Conquering Arthur and a few other things...

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Apologies for taking forever to update, but we hope this entry appeals to your sense of whimsy...
If you don't know about the geographical anomaly that is Edinburgh and the surrounding landscape you're about to learn a few things. So the ancient capital of Scotland, otherwise known as the Acropolis of the North has been built on what was hundreds of thousands of years ago a rather large and imposing volcano. But with glaciers and the passage of time and all that goodness the once volatile region has now become one of the hilliest cities on record surrounded by the Firth of Forth on the one side and Arthur's Seat and the hill country around it on the other. And being the adventursome types that we are Vanessa and I decided to tackle famous Seat of Arthur which legend says looks like a sleeping lion (and it does if you turn around and squint, but that's what legends are for right? And they do have a statue of an actual sleeping lion at the bottom so all is well). Towering hundreds of feet above our place of furute Parliamentary employment the view is absolutely breathtaking even if the height is absolutely terrifying if you have an irrational fear of heights - like myself. See for yourself in the pictures that we have attached (finally, I know, we actually remembered the camera this time).
The other pictures are from Holyrood Castle/The Queen's House which we took a tour of about a week ago and is located just across from Parliament. It looks just like every other castle/palace in the entirity of this island. There was a time when I imagined that every castle I looked at would be an experience of unparalled wonder, but after you've seen a baker's dozen of them you've pretty much seen them all.
We've also started class this week and have finally gotten ourselves some roommates after two weeks of living in complete and total isolation. So now instead of living in the practically haunted complex across from the burlesque club we now live in a thriving college apartment flat on one of the busiest night-life streets in all of Edinburgh. It gets a wee bit loud once the sun goes down, but if we had been expecting silence we should have moved to oh I don't know Kansas or maybe Siberia. They've also provided us with a right proper house, Chisholm House, made of yellow brick and stuck us in the basement which is actually the third floor if you look out of the windows on the other side of the house. Margeret is our wonderful in house librarian/ tea maker/ all around lovely woman who makes sure that all of us haven't run ourselves ragged and slept the night in the basement buried under a pile of Holyrood legislation. Pictures of Holyrood will be forecoming by the by.
Until the next,
V&K

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Photos

Edinburgh
This is about halfway up Arthur's Seat

Calton Hill
That half built acropolis was meant to be a monument to the fallen soldiers of the Napoleonic wars, but they ran out of money and never finished. Once known as the "National Disgrace" in true Scots fashion they now call it a National Monument.

Kaitlyn
We're sitting on the same rock in these two pictures actually it's just that the sun is rising behind me and we forgot to use the flash. Oops!

Comments

[marmey]

Wow
/Great pics, thanks for sharing, i sent your travel blog to cousin Joanne, the stock market fell 500 pt. yikes. Beautiful country you are in. How far is Hollyroot from you. love you mucho

[auntie kathy]

hiking?
So, you climbed the hills behind the castle? How high up is that? Is there a path? When will it be getting really cold? We've had our first frost here in Bangor!

[VandK]

Hill walking
Hill walking is an old scottish pass time and many local Edinburgers climb Arthur on a regular basis so there are a lot of different paths traversing the different hill tops. Our goal it to climb as many as possible in all scottish weather :) Still comfy weather 50's and 60's and of course rain.

[Danielle]

Oh man, King Arthur's Seat is an absolute killer. My Dad and I tried climbing it when my parents visited and the sun started setting when we were half way up, so we had to go back down. My Mom was smart and said, "Hell no, I'm not climbing that thing!" Sounds like you guys are having a great time! Miss you!