Life in the 'burgh (Edinburgh)

Can I just start by saying how much I love traveling by train? It's faster and more comfortable than buses (or coaches or whatever the heck they're called), plus you get to see some amazing scenery. At least, that was the case on my trip from York to Edinburgh, which was mostly along the coastline. We're talking castle ruins, cliffs, and beautiful blue water. It was so gorgeous I wanted to throw up.

Well. That may have been motion-sickness, actually.

First order of business when I got to Edinburgh was finding my hostel, which proved to be surprisingly easy: I walked out of the train station, and there it was. I was glad to find that the mattress was far more comfortable than the one in York, but I was not so glad to see that I was on the middle bunk of a three bed stack. (Sure enough, in my four nights staying there I whacked my head, elbows, knees, you name it on the top bunk more times than I care to count.)

Anyway, after I checked in, I headed for the Christmas market, which I could see from the window of my hostel room.

I think I can safely say that Edinburgh's Christmas market is my favorite of all the Christmas markets that I saw this season. There was so much to do and see, and it was a good balance of food vendors, rides, and shopping. And their music playlist was on point. All in all, I was really feeling the Christmas spirit!

I decided to save some of the Christmas market to explore the next night with my friends from Switzerland. They were coming to Edinburgh the same weekend to check out the Christmas market, and we'd agreed to meet up at the market on Friday night. So I called it a night and headed back to my hostel.

The next morning, I got up pretty early, partially because I'd gone to bed fairly early and was refreshed and ready to get moving, but mostly because I was in a 12-bed female dorm in my hostel, and there was just the one bathroom. In this kind of scenario, you snooze, you really do lose. Half the day will be gone by the time it's your turn to shower unless you shake a leg. It's every woman for herself.

So I was up and moving through the streets of Edinburgh by 8:30am. I wanted to get some exploring in before my free walking tour started at 10:00am.

Some of my favorite facts from the tour included:
--The term "shit-faced" supposedly originated in Edinburgh, after a law was put in place to regulate when chamber pots could be emptied into the streets. The new times were 10:00am and 10:00pm. Now, 10:00pm was also closing time for the city's pubs. So if you were one to stick around from the end of the work day until last call, you were likely to be caught in a shit storm--as it were--when you headed home. Thus, when you arrived home, you were very likely to be "shit-faced." (Unless, of course, your drunken reflexes were superhuman.)
--The Scots were pioneers in home security: the older buildings in Edinburgh have staircases equipped with "Scottish burglar alarms."  These "alarms" consist of a single step in the staircase that is a different size from all of the other steps, designed to trip an intruder creeping around in the dark, as they wouldn't know where the trick step is. Of course, you can imagine that someone coming home shit-faced would be likely to set off the alarm, as well.
--Grave robbing was a major problem in Edinburgh back in the 19th century, though not for the reason you may think. The medical school in the city needed cadavers, and would pay a decent price for any bodies they could get their hands on. Many enterprising people took it upon themselves to meet the demand by digging up the recently deceased. Two men by the names of William Burke and William Hare, took it even farther, murdering people for the sole purpose of selling their bodies to the medical school. When they were caught and convicted, the men were hung and then dissected, with their skeletons placed on display at the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh Medical School, where their remains remain to this day. 

In addition to this tasteful tales, my Australian tour guide shared information of interest to Potterheads in the audience: he pointed out the Elephant House café, where JK Rowling (an Edinburgher since 1993) wrote most of the first two books in the series. He also showed us Victoria Street, the inspiration for Diagon Alley:

The Original Diagon Alley!

And the two buildings that inspired Hogwarts: Edinburgh Castle and George Heriot's School (founded to educate orphaned boys).

Edinburgh Castle

The George Heriot School

After the tour, of course I had to check out the Elephant House café for myself.

I can see why she liked it. 

Apparently they've had so much Harry-Potter-related graffiti in the bathrooms in the café that they've given up trying to get rid of it:

"This way to the Ministry" LOL

After paying homage to the place where Harry Potter began, I headed to the National Museum of Scotland, where, among other things, I saw Dolly the sheep. That's right, the first critter to be successfully cloned has been taxidermied and is now on display in Edinburgh.

These Scots really have a knack for tasteful museum exhibits, don't they?

After that, it was time to meet my ex-pat friends at the Christmas market! We checked out every stall in the market, debated doing the Christmas tree maze (decided not to because £££), and scoped out the lights display a few streets away. Even though we'd gotten some munchies at the market, we were getting hungry for real food around that time, so we went to Nando's Peri-Peri for dinner.

I know what you're thinking. "I thought you swore off all American chains while in Europe. But you went to Nando's for dinner?" Well, joke's on you, because Nando's was founded in South Africa. So HA. 😝

After that, we wandered back into the Old Town in search of a pub, and ended up right next door to my hostel at the Doric, which was founded in the 17th century, which apparently makes it the oldest gastro pub in Edinburgh.

Casual.

I felt like I was obligated to try Scotch there; to drink anything else would be blasphemous. So I approached the bartender, who did his best to hide his incredulity when I confessed that I'd never had any sort of whisky before. He was kind enough to let me sample a few varieties, and patiently waited out my struggles to describe what I was tasting, until finally we landed on one that I could sip without coughing too much. Slàinte! (That means Cheers.) 

Whisky isn't my cup of tea.

