Day 2 in Edinburgh and the Subsequent Disaster

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So today Nicole and her father and I went to lunch and then I ventured off to climb Arthur's Seat (I may totally have the guy's name wrong). It was this beautiful mountain-like cliff with rolling green hills filled with yellow flowers. It was fun but and beautiful (and yes I took some pictures). Then I headed into the center of town kind of wandered since I didn't know where I was after exploring the quasi-mountain. I ended up walking up through this cute little shopping street and stopping in a photography gallery. The photos were interesting but what held my attention even more was the beautiful photo facilities in the basement. As I was leaving I stopped to chat with the woman manning the welcome desk. She seemed a little older than me and we got to talking about photography and living in Manhattan as a photographer and eventually exchanged emails. She is from England and is studying photography while living in Edinburgh. When I showed slight interest in possibly spending more time in Edinburgh in the future she decided she wanted to keep in touch and I offered her a place on my couch is Manhattan and a personally guided tour of all the galleries that I knew of.

Then I made my way to the Royal Mile, the main attraction street in Edinburgh. I went to find this tour that Nicole told me was worthwhile called Mary King's Close. It's a tour of the city beneath Edinburgh that remains from before the new city was built on top of it. I went in to make reservations and realized that I didn't have enough money so left to head to a bank machine when on the way I ran into a Hari Krishna monk asking for people to buy him milk. He pointed me in the direction of the ATM in exchange for a promise that when I returned I buy him some milk. After the ATM I made a quick visit to the castle which had been closed for the day but still provided me with an adequate photo. I grabbed myself a dark chocolate icecream Mars bar, something our country is seriously lacking, and made my way back to the monk. I told the monk that I'd only buy him milk if he could explain to me about his religion and what exactly the milk was for. It turns out that this guy started off homeless and the monastery took him in and transformed him or what not. I don't know how much if it I believed but he tried to give me a book on Hari Krishnaism but I told him I didn't have enough room in my backpack. I bought him is milk and also gave him a donation since he was so nice and in return he gave me a CD if is monastery's band: a mix between rock and roll and mantra chants!

I then returned to Mary King's Close took the tour which was actually really interesting despite all the overly-exaggerated actors dressed in silly outfits trying to reenact supposed real inhabitants of the close in the 1500s. Towards the end of the tour I started talking to what seemed like another lonesome traveller. It turned out he was an Israeli born Australian exploring the UK on his month long vacation from his 7 day work week as an engineer back in Melbourne. We hit it off immediately and decided to grab some dinner together. I showed him the large mound I had climbed earlier that day and then invited him to the party my hosts were having that night. The party contained probably one of the most intercultural interracial groups of people I had ever encountered, and I go to Columbia and live in Manhattan! The girl who's party it was, is Finnish, her rommate is Norwegian, there were people from all over Southeast Asia, I befriended a girl from Japan (of course!), there were Aussies, Brits, Americans, and the list goes on. I had a blast meeting people, having wine spilled all over me by one of the hosts Jen, who went to Wellsley and lives near me in Mass and whose friend, Melanie!, lives on Trapelo Road in Belmont; what a small world!

I had a great time at the party but because the party took place in the room that I had been using to sleep, I didn't get to sleep until 4 30 and as a result missed my flight to Brussels. Instead of sleeping at the airport or taking another 2 and a half our ride back to Edinburgh I hopped on the next plane which took me to Dusseldorf Germany.

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Comments

[Danielle]

I'll buy you a dark chocolate icecream Mars bar for your birthday..