Edinburgh!

From London Sharon and I took the overnight bus to Edinburgh. This mode of transportation was chosen for its twofold cheapness. First, it was way cheaper than train or plane and second, it meant not having to pay for a hostel for the night. I’m not ashamed of being cheap! When we arrived after a night of what don’t think qualifies as sleep, we dropped off our stuff at our hostel and hit the town. The strange thing was, we appeared to be almost the only ones in the entire city awake at 9 in the morning, and nothing was open (except the tourist stuff).We assumed that store owners had determined it was pointless to open up shop because the entire town was in bed hungover. (Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, not everyone in town was hungover- we ran into two guys who were still completely drunk.) We started off the day by checking out Palace Holyroodhouse. This is where the Queen sets up camp when she comes for her visits. It’s also where Mary Queen of Scots lived with her husband who killed her guy friend. One room of the Palace was dedicated to artefacts from these people’s lives with a scary amount of locks of hair.

The ruins of Holyrood Abbey built in 1128.

Another picture of the ruins, just because I like it.

Then we hit up the Scottish Parliament, which is a completely modern building which some people apparently think is an abomination in the world of architecture. I thought it was pretty cool. After that we went to the Edinburgh Museum which had a multi-room display dedicated to the town’s relationship with alcohol throughout the years called, “Here’s Tae Us.”

A miniature of a pub. The little dude had fallen over, which we thought was funny, because he wasn't supposed to be like that, but it's probably what would've happened in pub anyways.

We also checked out a museum called The People’s Story, which we had some fun in.

Posing with the ladies. This is the same place we also punked it out in the preview picture from my last blog. I don't actually remember the point of this display.

That was pretty much it for the day. We went to bed pretty early, which was probably a good thing seeing as we were woken up a couple times by our drunken roommates stumbling in and out of the room!

On Sunday, we went to church at St Giles Cathedral where John Knox was once the minister, we thought that was pretty sweet! Then we went for a three hour hike in the hills of Holyrood Park. Absolutely gorgeous!! It was one of my favourite parts of the entire trip! It was also our first of a few experiences with ridiculously strong wind on the trip.

The ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel up in the hills of Holyrood Park.

A view of Salisbury Crags from the hill of Arthur's Seat. We hiked all along there. You can see the tiny people at the bottom. That's how big these hills are- this was no wimpy hike!

Me at the peak of Arthur's Seat. I am not leaning against this pillar, the wind is pushing me! (Notice how my ponytail is blowing straight back!)

That night we met an American named Katie at our hostel and she showed us where JK Rowling penned ideas on a napkin which would eventually make her rich and famous (she’s the author of the Harry Potter series for those of you who didn’t know). We also went out for a drink at The Last Drop. It was named this because on that street is where they hung people back in the day, and apparently people’s last request was usually one last drink.

Katie and Sharon at The Last Drop.

The next day it was a windy and rainy day, so we were a little bummed out after having two days of good weather. We checked out Edinburgh Castle which was sweet. We saw the Stone of Destiny which is placed under the coronation chair and has been used for centuries, and the Royal Honours (the crown, sceptre, and sword)and a bunch of other stuff.

Edinburgh Castle

Me. terrified to go into the prison.

We also checked the Writer’s Museum, when we finally found it after walking forever in the lovely wind and rain. Anyone know Robbie Burns? He’s a big hit over here and was quite the looker too! Then we spent the rest of the afternoon killing time before we had to head to the airport at 8. We whined a lot about the stupid weather, but when we weren’t complaining we had fun laughing at our moping selves.

That’s it for Edinburgh. The next city we went to was Dublin, which Sharon and I somewhat affectionately call the Ugly City.