Edinburgh

After a relaxing few weeks in England, it was time to hit the road again. Next stop: Scotland! I had never been to Scotland before so I was very excited. I decided to go to Edinburgh because I had heard good things about it, and it did not disappoint. It is a beautiful city and I really enjoyed my time there, and even though it's not very big, I managed to fill 4 days there pretty well.


My first full day there my couchsurfing host walked around with me and showed me the major sites in the city. First we went to Calton Hill, which is a nice area to walk and see some old buildings, and has a nice view of the rest of the city. From there we walked down into the old city, up the Royal Mile, which is the main street leading up to Edinburgh Castle. We didn't go inside the castle because we didn't want to pay to get in, but we walked up to it and took some pictures. Then he showed me the Scotland National Museum, which was amazing. It was so big, and had a whole section about Scottish history as well as other areas devoted to natural history and art and artifacts from all over the world. We didn't see everything because there was a lot to see (and I can't always stay in museums for too long without losing focus), but I went back to it two more of the days I was there, partly as a retreat from the cold and rain but each time I saw a little bit more of the museum.

After that we walked down to Princes Street, which is another main road in Edinburgh which is where the new part of the city begins so it is much wider and has more traffic. On that road is the Scott Monument, which I learned later is dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, a Scottish writer. Then my host and I parted ways and I continued exploring. This time I went down the other direction on the Royal Mile and came to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where the royal family stays while in Scotland. That also cost money so I didn't go in, but I walked around it and discovered a path up towards Arthur's Seat, another hill that surrounds the city. I didn't hike all the way to the top because it started to get dark, but it was a nice walk anyway with some great views.

Here are some pictures from the first day (some of them were taken by my host and also, I now have a smartphone so I can take pictures again! They are not very good quality, but it's better than nothing):

Calton Hill

Edinburgh Castle

View from Calton Hill

View of the Royal Mile

St. Giles' Cathedral

A bagpiper!

The next day I started out at a pub and had a traditional Scottish breakfast, which among other things included haggis and black pudding, two very typical Scottish foods. Haggis is made out of sheep stomach, so I wasn't sure if I would like it but I did. I actually had no idea what black pudding was until about a minute ago when I Googled it, apparently it's a type of blood sausage made from pork blood and oatmeal. I also enjoyed the black pudding but not as much as the haggis. Here is a picture of the entire meal:

After breakfast, I did a free walking tour, with the same company that I've done tours with in other other cities that were always very good. My tour guide was an energetic Scottish guy named Dave who made the tour really fun despite the weather with his great attitude and hilarious stories. At the start of the tour it was snowing fairly hard and was very windy, but within about 20 minutes the sun was out again. I've heard people from many different places claim that they have the most bipolar weather, but I think Scotland wins. There has not been a day that I've been in Scotland so far that the weather has stayed the same the whole day, and I get the added bonus of being here when there is an unusual amount of snow. I suppose I did want to see snow, so now's my chance. :)

Anyway, the tour was fun, and even though I saw many of the same things I'd already seen the day before, I got more background and my tour guide's great stories. Definitely worthwhile. Here are a few pictures from that:

In the background is the building that inspired Hogwarts. It's a school that has the same 4-house system with the same colors to represent the houses, and it also looks very castle-like.

View of Edinburgh Castle from Grassmarket, a square that often has markets and also was the location of some public executions centuries ago. 

In the afternoon, I tried to go on a Harry Potter tour (J.K. Rowling wrote many of the books in Edinburgh, which I didn't realize), but when I got there the tour guide had cancelled the tour due to weather. Yes, it was snowing again and rather windy, but I expected a Scot to be a little more hardy when it came to the weather. But even though she didn't do the tour, she showed a group of us the graveyard that has many headstones that J.K. Rowling got character names for her book. The cafe where she wrote the first book is in the neighborhood (although I heard differing accounts of exactly which cafe it was) and she would often walk around the graveyard when she needed inspiration, so there is a stone with the name McGonagall, and one with the name Thomas Riddell, which is where Voldemort's name, Tom Riddle, comes from. I was sad I didn't get to do the whole tour, and of course half an hour later it was sunny again, but hopefully if I go back to Edinburgh one day I can do it.

Thomas Riddell grave

Victoria Street, the street that supposedly inspired Diagon Alley.

My third day in Edinburgh, I decided to go hiking with 2 people I got talking to on the couchsurfing message board. Someone had posted that she wanted to go hiking and I posted asking if I could join, and it ended up being 3 of us who went. Turned out to be a little more than I bargained for because it was snowing the entire time and even though the snow hadn't stuck to the ground in the city, there were several inches on the ground where we went, which was just outside the city. So we were out there for about 3 hours or so, and with the snow, the wind, and the puddles, I was completely soaked by the time we left, and my hands were so cold that I could barely move them. I don't think they had ever been that cold before! I actually got a little worried that I had done some damage to them, but they were back to full working order within a few hours of being inside. So we saw some pretty sights, but all in all, going hiking in January in Scotland was not my brightest idea haha.

Sheep!

My last day was mostly more of the same, wandering around enjoying the sights, although I did go into two more museums: the Writer's Museum, which is where I learned about Sir Walter Scott, as well as two other Scottish writers, Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson, and the National Art Gallery. Most of the art was not really my style, but there were a few things that caught my eye and overall it was enjoyable.

So my trip to Scotland started off very well in Edinburgh, and now I am in Inverness, which I'm also enjoying, but I will write about it later once there is more to write. I am planning to go to a whisky distillery tomorrow and to Loch Ness on Saturday, so those should both be fun days. Stayed tuned for more in my next post!