bored so semi headed straight to the roof terrace.  I say semi headed as I stopped along the way to attempt to knock down a brick wall (but made of foam) with a catapult along the way, I did not succeed.  Then I found the Sports History area and I did a quiz on the Scottish sporting history from forever ago till now (like the 1900's forever ago) and I got 63%, damn straight I know my Scottish sporting history lol.

The roof terrace was real cool, you could see the whole city from up there.  Took some photos and most are all semi crocked, beginning to think that when I was told I see on an angle at one of the random 'experiment' things I did at uni for money that they might have been right lol.  The lift up there (dumb place cos you can walk to all the levels but the roof terrace) is the slowest lift in the history of all lifts I've been in, but it did mean I got quite a good chat in with a rather nice looking Scotsman within the space of one floor hehe.


Creepy Giant Spider Crab

SAL Bulldog - just randomly in-between floors hehe :)


Castle from the roof terrace


Castle taken the other day from George Street



Just some other cool, old buildings from roof terrace

Selfies (for Pravina hehe)

So went up Calton Hill today, mostly cos Jo said that I need to to get the typical tourist pics hehe.  Took some selfies as Pravina has asked for some, was quite fun actually.  Def gonna take mates who visit up there as there are so many possibilities for random photos in quite a few places :)

Ok so not on Calton Hill, this was in a cafe and def the best wallpaper ever :)

Exploring Edinburgh

So I went exploring/job hunting yesterday and took some photos to share :) I know I know finally lol. Also got me a library card - mega yay. Haha the first person I spoke to said they couldn't sign me up without proof of address, but he said would speak to someone else just in case, another lady came out saw my passport was a NZ one and said oh I love NZ we can sign you up lol. So now I can go borrow books to my hearts content :)

Here are some photos:

Edinburgh Castle (did not go in cos I think £16.50 is a rip off to pay lol)

View from Edinburgh Castle

Cool old buildings, they do have names but easier to just post as old buildings hehe

And finally a selfie for Pravina :) hehe

Edinburgh

So I figure you guys are prob waiting for some cool photos from my exploring of Edinburgh, right? Well that's gonna be kinda hard as not really explored yet. There is some very good reasons for this which I will tell you. 

Yesterday I had a job interview in the morning and then I planned to go sightseeing after it. However the job interview consisted of hardly any questions then a 4hr trial I see if I was suitable (unpaid unless I choose to work there). It was for a souviner shop up by the castle, before the interview I thought could be fun. After the trial I got the feeling that they were shady people, at no time was a contract mentioned, they said it was ok that I didn't have a National Insurance Number (UK version of IRD number) and they said they couldn't guarantee me full time work but could prob offer me 20hrs a week (they advertised for full time staff fyi). After talking to Jo (mate I'm staying with) and Ben (her flatmate) they said that the shop has a bad rep and high staff turnover. So I'm still unemployed but happy which is more impt I think. 

Today I went to go sightseeing, fully planned on it but ended up op-shopping instead hehe. So much I coulda got if was working and had a place to live but instead I limited myself to just one mega awesome dress for autumn/spring-ish time :) looks gorgeous on to :) 

I did climb Arthur's Seat this afternoon though, it has great views from the top of all of Edinburgh and I can see it becoming one of my fav places to go read a book. Found the wrong path heading down and ended up on the scenic route, saying scenic route as doubt mum and dad would be thrilled to hear that their baby girl was clinging to a cliff type thing while figuring out how to get down without ending up splattered on the rocks below, and no I didn't turn around don't be silly even thinking that sort of thought lol. Found the path in the end and it was all sweet as. All the pics below are of Arthur's Seat :)

Tomorrow, fingers crossed, will be a sightseeing day :)

Arthur's Seat, Holyrood Park

Not sure what the deal is with this being padlocked but it cracked me up so I'm sharing it hehe

Plagues and exploring some more

Went to Eyam on Sunday, it's the plague town :) hehe. Basically what happened was that when the plague arrived in 1665 or whenever it was they were the only town up this way to get it so to save the neighbouring villages they self-imposed a quarantine thing so no one left the village and they buried their dead in their gardens. It meant that pretty much the whole town died cept for a few women (cos we all know women are the true survivors hehe) and the odd man. And now you can walk around the town and read how many people died in each cottage and who (if anyone) survived. Was actually pretty cool. 

Yesterday went exploring and shopping in Chesterfield, got me a bank account (yay) and couldn't resist going op-shopping (at the British Red Cross so def a good cause) and got me a couple tops. One practical and one totally not but looks awesome on so I got it lol. Also wandered around the church there, it is pretty awesome with it's curly top bit :) some pics below. 

Am of to Edinburgh today, so can't wait for that one. Train leaves in just under an hour :) my friend Jo is meeting me at the station there which is cool. Has been awesome staying with Zan and Noel and catching up again. Am leaving some stuff here so I have an excuse (not that I need one) to come back to visit :) hehe. Definitely loving the Peak District :)

Chesterfield St Mary's and All Saints Parish Church

Yes this was on the church grounds, dunno why but I think it's cool lol