Edinburgh

Hi Everyone!

Last week, after arriving back in England, I spent a couple of nights in a hotel in London. On the Saturday, Uncle Scotty arrived from Tassie and I caught up with him for dinner. It was great to see a familiar face so far away from home! He was heading off on a tour of England, Ireland and Scotland early the next morning, so it wasn´t a very late night. The next morning, I had to check out of my hotel and fill in some time before I was to catch the overnight train at 10:40pm to Edinburgh. I managed to pass my time in the Victoria and Albert Museum. There was an exhibit on about The Supremes which entertained me for a good couple of hours. It featured some history about where they came from and the changes that were occurring in America during the time they were growing up and when they were starting out as a group. It also featured many of the clothes they wore, from homemade dresses when they were first starting out, to designer dresses worth thousands of dollars.

After having dinner and picking up my bags from my hotel, I headed to London Euston where I caught the train to Edinburgh. It was certainly an interesting experience, and although it saved money on accommodation and gave me more time to spend in Edinburgh, I felt a bit smelly all through the following day, as I wore the same clothes for about 30 hours (and was also quite tired after an interrupted night of sleep).

I arrived in Edinburgh at 6:30am, and spent the next half hour waiting at the station for the left luggage office to open. After dropping off my big backpack, I headed out onto the streets of Edinburgh- and found that I loved the city immediately.

As it was still early and not much was open yet, and it was a lovely, clear morning, I decided that it would be a good time to climb up to the top of Arthur´s seat. The ascent took about 45 minutes, I then spent about half an hour at the top, and the descent took another half hour. It was a perfect morning for it- the sun had just risen and was shining over the hill and there was a clear panorama of the city and the bay, and over the Firth of Forth to Fife (look it up on a map!).


By the time I got back to The Royal Mile (the main street in Edinburgh which goes from Holyrood Palace, the official royal residence, to Edinburgh Castle) I was feeling pretty hungry, so stopped at a little café where I had a full Scottish breakfast. Feeling pretty full afterwards, I continued up The Royal Mile to the castle.
There was a grandstand in the forecourt of the castle which was being disassembled after The Edinburgh Tattoo. Inside the castle there is the oldest building in Edinburgh- St Margaret´s Chapel, The National War Museum, and the Crown Jewels of Scotland, plus The Stone of Destiny. I had a look at and in all of these sights and at one o'clock, I stopped to watch and hear the One o'clock gun go off. Now, apparently you can tell a local from a tourist by how they react to the One o'clock gun. The locals are obviously used to the sound at one o'clock and are waiting for it to go off. People who have just arrived in the city are obviously taken unawares when the gun goes off. I was ready and waiting for it to go off, and well, watch the film to see how I reacted...

After visiting the castle, I headed back to the train station to pick up my bag, then checked into my hostel. I had an early night that night, after having a shower and dinner, as I was quite exhausted after the train the night before.

The next morning, I headed to Starbucks on the Royal Mile. Not to indulge in the drinks at this typically Scottish café, but because this is where a free guided walking tour leaves from. This tour took us up the Royal Mile past Mercat Cross, where many people in the past were punished and made an example of, past St Giles Cathedral and to the car park behind it, underneath which there are thousands of bodies buried, some legitimately, as it was previously a cemetery, and some illegally as thousands of bodies of those who died of the plague were dumped here. Under carspot 23 there is a yellow plaque to mark the spot where John Knox, a former minister of the church is buried according to his wishes (not that he wanted to be buried underneath a carpark, but he wanted to be buried next to his church).
We also visited Lady Stairs Close, where the Writers Museum is, and heard stories of Deacon Brodie, a respected man during the day, who became involved with burglary, murder and gambling during the night and was the inspiration for the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

We visited Greyfriar's graveyard, where a tombstone stands for Greyfriar's Bobby, Scotland's most famous dog who actually isn't buried in the graveyard at all. There is also a little statue outside the churchyard of this little skye terrier. Over the wall of the churchyard you can see the school which was JK Rowlings inspiration for Hogwarts. Also inside the graveyard is the Covenanter's Prison, which is locked during the day (but which I visited that night) and where hundreds of men were exposed to the elements and perished fighting for their cause.
Down the road from the church, is The Elephant House, a café where JK Rowling sat and penned most of Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone.
We had lunch at a pub in The Grassmarket, where we could have a pint and burger for five pounds if we wanted. I did. It was a pretty good deal, although the burger did taste like it was part of a five pound lunch deal!

