We took a "wee" trip to Scotland....

When reading this post, go find some bagpipes on youtube and play it in the background! It makes this post much more authentic.

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Waking up early at 4:30 am was not necessarily my choice, but was necessary if we wanted to get a full trip in Edinburgh. I decided to suck it up and wake up. And I just kept hearing the song “This is the day the Lord has made” in my head. It made the 25 minute walk to the base’s gate in the freezing cold much more bearable. Even the fact that the train tracks stopped working half way through our train ride didn’t seem so bad. But when we had to get off the train and wait for a bus, I started to get cranky. We were waiting in an hour and a half line in the cold rain and I was just about to start complaining when God gave me the opportunity to turn around and realize he has taken care of everything. I didn’t need to worry and whine about my circumstances. In fact, I felt like he was telling me to serve, to stop thinking about only my discomfort. A man was standing next to me in line without an umbrella. I shared mine with him. A man didn’t have enough money for a cab and I was lucky enough to help him. My attitude really improved after giving to others. Our train rides all worked out after I changed my attitude.

We made it into Edinburgh (Edd-in-bra in Scottish) smoothly and found our way to our guesthouse. We had the apartment and it was absolutely fantastic! We got into Edinburgh around 4 and decided to go on the Whisky Experience. It was an “interactive” tour that informed us how their malt whisky was made. We got to taste 4 different kinds and they were tough to drink. After our toast, we all were very surprised by how strong the taste was. But the tour was very fun and interesting. We then went down to the street full of restaurants and ate at a cute Italian place. On our way, a young man was sitting on the side of the road. He had a blanket but looked very cold. And I walked straight past him. But all during dinner I couldn’t get him out of my mind. When we walked back onto the street I literally heard God tell me “Serve him”. The voice was as clear as day. I am not lying. I looked into my purse and had a ten pound note, and a couple pound coins. What was I supposed to give?  I went to grab the coins and I heard Nope Callie. I have given you so much. Give more.  My 10 pounds, God? The whole thing? Yes, give. I walked up to the young man and put the ten pounds in his hand. He looked at the money, then at me, and then back at the money. He said “Oh my goodness. Thank you!” I don’t know what he did with the money, but I believe that he really needed it. I know ten pounds doesn’t sound like much but if you could have heard the way he said it, you would have known that he was really grateful for it. I know as Christians this seems like no big deal. But I have heard myself along with other Christians say, “Yeah, I don’t give money to people on the side of the road because I don’t know what they are going to do with it. Probably just buy alcohol or cigarettes”. But I think all of those times I have been listening to the selfish side of me. And maybe everyone else does this but I heard God speak very clearly to me and what he decided to tell me was to give. I think it is really interesting that God chose to speak words about service to me. Hmmmm He’s doing something there!!

The next day we woke up early and walked to the Castle of Edinburgh. This is where many monarchs were born as well as the National War Museum, and the crown jewels of Scotland. The castle is very high up on a steep cliff and had a beautiful view of the city. We had dinner at the “most haunted café in Edinburgh”. I don’t know how haunted it was, but it had great food and tea! We toured the castle and then went shopping! We obviously had to get a couple of plaid scarves! We made our way down the royal mile and heard many bagpipes playing, took a picture with William Wallace (and got flashed by William Wallace), and toured the Palace! This palace is where the Queen of England stays when she is in Scotland and Mary, Queen of Scots also lived there. I was able to see Mary’s room as well as many rooms inside the Palace. I unfortunately was not able to take pictures inside. But Sarah and I marveled at the fact that we opened the same front door that she would walk through! Weird!!

At lunch time, we were trying to find a place to eat and happened to stumble upon the Elephant Room. It looked like a cute little deli but it didn’t really reel us in until we saw “Birthplace of Harry Potter” written on the front window. This deli is where J. K. Rowling began writing Harry Potter! She is English and had just divorced her husband. She moved to Scotland and was living on welfare. She went to this deli often and one day felt inspired to start jotting down an idea for a new story! It was so cool to sit down and pretend we were writing Harry Potter. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip.

What I really loved about Edinburgh was the people. The town is beautiful but the people there are SO nice (Well and the men are all tall and good looking but that is beside the point)! They were very hospitable to tourists. Several people stopped by just to find out where we were from and find out about us. I really loved this trip and it is my favorite place to visit in Europe so far!