Weekend in Edinburgh

I spent the past weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland - just in time to avoid the terrorist threats in London. Edinburgh is a beautiful city with ancient buildings all over the place surrounded by the ocean on one side (or, more precisely, and inlet from the ocean) and highland crags on the other. If it's possible, the Scottish accent is even more fun than the English accent. Honestly, I would be perfectly content to just sit and listen to people talk. I also noticed that the people of Edinburgh seem more friendly towards Americans than Londoners, and that cars will actually stop to let pedestrians cross the street. In London you will get run over trying to do that.

Our hostel was right on the Royal Mile the in the center of Old Town Edinburgh; I couldn't have asked for a better location. Hostels, in and of themselves are always fun because you meet so many people from all over the world. I love talking to all of the people that I meet, asking them where they're from and what has brought them to here. It's also always fascination to hear their perspectives on where I come from. I met this one Korean guy who will be starting PhD work at Princeton in the fall, and when I mentioned that I was from Virginia, his immediate association was with the Virginia Tech shootings. I suppose that because it was an experience that hit so close to home for me, I often forget that it also made international news. I also got to practice my Spanish with a few Spaniards who were staying in the same hostel, which turned out to be extremely useful when we had a few communication break-downs in English. I never fail to be amazed by how many Australians I meet everywhere I go.

On our first afternoon in Edinburgh, we went to climb the Crags on the outskirts of the city. On our way there, we passed Holyroodhouse, which is the royal palace in Scotland, and there just happened to be a small crowd gathered outside the gates. We found that the Queen had just arrived and was being given the keys to the city and that she was scheduled to open Parliament the following morning. So, it was my second time seeing the Queen since being in the UK - clearly, she is following me. After that excitement though, we climbed a steep mountainside to get a beautiful vista of the city from above. At that moment, I felt like I was really in Scotland. I even picked some heather - it was the first time that I've ever actually seen my namesake flower. Friday night we took a haunted tour of the city. Edinburgh has a slight obsession with death and hauntings which is closely related to its history with the Plague and witch huntings. We first had an above-ground tour of some of the "haunted" spots in the city. Then we were brought into a room set-up with torture instruments, in which we were given the gruesome details of how they were used. The tour then moved underground, into the vaults below the city. It was pitch-black except for the torch (aka, flashlight) of our tour guide. We were told of the people who used to live underground and of the people who continue to use the vaults for Wiccan worship.

On Saturday we went to see Edinburgh castle, which was great. I'm always in awe when I try to think about the people who once worked and lived in that castle. We got to see them shoot off the gun too, which they do every day at 1pm on the dot. After the castle we got lunch at a really expensive restaurant called The Witchery and bought the cheapest meal on the menu. So, I tried lamb for the first time - it was ok. The dessert was heavenly though and made the entire expensive meal worth while: dark chocolate torte with lavender ice cream. It was delicious.

After lunch we went to a writer's museum which had some artifacts from Robert Luis Stevenson, Robert Burns, and Sir Walter Scott. It wasn't anything terribly exciting, but the admission was free, so why not? Immediately afterwards we did the "Scotch Whiskey Experience." It was a super-corny little attraction, but it actually turned out to be tons of fun. When you first go in, they give you a glass with a shot of whiskey in it (you get to keep the glass as a souvenier). Then, the guide teaches you how to test and appreciate the spirit properly. The one we tested was supposed to smell fruity and and like vanilla all at once - I just smelled scotch. We then learned about the distillery process and how scotch whiskey is made. The final part of the "experience" was an actual ride in a barrel cart through "the history of scotch," which was essentially a series of dioramas with nice lighting and an audio narrative.

Sunday, we went to the National Museum of Scotland and the Royal Museum of Scotland, which are attached so that they are essentially one giant museum. I really enjoyed it because it had so many different types of displays, from paintings, to artifacts, to manuscripts, to costumes, to stuffed animals. The star of the show was Dolly the sheep in her rotating glass disply case. I also chanced to be lucky enough to be at the museum on the day when they were having performances of traditional Scottish highland dancing. At that moment, watching people in kilts dance and play the bagpipes, my Scotland experience was complete. To kill off the last few hours before our train departed, Amy and I walked up to New Town Edinburgh, which is far from new, but is also far more commercial and big business than Old Town. We went to see the Georgian House, which turned out to be a bit of a rip-off. As the name might suggest, it was a historical house from the Georgian era, decorated with era appropriate furnishings. Had the upper floors of the house been open, it might have been worth it, but since they were not, I was pretty disappointed. Finally, on the way to the train station (apart from getting drenched in a downpour) we found an outdoor market where I got my self a savoury honey crepe before waving goodbye to Edinburgh.