Rambling About Europe: Edinburgh

I left London pretty early on the morning of September 10th to head to Edinburgh, Scotland. Originally, I had entertained the thought of staying awake to see the countryside as I travelled through the UK. So I ate some of my glorious cereal and took in the view. (I also watched the man who sat across the aisle from me on the train who easily had three beers between 7:00 and 7:30am.) Anyway, after 30 minutes of pasture after pasture, I thought better of staying awake. After all, the train ride was something like four-and-a-half hours.

Of course, sleeping on a train is hardly sleeping at all. I would contort myself into a new uncomfortable position every 30 minutes to try to get comfortable. But during one of the many times that I woke up, we were just pulling out of a station in Durham, England. I wish that I had been fast enough to grab my camera; it was one of the more beautiful scenes that I saw on my trip. A fantastic Normal cathedral and a castle stand tall above this picturesque little English town. Here is a picture from the internet, but I can’t seem to find one that replicates the view from the train tracks. It was an awesome site to wake up to. But we pulled away 30 seconds later, so I may as well go back to sleep, right?

I eventually arrived in Edinburgh around lunch time and started to walk to my hostel. Cue torrential rain. At least I had my jacket this time. Rain or no rain, I had a lot to see today in Edinburgh, so I had to check my bag and head back out. I seriously considered buying an umbrella, but I didn’t want to lug it around, so I put it back on the shelf and kept walking. I’m glad that I did because it stopped raining three minutes later.

The Scottish people were just as you would imagine them. Everyone looked a bit more tough and rugged – including the women. Sorry, ladies. It matched their heavy accents, though. And they were all very nice. The Scottish were a friendly people.

Edinburgh Castle sits atop the hierarchy of Scottish tourist attractions, so that’s where I decided to start. The castle is located high up on crags in the middle of the city, so it’s pretty hard to miss, and it looks incredible from down in the city.

The price of admission was somewhat steep, but so was everything in London and Edinburgh. At least admission included a “free” guided tour. I’d prefer a cheaper ticket and a paid tour that I could skip, but they no doubt know that. This may have been the only guided tour that I signed up for throughout my whole trip, but our guide was very informative and even somewhat entertaining in a cheesey, tour-guide-jokes kind of way.

The castle was the absolute opposite of the one that I visited in Lisbon. The Scotts had done a lot of renovations. In fact, parts of it were almost too touristy. (The prisoners’ chambers played background noises of captives chatting and whistling and had fake prisoners lying in hammocks.) It was still really cool to see though (it houses the Scottish crown jewels as well), and you could tell that the Scottish are very proud of it. The Scottish seem very proud of every aspect of their history, actually.

The Scotts also really play into the tourism. There are tourist shops everywhere where you can buy kilts, whiskey, and bagpipe music. Outside of the castle, there was even a man dressed up William-Wallace style trying to lure people into taking pictures with him. He did make me laugh out loud as he shouted in his heavy accent: “Pictures! Take yer picture here! Do i’ fer freedum! Do i’ fer Scottlun! Do I’ fer yer Faceboook!”

I left the castle and meandered straight through town along the Royal Mile toward Scottish Parliament and the Palace of Holyrood. On my way, I peeked into St. Giles Cathedral (27) – which had a distinctly Scottish feel to it for some reason that I couldn’t explain. It could have just been the weather, I suppose.

I also stopped by Greyfriar’s Kirkyard –which is, apparently, a haunted cemetery. It seemed like a must considering how enthusiastic Edinburgh was about witches and ghosts. There are advertisements for haunted night tours and other spooky experiences all over town, and Edinburgh claims to be home to some of the most heavily haunted spots in the world, scientifically… somehow. I was told that people have been buried in Greyfriar’s Kirkyard for five hundred years, and one woman claimed that there were more people buried there than living in Edinburgh “because it is very deep.” I’m not sure that’s true, but it is bizarre at least. Anyway, I saw a grand total of zero ghosts. I was there during the day, so the ghosts must have been sleeping.

