Because I love golf so much...

My one class was cancelled yesterday, so I had the opportunity to take a short day trip to St. Andrews with a friend. It's an hour train ride from Edinburgh plus a 15 minute bus ride in to the center of the city, so it's a very easy trip to take.  Although I get bored with 18 holes of mini golf and can't imagine ever playing a real game, I figured I couldn't spend four months in Scotland without seeing the most famous golf course in the world.

Our first stop in the city was Old Course, the original golf course. It was very pretty and right on the ocean.  After taking pictures at the 18th hole, we'd seen enough and began our walk through the town.  Not surprisingly, most of the town is based around golf, with the other small percentage centered around St. Andrews University.  We had the opportunity to see some of the University's academic buildings, and they were beautiful with gorgeous views of the ocean.

Our first stop after the golf course was St. Andrews castle.  It's now a pile of ruins, but there are still parts accessible to people.  The old mines were open though and we were able to walk through those, but they were tiny, wet, and dirty, and it definitely wasn't my favorite part of the day.  From the castle, we began walking on the road along the beach, but got caught in a massive wind, rain, and hail storm with no opportunity for shelter.  It had been sunny all morning, so without coats, umbrellas, or any place to step inside for a few minutes, we were forced to continue walking through the weather (Let me note that hail really, really hurts). We finally found a cafe, and made it out of the rain for a bit, but we were drenched for the rest of the day.

Once the rain stopped, we continued walking through the town and explored the ruins of an old cathedral.  Very little still stands, and there wasn't much to see, so we continued exploring.  After visiting a few shops, we found an adorable ice cream place that we were told has some of the best ice cream in Scotland.  It was SO good. I like anything sweet, especially ice cream, but this was so much better than normal.

I didn't realize how tiny St. Andrews is, and a five hours there was plenty of time to see everything.  It was a fun little day trip, but it would have been a lot more exciting if my interest in golf stretched further beyond good looking men in preppy clothes. The trip definitely made me appreciate living in a city!