June 28th: The mist & the sun

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June 28th: Hmm okay, so one down point with the hostel, there seems to be a pretty constant stream of noise pumping in the window, and roadworks (apparently installing a tram system that's taken years and was supposed to be done by 2011 I'm told) kicked off around 6am!
Had a good brekkie (free, so it's really good!) chatted to the two Aussied girls from the laundry room (Leela & Katelyn) who are crazy dames. Went walking with James again, met mMORE Aussies from the hostel (I'd had breakfast with a pleasant enough ocker bloke) found the bus station so I don't have to search for it tomorrow, and then we wandered up a hill, found the observatory, Edinburgh's recreation of the parthenon and what would have been a fantastic view if it were not for a sea of mist drowning everything.
After a bit of shot snapping we started wandering again, went to an art gallery adn then a nice burger lunch... it tasted a bit close to BK for the price but meh, we were going to eat at 'the Elephant House' which is where JK Rowling apparently wrote the first Harry Potter book. It was cheap but very full, so burgers it was.
More exploring, then coffee. They did mine with a cool umbrella made of chocolate sprinkles (I should mention that when I got a coffee at the airport, I discovered that they actually do this with a sort of chocolate stencil rather than by hand... very disappointing, they're a bunch of phoneys).

We looked at St Mary's adn then back to the hostel. Had a beer and finished reading "11:22:63" then (because the sun had finally blasted through the fog) I wandered back up to where the observatory is and got some good fogless pics of Edinburgh.
It's great how warm/sunny weather makes you and everyone around you happy. I took photos for people, other people took a photo for me, patted a cat (it had a collar so hopefully no rabies) and even composed half a song in my head... tentatively titled "the jiggling tit".
Back to teh hostel for a night of uploading photos to photobucket (in case my camera AND USB drive get lost/stolen/eaten/whatever) and a little FBing & blogging before sitting down here with a beer. Looking forward to heading on to Glasgow tomorrow; Edinburgh is beautiful, & if I had to fill a few more days here I easily could, but I feel that, all told, I've had a good enough look around

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Photos

misty scottish parthenon
Edinburgh's (somewhat unfinished) answer to the parthenon

Phil & Ed
scenic!