One day after my first semester ended in early December I set out explore somewhere I had never explored before. I hopped on a bus to ride ten hours through the night to Edinburgh with my friend Jennifer ready to see as much of the city we could in the 24 hours she was with me. Arriving at seven in the morning meant we were up before most everything else was, so we braved the cold and trekked to our hostel for some warmth and as much rest as we could get.
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| Edinburgh Castle |
The first thing on our list, and the closest, was the Edinburgh Castle that loomed above our hostel. The sun was out to begin with, but each time we came out of another building inside the castle it grew darker as the clouds moved in. There were so many different exhibits and memorials inside the castle's buildings each with different methods of display targeted at different audiences. We were able to see the crown jewels, cannons, a great view of the city, and rain before ever leaving the castle grounds. We could have just called it a full day of Scotland right there, but of course we didn't.
We made ourselves as waterproof as we could before visiting nearly every scarf and tartan store on Royal Mile road before strolling through a Christmas Market ogling at all of the merchandise and making ourselves hungry passing all the delicious food. To hide from the rain we visited the Scottish National Gallery, but as I walked through the rooms Jennifer napped on each of the different seats. I confess I did doze a little as well, but the bus was just not comfortable enough for good sleep. The gallery wasn't much better, but at least it wasn't moving us all around. We wandered around for a few more hours before returning to the hostel for a pre-dinner nap.
That night, since Jennifer was leaving early the following morning for the same long bus ride, we stayed out looking for some nightlife before realising that not too much happens on Sunday nights. We still stumbled upon a pub with a cover band, a church transformed into a very dead club, and some other small pubs with lots of locals. Even though it was a Sunday night, it was interesting to see how other people spent their nights, and we made a real effort to find some entertainment.
The following four days I was traveling solo, and that meant lots of wandering around and lots more scenery photos.
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| The path up |
I was determined to experience anything I might have missed the previous day in Edinburgh after Jennifer left, so I stared my day with a hike up to Arthur's Seat. It is the highest point in town and gives those who make it a fantastic panorama. Since it was Scotland in winter I smartly decided to wear rain boots to make the hike, and I believe the only other shoes that would have been better would have been ice shoes with the large spikes. I was awed by the scenery all the way up, but the mud that covered the trail was anything but hiker friendly and my mud covered rain boots were testament to that fact. Although I was only at the top for a few minutes due to the freezing winds, I was very glad I made the effort. It was spectacular! Photos do not capture the utter beauty of seeing the city from up high and at a distance. I am proud to say I made it all the way up and back without slipping into the mud although there were some close calls.
I didn't plan out much of the day but that was no problem because I seemed to stumble onto plenty of interesting places.
The first was Holyroodhouse Palace where the Queen of England spends her time when not in Buckingham Palace. It was fascinating to see the amount of adornments in each room, whether on the ceiling, hanging from the walls or the furniture in each room. Sadly no photos were allowed inside the palace.
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| the top floor of Holyrood from inside the courtyard |
After seeing all of the grandeur that the Royal Family would normally see I was able to explore the tiny rooms of Mary, Queen of Scots. After her death, those working in the castle would give tours of the rooms she lived in because of the mysticism around Mary and her decapitation. There were lots of cases with items that belonged to herself and Lord Darnley, her husband along with rooms reorganised to accurately portray how Mary and her husband would have lived. Those rooms were odd to walk through because of the constant reference to death while the rest of the building is a museum of the living.
I found a few more independent museums to go into before heading up another hill to find the National Monument of Scotland. I had heard about the view from there and felt the need to make the journey. There are a few different iconic structures up there, but the monument itself is the most interesting. It looks like what might be left in Athens as pillars and a base stand on the top of the hill, but people were having lunch on it and children were having fun climbing up and jumping down. It is massive and grand, but left me wondering why that is the national monument.
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| by the National Monument overlooking Edinburgh city center |
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| the view of the National Monument from behind |
After the Monument, I went on a quest for churches. It is not hard to find churches when they are so easily recognisable with steeples towering over all other buildings. I wish churches back in the States took on more of this style more often. Wandering down through a grave yard on the hill below the castle, I grew fascinated by the amount of names on the walls and the amount of greenery in the area. I wasn't able to weave my way into the church that was at the bottom of the graves, but I was able to visit the one above it that was holding a card sale where the proceeds went to different organisations to help those in Scotland.
Nearly getting lost, I found another church that had the most interesting little wire sculpture in a tree outside. It was a massive church with stained glass windows, bricks and a large hall. The architecture alone was amazing, but the fact that this was someones' parish amazed me as well.
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| An old man walking by pointed out the little swinging person and I was enchanted by it. |
After making a very large circle through Edinburgh, I called it a day and got ready for the next few days of traveling. Next up were Inverness, Perth and Glasgow and those were some interesting days.
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| A view of Edinburgh from the Castle |
