Scotland Part One: Edinburgh

Welcome to Edinburgh

It's crazy to believe that I'm already half-way through the semester. Last Wednesday I had my last midterm, and the next morning I head out with two other students for our midterm break tour of Scotland. My alarm went off at 6am, the earliest I've forced myself to get up in a very long time. I may or may not have hit snooze two, three, or four times, but that's not relevant. Maggie and I got up on time, met Alex in the lobby a few minutes later than we'd anticipated, got a little wake-up from Starbucks, and got to Kings Cross on time for our train. The train was nice; we were in comfortable standard class seats around a little table, and it was quiet for most of the ride. A family got on the train almost an hour before we arrived, and their toddler and baby were a quite a bit louder than I would have preferred (they made noise). Anyway, we made it to Edinburgh on time and I had nothing to complain about, which is a rare occurrence for my cynical self.

We then found our way to the Belford Hostel. I would recommend this hostel to anyone on a budget that wants to visit Edinburgh. It's in a pretty quiet area of the city less than a fifteen minute walk from the city center. It is a renovated gothic church, so the inside is really cool and the outside is amazing. I don't actually have any pictures of the hostel, but I can attest to its decency. The only problem I had was something was wrong with the drain in my shower so there was about half an inch of water at my feet after I finished showering. It is very possible, and highly likely, that that was my fault and not the hostel's, however.

Moody skies are going to feature quite a bit in my next few blogs.

Not a working cannon, unfortunately

I don't know where the flag went.

Anyway, after checking into the hostel we traversed around and found ourselves at a cute burger joint, aptly named BURGER. It was wonderful and I'm going to miss cheap local burger joints when I'm back in Bath, Maine. After a filling lunch of burgers and fries, we were off to see Edinburgh Castle. Maggie and I had gone to see Buckingham Palace a few weeks prior, so we weren't expecting this to be much more interesting. We were wrong. Edinburgh Castle was definitely one of the most interesting places I've visited. There is history in every mortar, a story in every shadow. I saw where Mary Stuart slept, which is not something everyone can say. There was also a little performance about medieval music and instruments which I found to be incredibly interesting. The man that performed was very talented and his ability to play all the instruments was astounding.

No, this is not the head cut off by Elizabeth I

This guy pretended to be a medieval minstrel.

We then went to the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions, which is one of my new favorite places. There was a Camera Obscura that had been installed in the mid nineteenth century and is still in use today. We were able to see people walking along streets and by Edinburgh Castle. Occasionally the woman giving the presentation on the Camera Obscura would use a card to 'pick up' the people and 'give them a good splat'. The rest of the museum had really interesting bits and bobs and interactive installations. There was one installation that really messed with my mind and cannot be left out. It is called the Vortex Tunnel, and it truly is like walking into the void. There is a metal grated walkway in a tube of colorful lights. The tunnel itself spins, so it appears as if the walkway is tilting over. Apparently the effect mimics what it is like walking while highly inebriated. If that's the case, I'm glad I don't take advantage of the drinking age here because I left that museum with quite the collection of bruises ( I may or may not have fallen to the ground multiple times because I thought the ground was moving...).

Spooky

Are you frightened?

After our time in the Camera Obscura, we went on a ghost tour of Edinburgh. It was really interesting walking around the city and hearing stories about what happened in those spots five centuries prior. It was very cold and dark that night, but alas no spirits showed themselves to us. The tour was fun nonetheless.

This doesn't look too bad until you see how small the city looks in the background.

Channeling JMW Turner

Not a murder but still cool

I built an exact replica of Stonehenge to scale can't you tell?

Once again, do you understand my fear now?

So pretty but so terrifying.

Scotland is the greenest place I've ever been. This is October grass!

The next day, we slept in, got waffles at the most adorable café, and hiked Arthur's Seat. Arthur's seat is an extinct volcano, and is the highest point in Edinburgh. I forgot how much I disliked heights until about halfway through the walk up when I looked down and saw the distance between myself and the ground. By the time we got to the top of the mountain/hill thing I was starting to get used to the height, so long as I was not near the edge. The views were definitely worth the trek and the fear. On our way down it rained quite a bit, but that did not impede our fun. By the time we got back to the city center we were hungry and decided to eat at Elephant House, also known as the café where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. I tried haggis here, and I half to say that it was actually rather good. I'm not a very picky eater, and even I was a little put off by it's ingredients. However, it just tasted like ground meat.

Edinburgh is great. Everybody should go. I love it.