After lunch, we headed to the Princes Street Gardens which used to be underwater, but now is a lush, green area where people can hang out on sunny days. And that was where the tour ended.
I spent the rest of my afternoon in the Camera Obscura, which is just down the road from the castle. The Camera Obscura is a dark room, inside of which is a round table onto which an image is projected of the city. This image comes from a mirror which is angled on the roof, then passes through a series of lenses and is focused onto the table. The mirror is then turned with a rod, by a guide who showed us some points of interest in the city. This viewing went for 15 minutes, after which you can browse at the rest of the exhibits in the building at your own leisure. The other exhibits consisted of holograms, optical illusions and magic eye pictures. It was a very entertaining way to spend an afternoon.
In the evening, I went to the pub just up the road from my hostel and decided it was time to try Haggis. It came with tatties and neeps (mashed potatoes and turnips) in a layered, tower formation. It was round in shape, and had two oat biscuits angled out of the sides, so it actually looked like a sheep's head! So what did it taste like? Well, I'm not sure if this was a typical example of Haggis, but to me it tasted peppery and oatey, and actually I couldn´t taste the animal elements at all. It certainly didn't taste like lamb. It wasn´t bad, but not something that I would get a craving for either.

After dinner, I headed back up The Royal Mile to St Giles Cathedral, outside of which the tour "The City of The Dead" leaves from. This is a ghost tour which had very good reviews. A girl from Dublin, Helen, whom I met on the earlier day tour also turned up with an American girl, Rachael, who was staying at her hostel.

The tour started outside the church, where we heard some more stories about witch trials and burnings, then we continued onwards back to Greyfriar's Church, where, by coincidence, there was an ambulance. This just played up to our nerves and overactive imaginations, and Dave, our tourguide, just said "Hmmm, strange goings on in the graveyard" (earlier we had also been told of the "attacks" that sometimes occur during his tours and how occasionally people have had to be sent to the hospital). We heard some more stories about murderers and treatment of the inmates of The Covenanter's Prison, before Dave opened the gates and we entered the prison. He told us a bit about the poltergeist who inhabits the prison, before ushering us all into one of the cells. He told us how sometimes people can feel cold and collapse, so that if we started feeling cold, all we had to do was move a bit to the left or the right. He told us about how some people get bitten or scratched or bruised and sometimes they don't notice until the next morning they wake up with the marks on them. At one point Rachael exhaled and for a split second I wondered if a poltergeist had blown on the back of my neck!

Anyway, these stories went on for about 15 minutes or so. So, by the time that the guy dressed in black and wearing a mask jumped out from around the corner and yelled "AAAAUGGGGHHHH!", us females, who Dave had made stand at the front of the cell, screamed!

Now, to be honest, I was half expecting something like this to happen, especially as some of the reviews referred to "The surprise at the end", but even still, it was a shock when it did happen- but also very funny!

After everyone else had left, Rachael, Helen and I quizzed Dave on some of the spooky things that actually have happened, and although not as dramatic as a guy jumping out and yelling "BOO!" they are far more creepy and spine-tingling. We also asked him about the ambulance, and apparently one of the old homeless guys who hangs around the graveyard had collapsed (probably due to alcohol).

We said goodbye to Dave (who by day works in The National Museum) and headed to a pub for a pint, then back to Rachael and Helen's hostel to help Rachael drink some wine she needed to finish. The girls then very kindly walked me back to my hostel, so that I didn't have to walk back down The Royal Mile on my own.

For once, I was the last person back to my hostel dorm, as when I got to my room I found that everyone else was in bed.

The next morning, my room mates were already up and getting ready for the day when I got up and had a shower, inspected myself for bites and bruises, etc. They were Japanese tourists, and as they left, one of the girls asked me if they could have their photo taken with me! So the two girls posed with me while the guy took their photo. I'm not quite sure why they wanted my photo, but I'm assuming it's because I have blond hair and blue eyes. I'm hoping this is the reason anyway, because the alternative is that they thought I was some kind of freak-show (possibly it's a bit of both).

That day, I visited some of the places that we had passed the day before on our tour. I went to The Writer's Museum, which is a tribute to Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson. I tried to go to The Elephant House for lunch, but there weren't any tables free for me to sit at, so I went back to The Grassmarket for lunch (to a café though, not the pub this time). I also went to The People's Story, which we hadn't visited the previous day, but which is a small (free!) museum with stories about people from Edinburgh from the 1700's to today.

As I'd spent pretty much all of my time whilst I'd been in Edinburgh in The Old Town, I decided that it was time to check out The New Town, so I ventured beyond Princes Street Gardens and went for a walk down George Street, which is where the Princes (and recently Princess B) go out when they're in town.
I had a great time in Edinburgh, and as I said before, I loved the city straight away, which is very unusual for me. Usually when I'm travelling on my own, it takes a day or two for me to start to appreciate a place. I'm not sure what it is about Edinburgh. It's not the castle, I know that. I think it might be all the lovely Victorian buildings, and the many narrow, steep walkways and steps leading up to The Royal Mile. It may also be it's proximity to the sea, and the lovely views from Arthurs Seat. It may be the simple fact that the sun was shining when I first got off the train (this didn't last!). Whatever the reason, Edinburgh is one of those places that I would gladly return to.

Hope you are all well, and I look forward to all the comments and to having a full email inbox very soon!

Love,
Lis x.

ps. more photos to come on this particular entry very soon, but at the moment I'm in a bar in Glasgow and there's a soccer match on (Scotland currently 2-1 lead over Iceland) and I'm afraid that my computer may get a pint of beer at any moment (and also the battery is starting to run flat). So more pictures and more blogs soon!