Next was Scottish Parliament – which is a ridiculous looking building. It’s supposed to be modern architecture, but it looks more like a play zone at a Burger King. It doesn’t exactly inspire respect. (It looks even worse in person than in this picture.)

And then on the complete opposite end of the spectrum is the Palace of Holyrood – one of her Majesty the Queen’s favorite residences. The palace is closed when the Queen is in town. Apparently, she still stays there often and holds various ceremonies and receptions there. Since she wasn’t in, I decided to take the tour. Actually, Scotland just overcharged me at the entrance and included another “free” audio tour. Greedy little buggers. It was different than many other palaces I had seen. It wasn’t quite as ornate, and it had a lot more wood and earthy colors. It was kind of like the winter cabin of palaces. There is also a ruined old cathedral attached on one side that has never been restored. I’m not sure why, but it looks really cool the way it stands now. And of course, per usual, I couldn’t take (many) pictures.

After the palace, I looped around town the long way to get some cool shots of the castle on high.

In the distance, I could see Arthur’s Seat – which is a high point atop crags that has a few legendary and likely fictional connections to King Arthur. It’s supposed to provide a great view of the city, but the weather wasn’t nice enough for me to want to climb it. And I had already walked a lot that day, so I just headed back to my hostel to look up a good place to eat.

By “good place to eat” I meant a place that would serve me haggis. As you likely have noticed, I’ve made a habit of trying the local cuisine at each stop along my trip, and since Scotland is known for its unusual delicacies, I was determined to try them. But haggis is not for the faint of heart. It’s a kind of meatloaf or sausage that contains sheep’s heart, liver, and lungs and is traditionally simmered in sheep’s stomach as it’s cooked.

So I strolled through night-time Edinburgh to my little pub where I sat at a table for one and ordered haggis, tatties (mashed potatoes), and neeps (mashed rutabaga) with a side of black pudding (a sausage made from animal blood (I know; I went all in)).

I was entirely prepared to eat a few bites, call it a night, and get some MacDonald’s on the way home. But I was pleasantly surprised. I ate it all (except the potatoes of course. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I don’t like potatoes. I’m not that adventurous). The haggis tasted like a differently spiced meatloaf, and it was good. The black pudding was better than good; it was delicious. It came in the form of a cake – kind of like a brownie, and it tasted sweet – almost like gingerbread. I know it’s hard to believe so here is a picture of my empty plate:

After my dinner adventure, I walked back to the hostel and called it a night. I was pretty tired, and that made the 3am fire alarm even more surprising. We all had to leave the hostel… in our bed clothes… in the rain. Thanks for that. The Scottish firemen let us back in within 30 minutes at least.

And the next day, I was at the Edinburgh airport preparing to fly back to the continent on my least favorite airline – RyanAir. Last time that I flew with them, in 2005, they were very unfriendly, and I had to spend an impromptu night in the airport on their account… before they lost my luggage for a ten-day trip. But they are cheap, and so am I. So I forgave them. And since I knew them well this time, everything went just fine for me. But I did watch as their strict rules got various other travelers in trouble.

One woman was particularly entertaining. The employee at the gate had told her that her carry-on would be too large and that she would have to pay to check it. This did not go over well. The employee then demonstrated how the bag would not fit into the “Must Be This Size” display thing. The woman responded with “the hell it doesn’t.” With three swift stomps, the bag fit into the display. She was very proud, but she did not think that through. The first time that she tried to pull the bag out of the display, the display came off the ground. I held back a chuckle. Then she stood on it and tried pull her bag out. She fell to the ground. I burst out laughing but quickly covered my mouth. Various people tried to help her, and for the next ten minutes that bag was like the sword in the stone. It was some of the best people watching I have ever seen. I left Edinburgh laughing so hard that I was fighting back tears.

For whatever reason, I wasn’t expecting to like Edinburgh. But I was really impressed. Edinburgh is a nice size – not truly a big city but definitely big enough. And it’s a beautiful place as well. It seems very clean, and since the whole place is made of gray and brown stones, it’s a handsome place when it rains. I definitely could have spent a whole weekend there if I had more time. I recommend it.