Olympic Football (Soccer) and the Crazy Homeless Woman

There’s nothing like an intense/rigorous hike in the morning right? Well, that how I feel! I decided to hike up Arthur’s Seat, a mountain in Scotland this morning. And… IT WAS TOUGH! I realized I’m extremely out of shape! The view was totally work the sweat though because I got to see all of Edinburgh! It was so perfect!

My camera does these cool panoramic pictures... This is the view from the top of Arthur's Seat!

Sarah and I LOVING the blue skies.

USA!!!

My day just continued to get better because I got to go to a Women’s Olympic Soccer event right after. It was the quarter finals, Sweden vs France game and it was intense! Everyone was decked out in Olympic gear, and cheering like mad! I still can’t believe I got tickets to go see soccer!!! I’m so lucky! However, they don’t have your typical sporting events food. They had mince pies and something called “beefy drink”. I wasn’t too interested in finding out what it was. I was almost tempted to ask for it and say, “May I have the beefy drink? Be extra generous with the beef.” Just to see what they would do. But alas, I held back. Especially since I’d had to drink it afterwards!

Striking a pose at the stadium! (I know the US didn't even play, but someone asked me to hold their flag)

Outside the stadium with my favorite bunk mate KIM!!!

We headed back Edinburgh and thought we’d do some touring….

Commence the CRAZY HOMELESS WOMAN. I was walking to St. Giles Cathedral with my friend Sarah. While walking, there was this woman that offered us a red pill taped to a sheet of paper. She said, “Try the red one not the blue!” It was… very random. We said “No thanks” and continued walking. It was so bizarre that we started to chuckle and walk away. About 3 minutes later, half a block up the street, there was this homeless woman. Rotting teeth, grocery bags, crazed look in her eyes, truly the whole shebang. Apparently our joy and carefree manner upset her deeply because she started to attack us. Yes. I was attacked by a homeless woman.

I don’t know what it is about me, but I attract… danger? Crazy people? Anyways… She grabbed my sweatshirt, started hitting Sarah and I, grabbed Sarah’s hair, and just started beating down on us!!! We were just trying to grab our stuff and get outta there! The whole time she was swearing and yelling at us asking, “You think it’s funny? You think that’s (super explicit word) funny??”

Uh… no. We don’t think it’s funny. We just wish you would stop attacking us! I was all ready to fight back, but she seemed crazier than what I like to associate with. So I just called it what it was, and skedaddled! The best part was after running away, a man that had watched the whole fiasco go down said, “Welcome to Edinburgh!!!” Well… thanks good sir! What a lovely and interesting place!

Dinner!!! I had Haggis (sheep stomach, a Scottish specialty)

We finally gathered our thoughts, calmed down a bit, checked ourselves for bruises, and decided to move on and check out the city some more! It was very fun, and we had a fairly nice hostel.

We were in Edinburgh during the famous “Edinburgh Fringe Festival”, it’s an event that goes on for about a month where some of the “best” performers from around the world come and do comedy skits, plays, etc. I would probably describe it as a meeting place of all of those weird theater people that I use to hang out with that partied under the stairs and played games like Pokémon and Dungeons and Dragons during lunch. Well all of those people congregated and decided to put on a bunch of shows. It was weird.

This show was called "No Pants Thursdays", just to give you an idea of some of the shows that were offered. Here are some of the stars!

We went to a comedy show though that was pretty good. The guy oddly enough made a joke about Mormons (can’t get away from it can I??) Anyways, after the show my friends and I introduced ourselves and said that we were oddly enough Mormons. His response? “Oh I’ve never met one before (as he gently pats our arm) I thought you would have chops or something… well you are just so cute I want to put you on a keychain and carry you around!” It was pretty funny actually!

It was an insane day; I’m lovin’ Scotland!