Off to Europe! GJT-DEN-FRA-ABZ-EDI

I'll just start off by saying that I SUCK at taking "selfies!" I swear, I try. I stand in front of the mirror and twist and turn my body and face into the odd contorted positions I see so popular on facebook and instagram, but in the end, I end up looking like a mix of Quasimodo and, well, someone else twisted and weird looking! The purpose of this specific selfie here is to show proof, honest to goodness evidence, that I, Toni, was able to pack ONLY a carryon and a purse for a three week vacation to Europe, IN THE WINTER! See that backpack, folks? That's everything! And by everything I meant that I managed to shove:

5 pairs of jeans

7 T-shirts

2 paris of Toms

7 pairs of undies

2 workout pants

2 pairs of pjs

7 pairs of socks

1 blow dryer

1 curling iron

1 Lap top, charger, camera battery charger, and phone charger

5 under shirt tank tops

Shampoo, conditioner, makeup, hair spray, root boost (all travel size) a round brush, bobby pins, a tooth brush, and probably more! Why did I decide to do this. Well, I think for one, I am a glutton for punishment and like to torture myself, and two, the last time we went to Europe, I brought a suit case, carry on, and purse. Each loaded to the brim with shoes and dresses and things I never even took out of the case. Carrying all the junk through airports, trains, and through the biggest cities in the world was enough to send me to the loony bin. So, lesson learned. I have to say that we are on day 6 of our adventure and it has worked out quite nicely, although insanely heavy, and at times very painful! Okay, to the trip!

We started our day like any other regular Thursday, except that we were running around packing last minute items...okay, that's kind of a lie. I may or may not have packed about 2 weeks earlier to "practice" and make sure I could pack everything I needed in just my carry on! Okay, back to average Thursday. At some point, Quincy also threw my iphone 5s into the bathtub and it wouldn't turn on again! That was definitely a bad omen for things to come! 

So, afternoon comes and it's time to head to the airport! We get there, and meet my parents outside who were running late, which we were freaking out about a little because we needed to get to our terminal at the "giant" Grand Junction airport! Parents take the kids, we go to check-in and the receptionist breaks the news to us. The flight is delayed and there would not be anytime to catch our connecting flight in Denver to Frankfurt! Yay! Believe it or not, there were 5 of us altogether on our way to Frankfurt! Crazy!

So we spend over an hour going through every option possible to find a flight. Finally, they get note that the new plane is on its way. We would have 10 minutes from the time we land to run our tooshies off to the Lufthansa terminal in Denver to catch our flight. We went and sat with our German comrades and mapped out the best way to get to the terminal! The plan was ready to be put into action. Long story short, we are standing waiting to board and more bad news. The new plane was broken! That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I was already shaking like a baby beagle getting a bath, I seriously hate flying, and now we had to wait for the plane to be repaired. Goodbye all hopes of catching our connection as well!

Long story short, they finally fixed the plane, we get on and they tell us something was wrong with the engine, shoot me now, and that they didn't have a certified United mechanic at the airport, so they had to call another mechanic who had to call United and had to be walked through the process of fixing the plane! I kind of wanted to curl up in a ball and die! Why would they even tell us this! Then we get ready to leave and the engines won't start. "No big deal! The mechanic just forgot the air cart!" The captain says nonchalantly! I just knew we were going to die on that flight! Lucky for us, the flight went up and was smooth as a baby's bottom!

We made it to Denver and had to go see the most pleasant *sarcasm* worker to help us rebook our flights! She managed, and I'm sure she worked very hard to find this *more sarcasm* a flight from Denver the next morning, which would stop in Washington DC, then in Frankfurt, and finally Aberdeen! We would get there Saturday evening! Ugh! We checked into the Hilton Double Tree, which was like a bloody half an hour away from the airport, and spent a pleasant night in room 622, remember that number! Left bright and early the next morning, sat at the airport for ages because of another delay, made it to DC, took off to Frankfurt, got to Frankfurt, slept on the terminal benches like bums, best nap ever, hopped on the next plane to Aberdeen, went straight to the train station, got on the train for another 2.5 hours, and FINALLY, we made it to Edinburgh! I couldn't see straight I was so tired!

We were sooo bored at the airport in Denver. I decided to walk around and take some pictures, and then I realized that there was nothing worth taking pictures of, so I sat back down and continued to be bored!

The train station in Aberdeen. It was quite beautiful and quite cold, as well!

We sat next to a "lovely gal" on the train who helped show us the direction we needed to go to our hotel! 

Climbing the stairs, our first views of Edinburgh were breath taking! Directly above us sat the Royal Mile, covered with beautiful buildings, the castle, and more. We majorly lucked out with our hotel selection as well, because it sat right a top The Mile, just blocks from the castle! We checked into our hotel and guess what room we were in? 622! Crazy, right! I mean, what a coincidence! We dropped our things off in the room, which was fabulous. It sat on the top floor and had a great view from the window! We quickly realized that we were going to need to get a thicker jacket; Edinburgh was co co freezing (as Carter would put it!)

