Bagpipes & Kilts

Wooo! Back from Edinburgh! I had such an awesome time. The touristy part of the city is pretty small, so even though we only had the weekend, I felt like I really saw it. Here's the run-down:

The train was supposed to take about four and a half hours, but on the way there we had to stop and get on another train because of a fatality a few towns away. We ended up arriving later than we expected, so we checked in really fast before going out. I was staying with one friend at Castle Rock, a hostel with a great view of Edinburgh Castle, while my two other friends were in a nearby hotel. It was what you'd expect a hostel to be -- bunk beds, hippies, and a communal bathroom where I was surprised to run into some middle-aged men (though mostly there were young people). This is the view from outside the front door:


Then we hit a nearby pub in Grassmarket called Biddy Mulligan's. The weird thing about pubs here is that older people and younger people are all in the same place. It's a little disconcerting to see 50-year-olds dancing (particularly when they're not exactly doing a waltz... sorry Mom and Dad), but it's plain disturbing when a man that could be your father hits on your friend. And it was always clear where we were. At one point, some people starting dancing a jig, and we saw a couple guys in kilts (and several more the following day, including bagpipe players). The kilts were not even the weirdest thing, though. First, we encountered several hen parties over the two nights we were there. If you don't know, that's what they call a bachelorette party -- except here, they get all dressed up (not just the tiaras or boas you'd see at home), often sticking to some sort of theme, like the bumble bees we saw on night two:

We woke up early on Saturday so we could be the first people at Edinburgh Castle. It was sooo pretty. We beat the crowds and got to see the Crown Jewels (obviously not as impressive as England's) and a great view.


After the castle we walked the Royal Mile, which has a ton of touristy shops and St. Giles Cathedral. This was really pretty, and the next day two of us got breakfast in their cafe and had the most AMAZING waffles we've ever had. (The other foods I've tried here that are yummy -- chicken kiev, which of course I like because it's basically buttery fried chicken, and millionaire shortbread, which is shortbread topped with caramel and chocolate. Yummmm.) They had these ridiculous things in the gift shop: Holy Socks. I have a pic below. We also went to this Scotch Whiskey thing and I almost bought a little bottle for Daddy, but I didn't want customs to take it, so sorry, Pa, you get nothing.


Off a side street we went to this Chinese Buffet that used to be a cafe. We didn't actually eat there. I just wanted to see it, because it was the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote a lot of the first Harry Potter book. They had some news clippings inside, and when I took a picture a Chinese lady laughed at me.

Two of the girls wanted to go inside Holyroodhouse Palace, but it was ten pounds to get in and one of the other girls just wasn't in the mood to see another palace, so I stayed behind with her. There was this huge mountain (OK, hill) and she wanted to climb it. I didn't realize that had been her plan. What the hell had I gotten myself into? I don't climb things. When we went to Camp Mason with the Girl Scouts and there was a nature hike, I was one of the girls who stayed behind with mom to paint nails. But I trekked on and we climbed it, and I was so happy I did. About 3/4 of the way up, though, I realized how close I was standing to the steep edge and freaked out. My friend, who is "afraid of heights" (then why the hell did she want to climb this thing?) started freaking out, and we had to sit on the rocks for a minute to calm down. Then an old man walked by and told us that that wasn't a good idea because the rocks might fall. My friend said it was God, warning us. Haha. We got some pretty amazing pictures from the top, though. Here's the sequence:




We went to some pubs and bars that night, including the student union at University of Edinburgh (we went with a few students from there that we met). The university is really nice. The main building sure didn't look like COM (College of Communication at BU).

The next day we went to the National Gallery of Scotland before taking the train home. The trains SUCK and we ended up missing our connection (like about half of the other passengers), and we got back pretty late. We're complaining and getting money back. Damn it.