Edinburgh

Seeing as it's now almost the end of July, I've decided that it's probably time to finish posting some pictures from the last few places I visited. It feels pretty strange to be sitting on the couch in Branford instead of precariously perched at my desk at UL (I regularly bruised my shins from curling my legs up between the chair and the desk), but I suppose it will work.

Annnnyyyyyway, Reading Week is a specially set aside week at the end of the semester for students to catch up on all of the reading and revising (studying) they should have spent the entire semester doing. Clearly the best use of my time involved traveling for at least half the week (my first exam was Irish Folklore - during our first tutorial, we made St. Brigid's Crosses out of reeds. That should give you a good idea of how challenging this class was).

So my friend Katrina and I took off for Edinburgh, which, despite spending only one full day in due to the limiting plane schedule, became one of my favorite cities in Europe. We arrived late Wednesday evening and had an interesting time finding the hostel since I only caught every two words out of three when I called to get directions (you can only ask someone to repeat something so many times...). Along the way we got to see either a TV show or movie being filmed in a courtyard and lost count of the number of hills we climbed. The effort we put into finding the hostel paid off when we walked into what was hands-down-no-one-else-even-came-close the BEST hostel I stayed in the entire semester. The Castle Rock Hostel was situated at the bottom of the hill that Edinburgh Castle sits on. Each room has a theme, and each bed in the room has a name (we stayed in Mr. Men and our beds were called Mr. Skinny and Mr. Bouncy, if I remember correctly).

The entire place is covered in kitschy but awesome castle memorabilia and bright paintings. We spent the rest of the evening drinking tea in a small sitting room making a plan of attack for the next day.

One of the several knights in almost-shining armor:

We woke up the next morning to a bright, clear sky and set off for Edinburgh Castle immediately after a quick and delicious breakfast. Since we got there before the place even opened to the public, we had some time to take a few pictures.

The view of the city is amazing:

The castle complex is built into the top of the hill, and the main road winds and twists its way up to the top:

We took a short guided tour from a cheerful woman in tartan pants. Our first stop was the dog cemetery where the faithful companions of the soldiers who guarded the castle were put to rest (note all the little headstones lining the wall):

We spent an hour or two going through all of the buildings and displays. One of my favorite parts was an exhibit about prisoners that were held in the castle during various wars. At one point in time there was a large contingent of American soldiers (perhaps during the American Revolution? I can't quite remember), and a wooden door with their carvings of names, ships, and flags was on display. It was really interesting.

As we left the castle and headed towards the main shopping and eating streets, we noticed these two on the street corner:

It doesn't get much more Scottish than that. While the piper may have been part of the massive amounts of catering to tourists that we came across, it appeared as if the other man was just going about some errands. Either way, it made our day.

That afternoon, we went on a three hour free walking tour that was highly recommended by some friends who visited Edinburgh earlier in the semester. The tour totally surpassed our expectations: the guide was hysterical, and we probably saw almost the entire city (or at least, all the places of note) in a few short hours. Plus there's just nothing like seeing a place on foot - totally beats a bus tour any day.

We walked up and down streets that looked as if you could turn into Diagon Ally at any moment:

Our guide pointed out all the important sights, including the window of The Elephant House cafe that J.K. Rowling sat in while penning the first chapters of Harry Potter:

There was also the graveyard that contained many names found in Harry Potter, including Thomas Riddle (except I don't think Riddle was spelled properly now that I look at the grave stone again...):

For the life of me, I can't remember why this dog was important, but I do know that his name is Bobby:

We finished the tour in a park that supposedly contains the best view of the castle in the entire city. The gathering clouds certainly added to the air of intrigue and antique-ness that covered Edinburgh:

We had just enough time to check out the National Museum of Scotland before it closed for the day to say hello to Dolly the Sheep:

We had a bit of fun in the hands-on exhibit hall, but unfortunately the computers and monitors with the games were all shut off. We settled for a quick photo shoot instead:

That car is famous for some reason or another, but I didn't really pay that much attention, to be honest. I think it may be a reproduction of a very successful Formula 1 driver's car.

We had dinner in a cozy pub in order to accomplish an item on Katrina's to-do list: try haggis. For anyone who hasn't been introduced to the culinary masterpiece that is haggis, it is a traditional Scotting dish containing sheep's heart, liver, and lungs minced together with onions, spices, oatmeal, and suet (fat). The mixture is then stuffed into the empty stomach and simmered for a few hours (although according to Wikipedia, most commercial preparations are now prepared in a casing instead of a stomach). The haggis is taken back out and served with neeps and tatties, aka mashed turnips and potatoes. It looks perfectly presentable on the plate: there are definitely no signs of its fairly questionable origins. (Thanks to Katrina for the photo)

While I know that no one who knows me will actually believe this, I DID try a bite of the haggis (Katrina can back me up, she actually witnessed it). Even more unbelievable: I actually ENJOYED it. The texture was like any other casserole, and the combination of flavors was the perfect comfort food for a chilly day. There were several places advertising vegetarian haggis, which I'm definitely going to attempt once the weather here gets a bit colder.

After a cup of tea at the hostel, we headed out to another walking tour once the sun set- this time a so-called ghost tour. We were all given little torch (flash light) key chains at the start. I mistakenly thought they added a cute bit of ambience, but I was quite grateful for their light when navigating through a hilly graveyard. The tour was fascinating; the guide was one of the most animated people I have ever come across, and the stories about the dark side of Edinburgh were quite entertaining. Along the way, we saw a group of people practicing for the Bealtaine festival the next night. To celebrate the beginning of spring (or summer? I can't remember), the nighttime festival involves lots of dancing and fire, and Edinburgh hosts the world's premier festival. We were pretty disappointed that we weren't going to be in town to go ourselves.

The next morning we were up at some obscene hour in order to catch the shuttle to the airport, thus ending our whirlwind tour of Edinburgh.

One final photo - this is the view from our window at the hostel:

Supposedly the building in the middle (that looks a bit like a castle) is the school that Hogwarts is based on.