Engagement Weekend!! :D

Brandon came to visit me for Easter. We hadn't seen each other in a month so it was great to see him! I trained to the airport to meet him, and couldn't have been happier to see him.
It was Easter Weekend, so I got everyone Chocolate Easter Eggs to celebrate!

Brandon had planned a surprise weekend for when he came. We stayed in Stirling the first night he was here, and then the next day we went to Edinburgh. It was a surprise where we were staying. I later found out we were staying at the Glasshouse Hotel.

It was a really cool hotel. It is an old church that got turned into a hotel. It was cool!! It is also the only hotel in Edinburgh with a rooftop garden. Our room was stunning.
I just thought that we were spending a nice weekend in Edinburgh and had no idea what was planned. We got there, dropped off our luggage and headed out. I had been to Edinburgh quite a bit before Brandon got there, so I wanted to show him some of the new town. We of course, went to the Disney Store!!.... lol.
We got a crepe from a crepe truck,

and then went and climbed the Scot Monument.

When I was in town with my mom and tom, we talked about doing the Scot Monument, but never got around to it. Well... it was interesting.... lol. It was allllllll narrow winding staircases with some outside bits.

We got to climb all the way to the top, but there were WAY TOO many people in this tower to function.

You'd think that with how many people they allow up, there would be an up and a down.... NOPE!! Just as you are trying to go down or up other people are trying to do the opposite. Someone has to scrunch against the center of the circle staircase, and other people have to squeeze around you.

It was insane...lol. But we made it all the way to the top, and had beautiful views of Edinburgh.

After the Scot Monument we went to dinner at a restaurant next to the hotel called "Franky and Bennies". It was great, and we got a dessert waffle! lol. They are delicious!

The next day we got up bright and early, and went straight to the castle.... (after a Starbucks detour)....lol. This was my 4th time to castle....lol. BUT this time it was EASTER, so there were lots of things going on. They had changed a couple things, so it was nice to have surprises.

We did the typical castle things like seeing the crown jewels and doing the audio tour. We got Brandon a Historic Scotland membership, so that we wouldn’t have to pay at all the places we wanted to go.  At the castle we did some souvenir shopping, and for buying x amount we got a free lion umbrella…lol.

After the castle we walked down the Royal Mile. This is an old street out the entrance of the castle that royalty used to have parades down in Edinburgh. There are lots of tourist shops and restaurants. It’s a pretty happening place to be in Edinburgh. There are lots of street performers and things happening, so it’s always a nice walk. We walked down the royal mile to Hollyrood Palace, and the Scottish Parliament building. Hollyrood Palace is where the royalty more lived while in Edinburgh. The castle is really cold and it’s windy on top of the hill, so the royal apartments are in Hollyrood. I also got to show Brandon the Scottish Parliament building. This is a highly controversial building for the area. It’s SUPER modern and industrial looking, with concrete and metal.. and it was about 10x the budget that they had intended to spend on it. So some of the Scottish don’t like it..rightfully so. I think it would fit it really well in Germany or something, but it does not fit in in old town Edinburgh. While in that part of town we even did some Christmas shopping. Yup, I said CHRISTMAS!! Lol. I’d post about what we bought for xmas, but I bought things for my fam, and I’m pretty sure they’re half of everyone reading this blog…lol

After the royal mile we went to the National Gallery of Scotland. 

This is a fabulous gallery with paintings from some MAJOR artists like Van Gough, Da Vinci, Rembrant, Cezzane, Monet, etc. It was AMAZING! Some of the paintings are the size of a whole wall. It was insane! I had gone there with my mom and tom and was so impressed that I wanted to go back. While I was there with my mom and Tom, they fell in love with a painting. So much so that we were looking for prints later on. Well this time when I went with Brandon, we had to go drop our backpack off at the bag check and we found the gallery shop. They sold prints and postcards of almost every painting in the gallery. So we picked up a postcard and sent it to my Mom and Tom! They didn’t get it for nearly a month later, but we sent it!! Lol. 

After making to that part of town it was getting late so we decided to go back to the hotel and drop off our stuff, regroup and go to dinner.

We got to the hotel and went up to the room. I had no idea that Brandon was going to propose. It feels like a blur but I remember we got up the to room and I put down the bags and I look up and Brandon is down on one knee. He had the room decorated by the hotel people. Originally it was going to be out on the rooftop garden, but it was meant to rain that day, so they adjusted it into the room. 

It was super adorable! Lol. And I said yes…lol. (shocker) lol.

So we went out to dinner to celebrate!!

The next day we went out in Edinburgh again, and this time we were in search of the “Dean Gallery”.

We’d heard about this exhibit they were hosting done by a photographer who photographed people based on their profession. It was a really interesting exhibit. We had to walk a long ways to get to it though. On the way, there was a street fair and so we stopped in to check out some of the things. The very first table we went to was a guy who painted trees on fabric. And it sounds lame, but it was REALLY cool. So we bought one of his pieces.  

We had to trek for quite some time to make it to the Dean Gallery, but it was pretty cool. 

After the Dean Gallery we grabbed some lunch and then headed back into Edinburgh to pick up our bags from the hotel and get back to Stirling. On our way back to Stirling we HAD to stop and grab a crepe from crepe truck guy…again..lol. They are delicious though!!! There’s no denying it!! 

So we jumped on a train!

 It was an awesome weekend in Edinburgh!!

  When we got back to Stirling we met up with my friends there and celebrated the engagement with dinner and a movie.

The next night I took Brandon to our favorite local restaurant The Filling Station!! It’s delish!! Lol. For dinner Brandon got a burger (SHOCKER)!

But he was so excited, since this was his first burger in quite a while! I got my favorite from there, which is a Cajun chicken pasta bake! YUM! And then I introduced Brandon to the new dessert love of my life, Sticky Toffee Pudding. I know what you’re thinking it sounds gross. But It’s NOT! It’s a cake drizzled in caramel (they call sticky toffee) with toffee bits in it!!! ON CAKE!!!

YUM! After dinner we met up with the rest of our friends at Studio, our on campus pub for Karaoke night. I usually hate karaoke unless I can heckle it. Lol. It was a good time though. (no neither of us sang.. that would have been interesting) lol. 

The next day Brandon had to go back to Torino :( I took the train with him to the airport.