Edinburgh, Home of Many Kilt-Stores, a Castle, and Some Huge Hills

My weekend in Edinburgh was great. It ended up only being me and Lisa and Shuan that went. Josh didn't come, because, as we found out later, he had to spend all of the money that he had getting things figured out with in London. The weekend before Josh had gone to Ireland with his parents who were on vacation. Somewhere along the line he lost his wallet which had all of his personal stuff like passport and driver's license and credit cards in it. So he had to go to the US embassy in London to get things straightened out with his passport. So, long story short, he didn't end up joining us. We left to go to the train station at about 7am, which wasn't great because I had been up until about 2am talking on the internet. So I was fairly tired. Our train ride took a while, as we got to Edinburgh at about 11:30. By this time we were all starving, as we hadn't gotten any breakfast, so we decided to go to our hostel, drop off our stuff, and then find somewhere to eat. Otherwise I know that I for one would've resorted to cannibalism. At this point we got our first look at our hostel, which wasn't great, but wasn't too terrible, I suppose. The room we were in had the beds for 38 people, but it was by no means full, so we were ok. Lisa brought a lock for a locker and so we kept all of our valuables in it. After settling down in the hostel we went out looking for lunch. We eventually chose a TGIFriday's (ironic, I know). They had a decent lunch menu, so it was good. After that we looked around a little bit at the touristy-shops, all of which sold Scottish-clan merchandise out the whazoo. They were fun to look around in. We then went to find Arthur's seat. This is a large hill just outside of the city that is climbable and almost 800-feet off of the ground. It was already to trek to get there, and on the way we stopped at a cemetery with an obelisk in it, as well as the ruins of a classical-style Roman-imitation building. We then walked down into a little section of the town, across it, and then we were at foot of Arthur's Seat. It was a daunting climb, but enjoyable. I was really glad that I had opted to bring the hiking boots that I bought in Grantham a while back. They came in very handy. It took us probably a half an hour to climb all the way to the top, as there were actually two hills to climb up, one after the other. The views on the climb as well as at the top were amazing. I got as many pictures as I could. It was like we were standing on top of the world, and indeed Shaun and I hypothesized that if we lifted our arms that our hands would be outside of the atmosphere. Once we got to the top it was fairly cold and very very windy. I'm pretty sure that if I would've jumped off and spread my jacket like wings I could've flown. But I didn't try that, because then people would expect me to fly everywhere, maybe even wear a costume, and I'm just not ready for that. After we were at the top for a while, both resting and taking pictures, we made the trek back down and then at the bottom we stopped at a small cafe to get some liquid. I was so thirsty that I bought both a half-liter of water and a bottle of Sprite. After we were hydrated again, we decided to walk back into town and shop a little, then go to our hostel and just relax for a little while before we went to dinner. For dinner we decided to go to a cafe right next to our hostel. It ended up being moderately priced and had good food. After that we looked around some more, went into a few shops, and then saw what the night-life was like. It wasn't half as bad as Dublin, I wasn't afraid that I was gonna get jumped most of the time. We then called it a night, and went to bed at an early 9:30-10ish. The next morning we got up in time to have a quick breakfast of lukewarm milk and cereal, and then got going to go to Edinburgh Castle. The castle was a neat experience, because it was right in the middle of the city and on top of a hill, so you could see the surrounding city very easily. Good defensive spot. There were some interesting places in the castle, such as a prison and a graveyard for soldier's dogs (no joke), but it was a little pricey, about $20 or so when converted. So it was interesting, but not $20 interesting. After the castle we walked around to find a place to eat lunch. We ended up going on a side street and finding a restaurant on top of a pub. It was "Edinburgh's Best-Kept Secret" according to the sign. Apparently the sign-maker didn't think that they wanted to keep it a secret. It was good food, so I was pleased, and if they keep it up, they won't be a secret anymore. We then found a bus to take us to Rosslyn Chapel. The chapel was about 6 miles away from Edinburgh, so we definitely weren't going to walk. The chapel was built in the 1400's and it is probably one of the most decorated chapels ever. Almost all of the stone is covered in some sort of carving. It was really beautiful. They had an awning over the whole chapel because some of the restorations done to it in the 1950's caused the stones to retain water, so they have to be aired-out over a period of time, and then they can remove the awning. The plus side to that was that there was a scaffolding that allowed you to walk around the top of the chapel. It was really amazing to think that all of it was made in the 1400's, it seems unreal. After seeing the chapel we took the bus back to Edinburgh and finished our shopping, as we were going to ship out early the next day and wouldn't really have time to do anything. The school had also taken a trip to Edinburgh, so for diner we met up with a friend of ours, Robert, who is also my friend Brandon's roommate. Robert had told us of a good restaurant to go to, and said that he would go again to take us there. Well, that fell through, because the place closed it's kitchen after 7, and it was 8. So then we looked around for another place to eat. We then found a pub that was still serving food, as most of them were the same way as our first attempt, and all of their kitchens had closed at 7. After we were done eating, we got to the heart of the evening's activities: the City of the Dead tour. It was a ghost-tour that we had heard about. Apparently there are accounts of over 200 people being attacked by a poltergeist on the tour, as well as over 800 people who went on the tour and then found unexplained marks on them either during the tour or the next day. I'm a skeptic, so I don't buy it from the beginning. Well, we went on the tour, and as I suspected it was basically a sham. The tour guidess (I don't think that's a word, but I just used it) told us stories that probably weren't true (one story was proven false by another tour guide whom we asked after the tour was over), and then tried to back everything up with sketchy science. Apparently poltergeists feed off fear and are attracted to weak people who are separated from the group. That didn't happen on the tour, even though the tour guidess said that she felt a drop in temperature, which was supposed to signal the presence of the poltergeist. It was actually more fun making fun of the tour after it was over than the actual tour was. I decided that I was gonna start a skeptic's ghost tour, where I just tell people how it is. I don't think I would make much money, but it would be fun regardless. We then went and got ice-cream at McDonald's (again, more American-conveniences in foreign countries irony), which is when Shaun and I decided that at the end of my tour I should serve people Poltergeist-Cream, a clever play on words, so that at least they would get something out of the tour. We then walked with Robert back to the hotel and said good-bye. It was then our turn to walk back to our hostel, and go to bed. It was weird because usually I have had trouble sleeping in the hostels that I've been at, I think because I feel odd about not knowing where I am, but here at the crazy-number-in-one-room-hostel I slept fine. We then got up the next day to catch our train at 10, which actually turned out to be a bus, because there was work being done on the railways. Being on a bus it took longer for us to get home, although the bus didn't go all the way to Grantham, we were only on the bus for about 3 hours and then a train took us the rest of the way home. Overall it was a very fun weekend. If I have the chance I would love to go back and see the Highlands, like the lochs (that's right Nessie, I'm still out to get you) and some other random stuff like the William Wallace monument. Scotland is an amazing place, one of my favorites so far.