From Edinburgh with love - Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Do not let the title decieve you; I am not actually in Edinburgh right now. Still sitting in my kitchen with a now half full cup of cold tea. Took me longer than I thought to write my London entry, but here I am, trudging through to write about my experiences in Edinburgh (pronounced Edinbra) So here we go...
On Saturday morning, we woke up and headed to the train station. We had to take the rail and then transfer in order to get to the bus station. We found our way, and were there a little early so we stopped and had breakfast at KFC (fancy huh? And who knew KFC had breakfast?) We made our way to our bus and boarded. We settled in and prepared to sit for 10 hours. Ugh. The bus made several stops along the way in several towns. It was nice to see the countryside of England. Just outside of London was mainly farms. Sprawling land and pastures filled with cows and sheep. We napped, ate, talked, ate, and napped some more. We both had papers due when we returned, but found it so hard to read while the bus was bouncing down the road. We finally arrived in Edinburgh at about 8pm, when it was pitch black.
We were a little lost, a little tired, and very cold. We knew that our hostel was right near the Castle, so we headed that way. This was our first encounter with how hilly Edinburgh was. Every street was a different elevation. After a little debate about which road to take, we finally figured out about where we were and we stumbled upon our hostel. It was literally 20 steps away from the castle. Kudos to KP for doing research and finding the best hostel in Edinburgh. We checked in and found our room and beds. We were in the Plant Biology room, beds Cocoa (mine) and Hemp (KP). We had a little snafoo with KP's bed...there was someone's things in it! Kathleen opened her locker, and found a wallet. We went down to the front desk and they made sure that it was supposed to be her bed. The girl came up to try to figure it out. She went through his stuff and figured out that the suitcase matched the name in he wallet, which matched the name of a guy staying in our room. He had moved his stuff to KP's bed because he wanted the bed farthest from the window. His stuff was moved to his proper bed and Kathleen settled into hers.
Since it as our first night in Edinburgh, we decided to go explore. It was still early, and we didn't want to waste any time. We made a left out of our hostel and down he steps to the grass market area. This was filled with restaurants and pubs that surrounded a huge town square type thing built of cobblestones. We walked up one street and down another, getting lost while getting our bearings. At this point, we were starving. We went into one bar that said they had good food, but had limited options. We left and found this great little italian place and got individual pizza that we devoured. The pizza tasted exactly like pronto pizza in Greece. When we finished, we walked the streets some more to get our bearings and discover the city. We decided to stop in this pub called Finnegan's Wake. KP had a beer and I had a jack and coke. There was a super old and even more obnoxious and weird band playing that could not get their sh*t together. We left after one drink because we were exhausted. On our way back, we stopped in a little italian cafe and had cheesecake. We were the first ones back to our hostel and settled in.
The next day, we woke up early to do the free walking tour of Edinburgh. This was an amazing tour and would recommend you checking them out. They run tours all over the world, all for free! Our tour guide was Johnney, a very informative little scottish guy that was about our age. We started at the city hall building (which used to have pigs roaming wild), St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, Grassmarket, Greyfriar's Cemetery (see below for the full story on this), and ended back at the bridge looking at new town. The city is broken into two different sections, both with a completely different feel. Kathleen and I spent 99% of our time in old town. Throughout the tour, Johnney shared tons of amazing and interesting stories.
For you Harry Potter fans, J.K. Rowling wrote the majority of her books in Edinburgh. Johnney took us by the restaurant where she physical wrote them, the cemetery where she got a few of the names (we actually saw Thomas Riddle's grave) and the school that inspired Hogwarts. We also saw the street that inspired Diagon Alley (say diagnolly in a Scottish accent. That's where the name came from!) Come to find out, its the street that Finnegan's Wake is on. There is a seperate Harry Potter tour that you can take, for the super fans.
Back to the tour... My favorite place was Greyfriar's Cemetery. This is where Rowling would walk when she got writers block. The reason I loved it so much was because of the story of the grounds keeper. Greyfriar had a dog, named Bobby, would he owned only 2 years before the owner passed away. He was buried in this cemetery, and everyday for 14 years Bobby laid on his grave. He only left at 1pm (when the cannon's fire from the castle) to go to a neighboring restaurant to get lunch. After 14 years, he passed and is buried around the corner from the cemetery, since animals are not allowed to be buried in the cemetery itself. However, there is a headstone that reads "Let his Loyalty and Devotion be a Lesson to us All." There's tons of information and movies about the dog now. The cemetery had a very historical and cool vibe that I just loved. I guess you can blame my love on my family's profession.
After the tour, Kathleen and I walked around a bit. We ate lunch at this cute little cafe in grassmarket that served delicious paninis and had the most spectacular view of the Castle sitting high on the hill. After lunch, we walked back to our hostel to get a little nap in. When we got back, there were a few other girls in our room. We talked to this one girl named Kelly, who was from Toronto. She was studying abroad in Ireland and decided to travel around Scotland by herself. The more we talked to her the more we liked her. Kathleen and I had both decided in our minds to ask her to come out with us, just when she asked if she could tag along. Great minds think alike! We headed out to dinner at Maggie Dickson's pub. Here's Maggie's story...she had a baby out of wedlock (which was highly illegal back in the 1700s.) The baby died shortly after being born, and she tried to bury it down by the river. The baby was discovered, and traced back to Maggie. She was sentenced to be hanged in the grassmarket area in Edinburgh. She was hanged, and being transported in a carriage. However, the hanging did not kill her. She woke up on the back of the carriage and tapped the driver on the shoulder. She returned to he grassmarket and tapped the man who hanged her on the shoulder as well. Since she was offically dead, they could not rehang her. So she continued to live, even thrive in Edinburgh. She opened a pub (and since she was dead did not have to pay taxes), married, and had many children. She lived another 40 years in Edinburgh. So anyway, the three of ate and drank there for the night. I had pulled pork, KP had nachos, and Kelly had soup (I think?) After Maggie Dickson's, we walked around looking for a place to get a drink. We went to Frankensteins, but Kelly forgot her ID so we had to walk back to the hostel. We did not feel like walking all the way back so we settled for a small hole in he wall right on grassmarket near our hostel. It was loud and filled with obnoxious scottish people. We stayed for one drink, and went on our merry way. Kelly decided to head back since she had a big day ahead of her (she was going on a free tour to the highlands.) Kathleen and I decided to stay out a little bit and walked around grassmarket looking for a place. We settled on a bar called Black Bull. There was a one man scottish band playing guitar. Kathleen and I found two seats at the bar and relaxed. We stayed there for a bit and then decided to go to bed since we had a big hiking day coming up.