The next day, I wandered down to the bottom of the Royal Mile (the main street in Old Town Edinburgh), where I saw Holyrood Palace, the Queen's official Scottish residence, and the Scottish Parliament. From that vantage point, I could also see Arthur's Seat, the mountain smack dab in the middle of Edinburgh. I wanted to climb it the moment I saw it, but thought better of it, considering that I didn't really have the best mountain-climbing footwear on. But I was determined to reach the summit when I was better dressed for it.

I thought that was the summit. LOL

So I headed back up the Royal Mile, stopping along the way to sample--and subsequently buy--some fudge and to check out a Christmas ornament shop. I also visited the Museum of Edinburgh, which featured a cool bird's-eye-view video showing how the city changed and grew over time, as well as many artifacts found within the city over the years, and silver and glass works created by Edinburgh's craftspeople through the centuries.

Continuing up the Royal Mile, I stopped in St. Giles' Cathedral to have a look around. Having already done a fair bit of walking by that point in the day, I took advantage of the opportunity to sit down for a few minutes while I admired the interior of the church. The pew was surprisingly comfortable, and of course it was pretty quiet in there, so before I knew it, I'd dozed off. I woke up pretty suddenly about ten minutes later when the priest started the noon service.

Oops.

A few "amens" later, I was free to go--good thing weekday services are short. It was pretty evident that I needed coffee, so I headed back to the Elephant House for a cappuccino and some lunch.

Re-energized, I decided to check out the Writer's Museum, which featured exhibits on some of Scotland's most famous writers: Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson. They also had, of course, an exhibit about JK Rowling, the highlight of which was a copy of the first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, annotated by JK Rowling herself. Not going to lie, I spent more time looking at that than I did at all the other exhibits combined. Though there was a Stevenson quote that I liked: "For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."

I spent the next hour wandering in search of a place for dinner. I wasn't really hungry yet, but knowing how long it usually takes me to make up my mind about what I want to eat, I wanted to get an early start and avoid getting hangry if at all possible.

I came across a Mexican place that seemed promising, which was both exciting and surprising. Generally, Europeans aren't big fans of spicy foods, or so I've noticed, so Mexican restaurants are pretty rare, and those that you do come across are generally not that great. But I could smell some spice as soon as I walked in the door, and it smelled good, so I was willing to take the chance.

Man, I almost cried when I took that first bite. Did I mention that I love Mexican food? Because I do.

Yum.

Double yum.

After dinner, I met my Switzerland friends for my first ghost tour. If you know me at all, you know how far outside of my comfort zone that kind of thing usually is. But my comfort zone has gotten a lot bigger on this trip, so I was willing to give it a shot. 

Plus it's not so scary if you go with friends. 

That being said, I was sufficiently spooked by the end of it, so when my friends headed off to their dinner reservation, I made a beeline for my hostel.

The next morning, I made an even earlier start than usual, because I was going on a day tour! Our kilt-wearing guide took us through the Scottish highlands to Glen Coe, one of the most famous and beautiful valleys in Scotland. 

Looks very mist-erious in this picture. 😜

The valley also has quite a sad and violent history: in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution and the Jacobite uprisings, a plan was hatched to make an example of the MacDonald clan, who had been the last to pledge their allegiance to the new English monarchs. On February 13th, 1692, there was a massacre. It began simultaneously at dawn in three villages throughout Glen Coe. Thirty-eight people were killed by the soldiers, who had been treated as guests by the MacDonalds. Another forty died of exposure and frostbite fleeing the valley after their homes were destroyed. 

Pretty grim stuff for so early in the morning. But the rest of the tour was much more cheerful.

We made a number of other stops on the tour, but the one I was most excited for was Loch Ness. I'm a big Nessie believer, so when we were offered the chance to go on a boat ride on the Loch, you can bet I was the first in line. 

Of course, you can't actually see into the water, I discovered when we were on board. It's literally pitch black; if you were to stick your hand in the water, you wouldn't be able to see it once it was about six inches under. The guide explained that, as the water runs off the surrounding mountains into the loch, it absorbs many of the nutrients from the peat, which gives the water is dark color. 

Even though Nessie didn't put in an appearance, it was still quite a nice cruise on the water. We had beautiful weather for it:

The rainbow was not photoshopped in, I promise. It was the real deal.

When we got back to Edinburgh that evening, I met my friends for a farewell drink at an alehouse called BrewDog, which serves only Scotland's BrewDog beer. A couple of pints later, food was in order, so we headed to a fish and chips place near the B and B my friends were staying in. I decided that I was feeling too adventurous for fish and chips, so I went for the deep-fried Mars bar with ice cream (apparently a local delicacy). 

As you can probably guess, it was a heart attack in every bite, and I regretted it several times over by the time I'd said goodbye to my Switzerland friends and made my way back to my hostel. Talk about going out with a bang. 

The next morning--my last in Edinburgh--I was craving some physical activity to make up for the previous evening's dietary disaster. So I laced up my sneakers and headed to Arthur's Seat.

Even though gusts of wind made me fear for my life at some points, I did make it to the summit, and was rewarded with spectacular views of Edinburgh in every direction. Unfortunately, the wind was even stronger at the summit, and I chose to sacrifice the quality of my photos in the interest of not falling off the mountain. But I got a few that should give you the gist:

Blurry.

Double blurry.

All in all, it was a good way to say goodbye to the city, before hopping on a train to Glasgow.

Of course, if I'd known how boring Glasgow was going to be, I would've stayed in Edinburgh. 

Stay tuned!