Edinburgh

This weekend marks the beginning of spontaneous weekend trips while I'm abroad. With nothing planned, 4 of us decided to book a trip to London, which quickly turned into 9 of us in Edinburgh.

We took a coach bus there and back, saving money and forsaking sanity. We ran to the bus station thinking we would barely make it in time to board, only realizing that the bus was in fact over an hour behind schedule.

The bus ride was nauseating. Dark and stormy night. Couldn't see the road. The bus driver flying around curves. And when we passed buildings, the road seemed almost too narrow for us to travel through. But we made it. At 2:30 am.

My first time in a hostel proved to  be quite the experience. We were split into 3 separate rooms. I was in an 8 bed all female dorm with 4 of the other girls. Our other roommates were 2 Turkish girls and a Chinese girl. While the bed springs liked to poke you as you slept, the breakfast was free and the hostel was in an ideal location for tourist attractions. And it was pretty interestingly decorated.

Bar area:

Hallway: 

Room: 

We went on a walking tour of Edinburgh, which is perhaps one of the most beautiful cities I've seen. Much of the city's history I have read about in history classes, but it's amazing to see it come alive as you walk around. 

View of the city:

Royal Bank of Scotland:

St. Giles' Cathedral:

The Royal Mile:

Graveyard:

The castle is of course the main attraction to Edinburgh. And it really is a fortress. After climbing this extinct volcanic hillside multiple times a day, I feel free to say it's pretty hard to conquer.  

Edinburgh castle:

Way on top of the hill:

Castle grounds:

Royal apartments:

In the castle, the crown jewels were my favorite. With the crown jewels sits the Stone of Destiny. The kings and queens of Scotland were all crowned upon this stone. England captured the stone in 1296 and placed it in the Westminster Abbey where it sat until one night when a group of 4 Scottish law students broke into the Abbey and stole it. For 4 months, the stone traveled around Scotland appearing at many college parties where students crowned themselves the kings and queens of Scotland.

Some people at our hostel told us about a store that makes their own alcohol, Demijohn. When you walk in, there's vases of freshly brewed liquor drinks, one even claiming to be the best whiskey in Scotland. I however bought a sweeter drink - apricot brandy.

Demijohn:

We did all of the true Scottish traditions: eating haggis (sheep's heart, liver, and lungs blended up and put into the sheep's stomach - surprisingly good), drinking scotch, and listening to bagpipers (all wearing kilts of course).

Bagpiper:

We also had afternoon coffee and tea at The Elephant House, a cafe that's recently become famous because it's where the Harry Potter series began. And as most of you know, being the true Harry Potter fan that I am, I adamantly believe that Harry and I are soul mates since we share the same birthday.

I'm sad to say we didn't actually spot J.K. Rowling while we were there. However, we did see the school which is the model for Hogwarts castle and gravestones where many of the characters names come from (Thomas Riddell = Tom Riddle).

The Elephant House "The Birthplace of Harry Potter":

Pictures of J.K. Rowling working at The Elephant House:

Model for Hogwarts:

Thomas Riddell's (Tom Riddle's) gravestone:

Last night, we found only one pub in the whole town showing the Super Bowl. It's hard to watch amongst people who choose the team they're routing for based on the fact that they "like the color green." We even missed all of the elaborate commercials and had to settle for BBC approved ones. And to add insult to injury, we were forced to leave right as the Steelers scored to make the game 21-17. But it was after 2 in the morning and we were waking up at 4 to return back to Manchester, which is now starting to feel like home.