The next morning, we woke up to hike Arthur's Seat. This is a hill that is opposite of he castle, right next to the Palace where the Queen stays when she's in Scotland. We began walking, and were halfway up a hill when we decided it was too easy. We turned around and saw the real Arthur's seat. Idiots. So we climbed back down, and started climbing the real Arthur's Seat. It was much harder than we thought, but we made it up in about a half hour. We stopped along the way several times to take pictures and drink water. The view was amazing. You could literally see all of Edinburgh. The downside was it was extremely wet and windy at the top. We could barely stand and were constantly being blown over. We snapped a few pictures and started our descent.
On the way back, we stopped at a small cafe and had sandwiches. They were absolutely delicious and cheap, the best kind of sandwiches. We also awkwardy ran into a couple that was staying in our hostel room, but we did not speak. We finished eating and walked back up the street towards the castle. We did some shopping while we were out, and also walked over to new town for a little. New town had a completely different feeling. It was dirty and congested and not at all what I as expecting. We walked back over to old town and felt at home again. Kathleen and I headed back to the hostel, but made a quick pit stop at the Castle to take some pictures. Once back, we relaxed a bit.
That night, we headed to the City Cafe and had dinner. This was a cute diner that had an American vibe. Our waitress informed us that later that night they were having trivia. We decided to head back to the hostel to see if Kelly was there and come back later to play.
When we got back, Kelly was there, along with Alok (the guy that stole kathleen's bed.) There was also another guy, Michael from Australia, who was currently living in England working as a substitute teacher. We told them about trivia and they all decided to go.
The 5 of us headed back to the cafe and sat at a booth in the back. Our team name was "The Foreigners." We kicked butt on a few of the rounds, especially the Science round, but finished second to last. We had a great time and made new friends.
We headed back to the hostel after trivia and Kathleen and I had to pack. Michael had his guitar there and played some of his originial songs. They were all about his longing to travel when he couldn't when he was in school. Kathleen also played her pickup line song, which everyone loved. We all stayed up talking late into the night. We discovered that Alok was in town for business, which apparently is trading (Michael speculated stocks, KP thought rugs haha) Since Kathleen and I had to get up at 4 in order to catch our bus back to London, we decided to get to bed. We said our goodbyes to everyone and drifted off to sleep.
As soon as our heads hit the pillow, our alarm was going off. We collected our belonging, checked out, and walked to the bus station. We arrived earlier than expected, and we were able to convince the bus driver to let us on the earlier bus. This time, the bus was pretty empty. KP and I both got our own row and settled in for the long drive ahead.
The ride was pretty smooth. The time went by fast except for the last two hours when we were absolutely miserable. I was getting car sick (bus sick?) at this point. We were in central London, so we new we were close to the bus station. Suddenly, there was a crash right below my seat, and our bus collided with a public transporation bus. The other bus had a broken window. The drivers were aruging and exchanging information for quite a while and everyone was getting ansy. KP and I decided to get off the us and walk to he tube station. It was only a few minutes away so we knew we could do it. Wouldn't you know, about 3 minutes into our walk, our bus passed us. Just our luck. Kathleen also almost got hit by a motorcycle during this adventerous walk. We finally made it back to the station and were back on the train heading to Twickenham.
We got back to her dorm around 5 and ate at the ref. I was flying back to Philly the next day so I packed. Kathleen was leaving for Rome and Barcelona the next day so she also had to pack. Kathlee also had a paper due that she had to write. I was sitting in bed when Dan and Nora knocked on the door and invited me to trivia.
The four of us (Haydn came too) headed down to the campus bar to play. We were the only group of Americans and were an easy target. Most of the questions revolved around futbol so the announcer came over and told us the answers haha. We came in second to last, which was better than we were all expecting. When it was finished we headed back to the dorms and fell asleep.
The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast at the ref. Kathleen, Dan, and Nora were all going to Rome and had to go to a different airport than me. We said our goodbyes and I walked to the bus stop. The bus took me directly to the airport. Heathrow is without a doubt the best airport I have flown out of. They really have their act together. I found my gate, boarded, and settled in for another 8 hours on a plane. I sat next to a lovely elderly couple from center city who just returned from Malta. I watched the movie "Place Beyond the Pines" which was pretty good, and fell asleep. I attempted to eat the sandwich they served but it was disgusting. I longed for the cheesecake I had on the flight over.
The flight landed safely in Philly and I made it through customs and immigration in a breeze. Tyler picked me up and we headed back to good ol' Salem County.
The trip was absolutely incredible. I met so many wonderful people from all over the world. It as an adventure I will never forget. Thanks KP for letting me visit and travel around UK with you.