Ed'nbur-ah

Hi all! Last weekend I ventured to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It was absolutely wonderful, I easily could have spent at least a week there! The only downside to the trip was getting to and from Edinburgh. The airport I flew out of is 2 hours away (aka 2 buses, 2 trains, and a tram), and needless to say, I didn't realize this until I booked my flight! But I was also flying with a low cost airline so it was somewhat worth it. So anyways, after leaving my apartment at 9am, 3 buses, 2 trains, a tram, and a plane flight later, I was finally in Scotland at 6 pm! A side note, I did this whole journey by myself which was extremely nerve wracking for me!! Clayton was waiting for me when I finally got off the bus, and all we could do was a quick hug before we ran to our hotel because we were both freezing! The temperature wasn't too bad, but the wind was so strong that at one point, I fell forward (and caught myself, thankfully) from a strong gust of wind! So after we checked into our hotel, we headed out for dinner. We went to a cheap, chain restaurant/pub where I ate a traditional Scottish meal of Haggis and chips. Haggis is a meat pie and I'm thankful that I didn't know any more than that...I found out later that they used to make it out of brains and intestines, ick! The next day, we ventured out and went on a Sandemann's free walking tour of Scotland. Note of advice, if you are ever traveling to Europe, check if your city has free tours by Sandemann's...the guides are paid only on tips so they're really nice tours and the guides actually care about showing you the city. On this tour, we saw basically every main sight in Scotland. The Edinburgh Castle, a few cemeteries, the Grass Market, the Royal Mile, St Giles Cathedral, etc. And most importantly, we stopped at "The Elephant House"...otherwise known as the place where J.K. Rowling wrote the famous Harry Potter series. Edinburgh is a pretty medieval city, all of the buildings are the same brown color, but I absolutely loved it!

The next day, we ventured up to Calton Hill, which is a great overlook of the city where there are a bunch of random monuments. We were able to see the ocean (or the inlet that Edinburgh is on) too! All of the monuments were really cool, and of course Clayton wanted to climb on them..typical Clayton! Our next stop was the Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament building. The palace is where Mary, Queen of Scots, stays when she is in Edinburgh...roughly a whopping ten days per year. The parliament building was also really cool, but it wasn't in session so we didn't see any action. We then stopped at a cemetery where the famous economist, Adam Smith, is buried. It took us forever to find his grave, but we finally did! We then continued up the Royal Mile (the road that connects the Holyrood Palace and the Edinburgh Castle). The best thing about Scotland is their sense of national pride. I know that I'm studying in Germany, therefore a lot of my souvenirs for people should be from Germany. However, Scotland has such a huge sense of national pride, which Germany very slightly lacking, that I couldn't resist buying a bunch of gifts in their tourist shops. We saw multiple men wearing kilts and many of the people commonly wear the traditional tartan pattern. After we walked up the Royal Mile, we headed to the National Museum of Scotland, which was alright, but fairly overwhelming with the massive amount of information and artifacts. We then headed up to the Edinburgh Castle where we caught an amazing sunset, and headed back to "The Elephant House" for dinner.

Now I am going to go into my Harry Potter tangent. As I said before, J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series in The Elephant House in Edinburgh. Our tour guide said that she was so tight on money, that it was cheaper for her to go every day and buy a tea and write, rather than having the heat on in her home. The Elephant House as a great overlook of the city, so she obviously has some influences of Edinburgh in the books. The picture at right is a famous school in Edinburgh called The George Harriet School. Harriet...hence the name "Harry". The school has four main towers (you can only see two in the picture) where she got the idea for the four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. The George Harriet school is also situated right next to a famous cemetery, where you can find the tombstones of William McGonagall (..Professor McGonagall) and Thomas Riddle (I need not explain this one!). I wouldn't consider myself a Harry Potter freak, but I'm definitely a fan and I found all of this so fascinating!

Also, the George Harriet school is a charitable school that enrolls a number of orphans every year..Harry was an orphan too!
Okay, enough with the Harry Potter stuff. We had a decent meal at the Elephant Bar, I had a delicious hamburger and chips! We then called it a night. The next, and unfortunately last, day of our trip, we climbed up a rolling hill in Holyrood Park. It was raining when we did and I was ill prepared with my non-hiking boots on, but the views were so worth it! We then headed to the Whiskey Museum (and might I add, the ONLY attraction that we paid for in Scotland, everything else is FREE!!!). It was a pretty cool tour. We both were given a complimentary glass of Scotch, and even after watering it down, neither of us could finish it! There was an amazing collection of extremely old and expensive bottles of Whiskey that was donated to this museum, here's a picutre!

This sadly was the last attraction that I went to in Edinburgh. I was pretty sad to leave the city in general, and knowing that I wouldn't see Clayton for another month. Either way, it was an awesome weekend and I want to go back in the near future. I realize now that I have failed to mention a few key things from my stay. For one, it was so nice to be able to speak English! A bunch of Scots asked me where I was from and were so friendly..something I would rarely find in Germany due to the language barrier. Another thing that really surprised me about there, is how early the sun sets! I didn't realize how far north we were, until it started getting dark at 3:30 pm on the first day. Needless to say, we had to be very time efficient, due to the fact that we only had a few hours of daylight by the time we finally left the hostel each day. I also felt like I was a lot closer to America than I am in Germany. It wasn't only due to the language, but other various things (the cold weather, the more Americanized food) just made it feel more like home :) I tried my first pint of Guiness (and my first pint of dark beer as well!). Also, in Germany, restaurants and fast food places always charge more for condiments, tap water, and using the bathroom. In Scotland, condiments were never extra (which was great...I hate eating my fries without ketchup!), it wasn't looked down upon as much when I ordered tap water, and there were PLENTY of public bathrooms, free of charge! I think this about wraps up Scotland....overall it is one of my favorite cities that I've been to so far and I can't wait to go back! Anyways, I know that Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday! I'm attempting to make a Thanksgiving dinner for my friends on Saturday, so we'll see how that turns out. Clayton and I are in the process of finalizing our post-semester travel plans...our destinations are Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Zurich, Florence, Rome, Venice, Vienna, and Prague. Its going to be a very stressful, expensive, and hectic two weeks, but it will be so worth it in the end! I hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow, Happy Thanksgiving!!

Cemetery

Calton Hill Monument

Portion of Royal Mile, with a telephone booth!

Edinburgh Castle