We finally made it!
After checking into our hostel, Anne, Dani, Kaitlin and I went to find some breakfast before going on a walking tour of Edinburgh. The breakfast was really tasty, the walking tour was a bit too long. It would have been fine except that Edinburgh really isn’t a very big city, so it was more of a standing-in-the-cold tour, with a little bit of walking thrown in there. It was really cool to walk around the city and recognize things that I saw last time I was in Scotland with my family (7 years ago?). I didn’t recognize most of the city, but certain parts really stood out in my mind–namely, the castle. Later that night we went and got some dinner at a pub and watched the Ireland/France rugby game, although we had a hard time understanding much of the game.
The weekend we were in Edinburgh just so happened to be the Six Nations Rugby Tournament (France, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England) and two of the games were actually being played in Edinburgh. No one was too riled up about the Ireland/France game, but the next day Wales played Scotland, which was a big deal.
On a walking tour
No explanation needed!
View of city and mountains
View of castle from below
The other side of the castle
Sunday we had a pretty laid back morning–cooked ourselves some eggs and toast and then went for a walk around the city. We walked down the main drag (The Royal Mile) to the Queen’s official Scottish residence, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and then up and around the city. There is a hill in the city that has all sorts of monuments built on top of it, including a model of one corer of the Parthenon, and there is a great view of the city. From one angle you can see the old half of Edinburgh and from the other you can see the new half of the city, with a view of the water behind it. Very beautiful.
Scottish hillside
New part of Edinburgh
The Palace of Holyroodhouse
After our walk we went down to the grass market–the main pub spot–and got some lunch. We ate fish & chips and haggis!!! Surprisingly, the haggis was not bad at all–better than the fish & chips. We watched about half of the Scottish/Wales game while eating lunch then at half time headed next door to a more popular pub.
We just had to–needless to say, after this picture was taken the pay phone jammed into my back really started to hurt
There were actually a lot more Welsh fans that Scottish fans, and I was never quite sure if most of the them were Scottish people who like the Welsh team better (Scotland’s team is “rubbish”) or if they were Welsh people who had just come up for the weekend. We did meet one man in particular who was quite a riot. His name was Gordon, he was about 5 feet tall, wore a kilt w/ a Welsh jersey, looked about 65 but was actually only 52 and called us bonnie lassies. It was super fun being surrounded by a bunch of drunk Scottish and Welsh men and women of all ages, everyone celebrating regardless of which team won. Keep in mind that this was all happening between 3 and 7 in the afternoon on Sunday. Once we decided we needed to get dinner, the four of us left (although I think the party was just getting started) and walked back to our hostel singing and dancing in the snow. We cooked dinner in our hostel and were able to have a relaxed night, but still felt like we had gone out and partied.
Celebrating in the pub
Our friend Gordon (the Welsh/Scottish/leprechaun man)
Gordon so kindly let me wear (ie: put it on my head) his leprechaun hat
We just got accepted to Hogwarts!
The castle by night
Cooking dinner in the hostel
Monday was our last day in Edinburgh, and we spent it by first going to the National Museum of Scotland to see Dolly the cloned sheep’s body. The museum was awesome, although we never made it outside of the kid’s section. After we realized that we were all 20/21 years old, we decided to get lunch at the Elephant House Café, which is where JK Rowling first started writing Harry Potter. We got the best table in the house, with an amazing view of the castle coated with a light layer of snow. Not to diminish JK’s skill, but I think anyone who had that view would be hard pressed not to create a world of witchcraft and wizardry.
Yes, I am 21 years old
Dolly the first cloned sheep!!!
High Street/Royal Mile after it snowed
Enough said
View from our table in the Elephant house
That afternoon we headed to Glasgow by train. Not an impressive city, but Kaitlin and Dani had a concert to see there. Anne and I went to see Revolutionary Road (only go see that movie if you are in the mood to be very depressed) and then we all had a pretty relaxed night. Unfortunately, Anne and I had to leave our hotel (we had a room just to the four of us!) by 3:45 am to catch our flight.
Busàairport; GlasgowàDublin; DublinàMalaga; BusàGranada; home by 5pm
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