Oy! It's Edinburgh, Scotland!

Warning:  This is going to be a long post

Friday
I'm not normally awake at 5:00 am, but in order to catch the train to Edinburgh, I had to be.  We took a taxi to the train station, the cabbie reminded me of the cabbie from Sherlock A Study in Pink-- a little unsettling, but we made it.  We got there early, and lucky we did because the train had been rescheduled for an earlier time.  Two trains, 4 hours, and lots of sheep and scenery later, we arrive in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Holy cow!  This place was beautiful.  Old buildings, brick roads, and rolling hills (which came back to haunt us later).  We (Karli, Lindsey, and I) left the station and started for our hostel, except we did not know exactly where it was.  We asked for some help from someone that looked official, they weren't much help, so we headed in their general directions.  Amazingly enough, we arrive at our hostel, drop our bags off, and head for lunch.

Church converted into a hostel (Where we stayed)

We had one food place in mind:  Elephant House- The Birthplace of Harry Potter.  We didn't really know where that was either.  After wandering around for a little bit, an elderly gentleman came over and helped us.  He was very nice.  After a long walk, we finally made it.  It was a very good lunch.

People wrote Harry Potter quotes all over the walls in the bathroom

Climb Arthur's seat was the next item on our agenda.  It sounded like a fabulous idea.  We turned the corner and then saw the volcanic mountain we were about to climb and we were a little worried, but we were ready to conquer it.  

Honestly, these photos don't do it any justice.  It was huge!

We finally get to the base of the hill and we see two paths, so we decide it would be a good idea to follow the crowd and take the path with the stairs instead of the dirt path.  This path started off fine, and then we reached the steep part.  At some points I would say that we were climbing at least a 45 degree angle.  We reach a flat part and we feel accomplished at how far we had come.  

That was right before we realized the path we were on was not starting to go down…  We asked people on the path with us and they didn't know either, so we continued on the path.  This path ended back at the base of the volcanic mountain.  Oh sad day!  After a little deliberation, we decide to commit to the cake and take another nearby path.  This path wasn't as steep, but it wasn't a nice walk in the park either.  We had to take several breaks on the way up, and we even got passed by an elderly man on the way--that is how bad we were struggling.  We weren't in the best condition to be climbing either.  We all had our heavy purses and not the best footwear (Chuck T's, TOMS, and sandals).  The path is so steep, we think we reached the top on several occasions, only to be disappointed with another steep path slightly out of sight.  When I say "path" I am using the term loosely.  Sometimes it was just dirt, rock, or grass.  We made friends with an older couple on the path and we reached the top with them.  It was amazing!  The view was beautiful!

What goes up must come down. So after resting at the top, we begin our descent.  

Soon we realized that we took the hardest path to the top.  We choose very poorly at the beginning of our journey.  Little bitter.  At least we got to see the ruins of St.  Anthony's Chapel.

Even though our feet were sore, we had to keep trucking if we wanted to accomplish everything on our itinerary.  When we finally reached a street, we saw a commotion at the Palace, so we went to check it out.  It turned out that Prince Edward and his wife were staying at the Palace this weekend.  We watched the ceremony for a little bit.  

Camera Obscura was next on the list.  It was like a fun house.  We did have a lot of fun.  

We finished exploring the 6 floor building and went to get food.  I had fish and chips.  Sadly, it wasn't the best fish I had ever tasted.  By this time it is a little after 7 and our ghost tour didn't start until 9:30 so we killed some time in Starbucks.  One because it was absolutely freezing outside since the sun went down and two free wifi.  It was a great decision.  

Our ghost tour was really good.  The guide was a little crazy, but she told the stories well.  We went into the most haunted spot in Britain--the vaults under Edinburgh.  These were four stories underground.  After the tour, we summoned a taxi and headed back to the hostel.  This was the first time actually touring the hostel and seeing our rooms.  There were three of us and 2 rooms in two separate hallways, so we did the only logical thing- smushed two twin beds together and all slept there. I slept in the crack of the beds and sadly it was more comfortable than the dorm beds here.  

 In the halls of the hostel.

 Our room key

How we slept

Saturday

After a full day of walking yesterday, we were ready to ride on our bus tour.  First stop, the Royal Yacht Britannia.  It was really cool.  We got to see 5 different levels of the yacht.  The Queen donated items to be kept on the yacht.  We reached the sun deck and had the option for tea--heck yes!  I had some wonderful hot chocolate.  

 We hopped back on the bus to continue our tour.  We stopped for lunch and headed to the Edinburgh Castle.  Holy cow was this place massive.  There were several layers to the castle.

Next stop, St. Giles Cathedral.  It was beautiful.  Full of stained glass.  We sat there and listened to the organ for a while.  We shopped, ate, and tried to avoid going back to our hostel.  We camped out in Starbucks for awhile before it, along with every other store closed for the night.  It was still light out, so we walked to our hostel to waste time.  

Sunday

We slept 10 hours before getting up.  We had to check out before 10, so we packed up and headed to the train station an hour early.  We bought breakfast, I negotiated a deal for some muffins.  Then we sat and waited.  The first train was great.  We had plenty of room and we were sitting next to the others who went to Scotland.  

As the time neared to when we were supposed to be changing trains, our train was still going full speed ahead.  As it approached less than 5 minutes until our second train left the station, we all got worried.  As the train slowed down, we all stood up and flocked to the door.  The doors finally open with 1 minute left.  We hop off the train and check the ticker, our train was still here but at a different platform.  We could see our train about 500 yards in the distance.  We all immediately start running, yes, I RAN toward that train.  We could not miss it.  Again, we were making a scene.  8 American girls running to a train platform with our backpacks and purses bobbing with them.  As we approach we see the conductor stick his head out the window.  Thank goodness he saw us and didn't leave without us.  

Edinburgh was amazing!  We got to do and see many different things.  I would highly recommend this as a destination to everyone except people who don't like hills and a lot of walking.  We walked 9+ miles on Friday alone.  

Well Scotland, you have been great, now on to the next adventure.  Ta and Cheers!