This Must Be The Place: Edinburgh, Scotland

Hi again!

Well, I just got back from Edinburgh, Scotland, which really has been the most magical place I have been this far on this trip. Everything and everywhere I went in Edinburgh, albeit Scotland too, was just like something out of a picture book. There literally are sheep just about everywhere, which little 'ums next to them.

Day 1: April 27th, 2010

I left, yet again, on the 4am EasyBus to Luton airport to catch my 7am flight to Edinburgh aboard Easyjet. It was a relatively smooth flight, approximately an hour from here to there, but this time around, it was a perfectly cloudless sky, which gave me some incredible views. After arriving at Edinburgh international and not sadly not going through customs, since I left from London, I was out to the bus terminal to catch the bus into town. I wound up catching a bus leaving that minute so I saved myself 20minutes waiting for the next one to arrive. After about half an hour, I was in the middle of town on Princes street. I decided to go find the hostel and see if I could check in, or at the very least, leave my pack there for the day. I had booked three nights at the Castle Rock Hostel, which was literally the most bohemian place I have ever seen. It was just such a hodgepodge of just about everything together, but it was quaint and kinda neat, plus the view of Edinburg Castle was beyond fantastic. The castle happened to be next door, albeit it is about 30 meters above everything. I almost forgot, Edinburgh is situated on the top of an extinct volcano and therefore the entire city undulates up and down. By the end of the first day, my quads were killing me from going up and down so many flights of stairs. Anywho, after leaving my pack and checking in to the 8bed dorm, I headed around town to make a gameplan and get the feel of the town. Edinburgh is really compact, in a way, and is completely walkable, took approximately 30 minutes to walk from Holyrood park to the castle. After consulting my free maps and grabbing something quick from Boots, I decided to just go ahead and tackle climbing the volcano in Holyrood Park. After entering the park, it took approximately 45 minutes to climb to the top, called Arthur's Chair, but the views along the way were fantastic and was also such an endorphin rush making it all the way to the top. I wound up having lunch on the top with some food I packed and just hung out taking photos and whatnot for about half an hour. After lunch, the weather started to look like it was getting ready to rain, so I began my trek back down to the base. After making it down, I began my trudge back to the castle area of town, ultimately deciding to go to Edinburgh Castle. For some reason, all of these castles are ungodly expensive and yet they are all really disappointing. Minus the cool views and seeing the crown jewels, the castle was a letdown. By this time, it was about 5pm and took to the stairs to find a Sainsburys cook some dinner, shower, and then bed.

Arthur's Chair

In front of downtown Edinburgh

Day 2: April 28th, 2010

After a good nights rest at the Castle Rock, I woke up early to go on the day tour of the Scottish Highlands I booked through Timberbrush. I got picked up just south of the castle meaning it was a super quick walk up the stairs from the hostel. At around 8am, the tour guide Fred decked out in complete Scottish attire, kilt and all, introduced himself to the 15 of us and told us of the itinerary of the day, ultimately coming back to Edinburgh around 8pm. We proceeded to head outside of town into the highlands, which is more or less the entire country. After a quick stop for breakfast around 11am, in which I bonded with this Highlands cow named Hammish, we were back out into the highlands to experience Scotland first hand. We headed down the roads for a couple of hours, until around two we stopped at Uhrquart Castle to take a quick tour and then get on a boat to traverse the infamous Lock Ness. Unfortunately, there were no Nessie sightings in the water, but offland, thats a complete other story. After the jaunt at the castle and boat tour, there was a dinner stop and then then ride back to Edinburgh.

Uhrquart Castle

In front of Lock Ness

Hammish, a Highlands cow

Day 3: April 29th, 2010

This was the end of the quick three day journey and it was completely not long enough to completely finish everything I wanted to do and see in Edinburgh. I definitely intend to come back to Scotland some day just to soak up the Scottish flavor. After learning about the New Europe tours in Dublin, I just had to do the tour that morning. After arriving outside of the Starbucks on the Royal Mile, I met with the tour guide Mark and the group. The tour left around 11am and ultimately finished around 2:30pm, down in the park underneath the castle. The tour was possibly better than the Dublin counterpart, but they are definitely the most fantastic tours ever, the best part is that they are free, which is still mindbogling. After the tour, Mark asked if any of us wanted to go to the pub to grab lunch, with a couple of us taking him up on his offer. He wound up taking us to this little pub, near the place that the bus from the airport stopped, and got us a deal on lunch. I ultimately decided to try the Haggis, Turnip and Mash dinner, which was only £3. I'm not going to say that Haggis is delicious, but it was not by any means as disgusting as people make it out to be. I would get it again, that says something within itself. By this time, its approaching 5pm and I still have to go get my bag and get on the Airlink bus back to the airport. I wound up making time at the airport and had time to grab dinner at E.A.T. (more or less our style Panera) before my EasyJet flight left around 7:45pm.