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I arrived in Edinburgh on a Sunday afternoon, with no more travel arrangements for afterwards. Some would call it being free and others would call it stupid! You decide.
I'd been told before i got there i would like this city, and i have to say it's true. I haven’t yet met a person that doesn't like Edinburgh. As you drive into the city you can see the Castle towering over everything. It's sat up on an old volcano, and the molten lava that oozed out the side is now old town and the Royal mile, the other side is sheer cliff face like. Did i say yet its very hilly there! The streets zig zag across and up the hill, and from the new side of town you can see rows of old impressive buildings. Even better you can walk through them too past all the pubs, cafes, numerous cashmere wool, and kilt shops! If you're a glutton for punishment, Steep stairs cut straight through the zig zagging streets, they call them close's. I think it would be an ideal city to get fit in, except for one minor setback I'll mention later.
So my backpackers was in
a pretty cool location, in old town just off the royal mile. I was just down behind the castle and it looked awesome in the night all lit up. My first day I had to go see the castle! I had sunshine!! as i got my ticket i was told "Don't leave thinking it's always like this, it's not, it's usually shite weather!" There is more history where the castle is built than the whole of Australia i think!! I think the earliest was the bronze age 900 ad...don't quote me on that! But still the area at the top and around the castle has had people on it constantly! It's not hard to imagine why, you can see for miles!! And the tour guide said that it has never been taken over in a single attack except for one, but that was a constant attack over a long period of time. There was lots within the castle walls, a memorial to EVERY soldier (man, woman, animal) who had served the Scott’s, working barracks, an old church only big enough for like 4 people, the crown Jewels, royal apartments, and prisons. They were setting up the seats for the Edinburgh
Tattoo, which I know I'll have to be around for next time. Over the summer the festival is on and i think that's my next summer plans, the streets are lined with performers and there are stages set up for shows everywhere! Again, next summer, next year!
Along one side of the castle are long parks, which I’m assuming the majority of the year in the not so great weather is empty, but were full all day while I was there with people enjoying the sun (Lots of white pasty skin!). I learnt afterwards it used to be a lake around the castle, but after so much muck, grime, sewerage, dead bodies etc being dumped into it, the fumes were actually killing people living nearby. So it was drained out and made into parks! The Scott monument stands on the Princes Street side, a gothic looking spiky narrow building that looks like a spine, but you can climb it. And then down the end of the Royal mile past the not so attractive new parliament building lays Arthurs seat. I did make an attempt to climb it, and maybe I could have, but a friend had an injured ankle
and she saved me the embarrassment of maybe not making it up! I like to think I’m like the turtle, slow and steady and I’ll get there eventually! We got up one side and had a great view of the ocean (I think) and Edinburgh.
I went into the Edinburgh Dungeons too, which was funny, but not as great as I expected. The actors were funny, and I was genuinely scared when for some reason ahead of the group I ended up in a mirror maze by myself because the 2 little scared Japanese girls behind me wouldn’t go in. I didn’t realise, took a few steps in and turned back around to my own reflection!! Scary enough for the bravest! There are other underground tours which I’m told are good, and the ghosts in them are actually real, so next time when I’m not on my own I will attempt them! Part of the underground city is used for performance space for the festival too, which I thought was kind of cool.
It was also inevitable that with pub crawls offered Monday to Friday at my backpackers that I was going to end up on at least
one. By the end of my actual 5 days in Edinburgh I had been on three. Not a bad effort if I do say so myself, for a person who doesn’t go out drinking that often on account of working to save up to go travelling…and drink in other places of the world! Drinks were cheap, I got to hang out with people around my age, and not so much around my age, people from the same country as me, people who’s cities I had never heard of, and, a guy from Tasmania(bless his soul). The first one I went on was the best, I met an Aussie couple called Jo and Adam, and we had a ball. It was great to just be out, like with my friends back home, who I miss!! And Dance!! I also had my first Mohito here! At a Vodka bar, every kind of vodka you could think of plus more.
The hostel also did walking tours which I went on, and it was good to walk around and be told what you were looking at, as the real stories behind things here are much more interesting than anything I could ever make
up with my imagination! I left Edinburgh on a tour of the Isle of Skye and highlands from Friday to Sunday, which I’ll write about in another entry it was that awesome! And as I said earlier I’d mention the setback to becoming fit here. A delicacy is fried mars bar…enough sad! ha
So I left Edinburgh knowing that I will come back one day, I met some really cool people, caught up with a familiar face, which is always nice, and I know there is much more to discover and see here. Not only Edinburgh, I want to see more of Scotland. Glasgow, Falkirk, and the hell of a lot of highlands I didn’t get to see on the tour even though I saw a lot!
I had sunshine 90% of the time, and I’m not just saying it but I may be a sunshine god😊
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