One of the many "closes" in Edinburgh! These were my favorite things about the city!

We walked around and explored the city a little bit that evening! We had a fun dinner at a neat little pub/restaurant called the Duric just down the road and off The Mile. One of the many "closes" in Edinburgh! These were my favorite things about the city!

I never did figure out what this tower thing was or even it's name! It was on Princes Street and was so beautiful!

Day two was pretty exciting! We had no plan, which made it that much better. I'm kind of a control freak and like to have every hour of every day planned to a "T." Nathan, on the other hand, likes to go with the flow. It took everything for me not to google every single detail about Edinburgh, and you know what, I'm so glad I didn't! It was such a fun change just wandering around and exploring!

 We walked over to the shops on Princes street. I dragged Nathan into an H&M so I could get a better coat, and maybe a few other things! Another perk about bringing only a carryon; you can't blow tons of money on crap because then you have no way of getting it home! After the shops, we walked up towards Edinburgh Castle and did some serious exploring! The walk up itself was soooo incedibly beautiful! When we got to the castle, we were not disappointed! It was even more amazing than the walk! We spent quite a while looking around, and freezing, the castle! We actually spent a really really long time there. Side note: All the bathrooms at the castle were basically underground. I had to walk down this rather large flight of stars to use the loo! It was kind of odd!

Our walk up to the castle was spectacular!

Maybe I've already said this a thousand times, but Edinburgh was soooooo cold! I was mind blown at how the people there must literally have become immune to the biting chill! I saw the shortest skirts, lowest shirts, etc. there in Edinburgh! I had two coats on, a scarf, snow boots, and I still didn't want to go outside!

Some random guy bombing my shot!

After the castle, we had lunch at some random place, went back to the hotel to rest for a few, and then headed back out on the town! We headed left over to Hollyrood Park and the little mountain hill thingy where Arthur's Seat sat! After some smooth talking, I finally convinced Nathan to just do half of the hike with me! Half way turned out to be great for several reasons. A. my high heeled wedges were not conducive to safe hiking and I still don't know how I didn't fall on my face in the mud and B. it was soooooo cold and windy! Even the view from halfway was beautiful! I can only imagine what it would have looked like from the top!

After our little hike, we just kept wandering around Edinburgh walking through and exploring every street we came across!

The next day we laid around in bed for half of the day before finally deciding to brave the cold. We didn't really have anything planned, so we figured we would just go out and improvise! We left our hotel and decided to head right because we hadn't explored that road yet.....(Okay, my timeline is screwed up and I can't remember what we did first, so I'm going to leave both!)...We made another quick stop at H and M for more socks, and then decided to just keep walking down Princes street. We just walked and walked and walked and walked until we finally came to a random cathedral just sitting in the middle of the town! It was so beautiful and the best part, not a dang tourist was anywhere nearby! We walked inside and looked around, and then we sat on the bench out front for about an hour and just took in the scenery and snacked on nasty potato chips! We began our walk back to the hotel and just continued turning up and down random roads, checking out anything and everything we came across! It really was dreamy!

After our lovely walk, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our first tour: The Real Mary King's Close! On our way up, we saw this monstrosity of a Lord of the Rings board game sitting in the window of a smelly gaming shop. We just had to go in and see what it was about. Well, we asked the worker and he was more than thrilled to let us play around of the game. Apparently, the game is huge everywhere and was actually just a version of a bigger game called War Hammer 40,000. Nathan and I are kind of lame and had never heard of it! Anyway, it was the most complicated game on the face of the planet, but holy funness! That worker was a blast and we had such a great time playing a round of Lord of the Rings whatever its called! Probably one of the funnest experiences on the trip!
Now back to the tour. It was, unfortunately, a typical tour, but the close itself was amazing! It was crazy to think that entire town of around 700 people once thrived in that tiny underground (it wasn't underground when it was inhabited) area! Amazing! Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed!

The next morning I woke up incredibly early. It didn't have anything to do with my dear husband's snoring, I swear! I walked to the nearby pastry shop and grabbed some breakfast, came back to the hotel, and got our stuff ready to head out! We made it to the station and as per usual, we missed our dang train! Seriously, 2 trains missed now. Technically the one in Aberdeen wasn't our fault, but we still had to pay for it! I was sooooo ticked off! I mean smoke coming out of the ears angry! We were there, plenty of time to spare, and our dang phones wouldn't connect to the wifi there to get the confirmation for the tickets! Ahhhh! I'm getting mad just thinking about it again! We just sat there and watched our train go by while we tried not to throw our phones across the station our of frustration!

Now on to Coventry!