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Published: October 10th 2007
Hi everyone!
Last weekend, my friends and I took our first travel adventure and went to Edinburgh, Scotland. My friend Becca, who goes to Muhlenberg and is also studying at Royal Holloway, has a friend from Muhlenberg who is doing her semester abroad in Edinburgh. It was great because we had our own personal tour guide who knew the ins and outs of the city.
On Friday afternoon, we took the train from Egham to London Waterloo. From here, we had to take the underground (which I'm slowly getting used to!) to Euston Station. We took a train from London to Edinburgh, which was quite a train ride. It took us about 6 hours to get there and it made a few stops along the way. The English countryside is so beautiful. I wish I could have taken pictures but that's not too easy from a moving train. I went with 3 of my friends, so the four of us had so much fun together it made the ride seem a little less painful! I think the worst part of the 6 hour ride is just thinking that I could practically be home in New York around that time!
Once we arrived in Edinburgh, around 10 PM we realized the ride was worth it. The city is gorgeous - even at night. It is such a unique city. As my flatmate was explaining to me, London seems to have lost a lot of its culture because it is such a "mixed salad" of different ethnicities, there is not one true "London" culture anymore. Edinburgh, on the other hand, still retains their unique Scottish culture. It is a relatively small city of about only 500,000 and still has a lot of old charm. It is not very industrial, and you still see cobblestone paths and houses around the town. Our first view of Edinburgh was Edinburgh Castle, an old military fortress on Castle Rock which overlooks the city, glowing in the moonlight. It was very eerie but beautiful!
We took a shuttle from Princes Street, the main street that runs through the center of the city, to our hostel. I was a little hesitant about staying in a hostel, but it was fine. It got good reviews (because some are known to be unclean and unsafe, especially for women) so we decided to give it a try. We had
a room for just the 4 of us and our own bathroom. A lot of hostels have large rooms everyone sleeps in and a communal bathroom, so this worked out well! We got to our hostel around 11:30 and ordered pizza because we hadn't eaten anything except biscuits (we are all addicted to English cookies!) on the train, and went to bed so we could get an early start the next day.
On Saturday we took a bus from our hostel into the center of Edinburgh. We met up with Kate who would be our personal tour guide around the city! We walked around a park on Princes Street. It was a perfect day to be touring Scotland, and very unusual! It was sunny and warm, without a cloud in the sky. From the park, you can get a gorgeous view of Edinburgh Castle, which you can see from anywhere in the city actually. We saw Scottish bagpipe players lining the street and playing for money in traditional Scottish garb. Walking around the town just feels so much more authentic with bagpipes playing in the background.
Our first stop was at St. Gile's Cathedral, which is the central
point of the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is the street that runs from the ancient Edinburgh Castle to the Holyrood House, the current residence of the Royal Family while in Scotland. St. Giles' was the site of many hangings in the 15th and 16th centuries and today there is a heart stone at the place where the scaffold hung. Today it is tradition to spit onto the stone just like the crowd did while hangings were taking place.
After St. Giles we went to Edinburgh Castle. The castle is the predominant building in the town because it sits high up on a hill and overlooks the city. The castle was a military fortress in the 16th and 17th Century. When we got there, we saw the firing of a cannon at 1 PM. They do this every day and the joke is (I'm not sure if it's a joke or the truth, but it makes sense) they choose to do it at 1 PM so they only have to fire it once rather than 12 times at noon. We went inside St. Margaret's Chapel which dates all the way back to the 12th Century and is the oldest
Sarah and Me with a bagpipe player
Very stereotypical...we are such tourists!building on the site and also the oldest in Edinburgh. It is a tiny chapel they say holds about 20 people, but it looked more like it couldn't even hold 10! Beneath the chapel, there is a dog cemetery which memorializes the dogs of the soldiers stationed at the castle. We also saw the Crown Jewels of Scotland and went into a chapel specifically built to commemorate the lives lost in World War I. During the Revolutionary War the Castle was used to house prisoners of war. Now the barracks they were kept in are on display and set up as they would have been in the 1700s. It was really interesting!
Our next stop was to the Elephant House Cafe for lunch. The Elephant House is known as the "birthplace of Harry Potter" because it is where JK Rowling supposedly sat and saw Edinburgh Castle which was her inspiration for Hogwarts. It was a cute cafe and its business must be booming since advertising its Harry Potter ties. We then took a bus to Holyrood House, the official residence of the Royal Family while in Scotland, located at the opposite end of the Royal Mile. Holyrood comes from
Holy Ruid meaning Holy Cross. Parts of it, where the Queen entertains guests when they visit, reminded me a lot of the White House, while parts seemed older and more historic. This was also home to Mary Queen of Scots and it where the famous feud between her husband Lord Darnley and her private secretary David Riccio took place. Darnley was jealous of the close friendship Mary had with Riccio and one night he attacked him and left him to die. There is a plaque on the floor in one of the rooms of where Riccio lay dying. The palace also has beautiful gardens and the remains of an abbey.
We had all been anticipating Saturday night because we had tickets for a ghost tour which we were very excited about! Edinburgh is famous for having creepy tales about ghosts and ghouls and is apparently the most haunted city in the UK. We had a 'spooky' tour guide who took us around and told us ghost stories about the city's past. She even talked about witch hunting and used Becca as the accused witch! Then the best part of the tour was going into the vaults underneath the streets
of Edinburgh. There are lots of ghost stories about what goes on down there, but we didn't see any ghosts! I don't know how much I believe all of that, but it's cool to think we were standing in the most haunted room in the most haunted city in Britain!
On Sunday we did a bus tour of the city. Sunday was kind of rainy and dreary, a typical day in the UK, but it made Edinburgh look even more magical. Another prominent sight in the city is Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is a mountain which used to be a volcano and sits 800 feet in the air. It looks like a daunting climb but many people do it. We didn't have time on this trip, but I bet it offers amazing views of the city. After doing the bus tour, we walked around the city a little more and then decided to head home. We originally planned to do a 2:30 train which was a 7 hour ride and had a layover in Crewe. We then found out there was a 1:30 direct train so it got us in over an hour earlier. Getting on the train was
chaotic, because seat reservations were not working so everyone was scrambling for seats and standing in the aisles. Since we were the last stop, eventually it cleared up and the 4 of us were able to sit together.
We got back to London Kings Cross (which is where Platform 9 3/4 is, for all you Harry Potter fans!) so we had to take the tube to London Waterloo and then an hour train ride back to Egham and finally a taxi back to school! It was a lot of traveling but a great experience and a wonderful trip. The school is having another trip to Scotland, this time to Glasgow and Loch Ness, which I'd love to do (I really want to try to see Nessie) but it's the same weekend I'm going to Paris. Also there are so many other places in Europe I'd love to explore. I went into this trip thinking Scotland wasn't high on my list of places to travel and I wasn't planning on being too impressed, but now I'd love to go back! I love traveling and it's so convenient being here in Europe. This weekend I'll be in London on both Saturday
St. Margaret's Chapel
The oldest building in Edinburgh and Sunday, then next weekend is Paris and possibly Ireland the weekend after that. And for everyone who is thinking since this is called "studying abroad" I should be talking about my studies, don't worry, I'll get to that soon!
Cheers!
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Aunt Pat
non-member comment
fabulous
Your education and trips are great!!!!! Nothing better than traveling and seeing and experiencing various cultures. See you soon!!!