Edinburgh, I'm Yours

Sean, Emily and I left for Edinburgh on Saturday morning at 7:55 a.m.! It was about a 4-hour train ride. When I wasn't trying to sleep, I saw lots of rolling green hills, sheep, horses, and even the ocean and its rocky beaches out the window! Absolutely beautiful.

We got to the city and checked into our hostel, Princes St. East Backpackers. The best thing about the hostel was its location: five minutes from the train station and about ten from the main street of the city. The second-best thing was the decor: cartoon characters, mermaids, and cool designs were hand-painted all over the walls. But most impressive to me were the bathrooms, which are definitely cleaner than Earlham's bathrooms! Emily and I threw our bags into our 6-person room, and the three of us headed out to find lunch.

After eating a great lunch in a pub in town, Emily and I went to Edinburgh Castle (Sean didn't go because he's been before and the tickets are 12 pounds). After waiting about 45 minutes in line, we saw Scotland's crown jewels, which aren't as impressive as Britain's but definitely still worth seeing. We also went into the room where Mary Queen of Scots was born, and into a chapel dedicated to the life of Queen Margaret. The chapel was built in 1130 so it's pretty amazing that it's still standing. We also marveled at the 70-million-year-old rock which made up part of one wall of the castle.

We ate dinner at a Pizza Express and spent the rest of the night pubbing and bar-hopping. I hardly ever drink whiskey, but I tried some and actually did like it (but it was probably better quality... it is Scotland, after all).

On Sunday morning, Emily, Sean and I got crepes for breakfast, then Sean got a train home. Emily and I had some time to kill before our walking tour at 1:00 p.m., so we decided to go to the Camera Obscura, which has been in Edinburgh since the mid-1800's. I still don't really get how it works... I just know that it's a mirror that tilts on an antenna, and lenses transfer the image to a convex screen, so that you can see everything within a mile or so radius from the camera's location.

At 1:00, Emily and I met a group for a free walking tour. Our guide was really funny. He basically told us about some of the lesser-known oddities of Edinburgh, including "the dirtiest spot in Edinburgh" (where the tax office used to be located, there's a heart made of bricks where people used to spit), and an awful, out of proprotion statue of an old Scottish leader in Roman garb. He also told us a few stories of famous murderers. The tour was supposed to last for 3 hours, but we left after about two, as it was really windy and freezing. We grabbed lunch at a really cute restaraunt that I think was called Maxine's, where I got a traditional Edinburgh draft beer and an enchilada. After lunch, we went into a tartan store to do a little shopping. One side of Emily's family was Scottish, so we looked for things labeled "MacBean" and asked an expert about the history of the name. He also looked up "Ogle" even though it's traditionally British and told me that it had its origins around the 1300's, when Richard II was king. After we finished shopping, Emily and I went to a cute coffee shop for some spiked hot chocolates. Then we went back to the hostel, grabbed our bags, and caught our train for another 5-hour journey. All in all it was a great weekend!!

I'll update soon with 21st birthday celebration stories. With so many things going on in the past couple of weeks, I've been really behind on this blog...

Cheers,
Rebecca