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Published: October 5th 2007
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Friday, September 28, 2007
Today, Jeanna came down for the day. She is from Tasmania, but is living in a town called Alloa, which is about an hour or so north of Edinburgh. Marie, Claudine and I first met her when we came up to Edinburgh and were all staying in the same room at St. Christopher’s Inn. She had been living there for a month or so already. Anyway, we had just planned on going to a movie, but I still had these passes from work, that lets you into certain attractions for free. FREE!! My favorite word!! So, of course, we needed to take advantage of that. We went first to the Real Mary King’s Close, on the Royal Mile. A Close is an alley, of which there were many in olden Edinburgh. Mary King’s Close was one such alley, and it was built over and abandoned, and because of that, is still pretty intact. It was a guided tour through the hidden streets dating back to the 16th century. A couple of parts of life from back then were recreated, including the plague Edinburgh experienced in the 17th century. Most of the rooms were empty, but if you
closed your eyes and listened to the guide, it was easy to imagine yourself back in time. We saw houses for both priviledged and the poor, and the differences between both. It was pretty cool.
Next, we headed further up the Mile to the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre. Now, the same goes for any kind of alcohol, but while I don’t mind drinking them every now and then, I don’t really care to go any further into why and how my favorite drinks are made. But need I remind you, IT WAS FREE!! So, why not. And I got pretty excited almost immediately after we walked in, because they start the tour by giving you a free shot (wee dram) of whisky, and you even get to keep the glass! Now, most alcohol tours I’ve been on (and for some reason, i’ve been on many, including 3 or 4 times to Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, Miller Brewing in Milwaukee, Guiness in Dublin, not to mention all the wine tours in Napa, Sonoma, Michigan and So. Illinois—so does this make me an expert yet?) - anyways, as I was saying, on most tours they give you the free drink at the
end of the tour. At the Whisky Heritage Centre, they’ve gotten smart and give it to you before the tour starts. What a way to make sure everyone is nice and happy and has a good time! Lol...but it was nice, anyways. The tour was pretty interesting because you went through different sections, saw the inside of a model distillery, listened to a ‘ghost’ model blender, and even went on a barrel ride through whisky history. Now, Disney World it’s not, but at least it was unique, I’ll give it that. After a little browsing in their great gift shop, we made our way to Wannaburger. I had possibly the largest, but definitely the best burger of my life. It was called the Aussie Burger, and Jeanna assured me that they do actually eat these burgers in Australia...but i don’t know how anyone can eat one of these more than once every ten years! On top of ther burger, there was a fried egg, pineapple, beetroot, cheddar cheese and lettuce—OMG!! I was a litte worried when it came out, but Jeanna was right, it was delicious! Then we went to the movies and saw Jodie Foster’s ‘The Brave One.’ After
that, on to Belushi’s (where else 😊) for a drink before Jeanna had to take the train back home. All in all, it was a fun day. Since Marie and Claudine went back home, i’ve been really missing just hanging out with friends.
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