View of Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street Gardens near the train station
With directions from the hostel website in hand, Amanda and I headed out of the station in Edinburgh in search of the Art Roch Hostel. Trusting Amanda's sense of direction since she had been to Edinburgh before we headed off in the direction of the castle. Well apparently Amanda really didn't know where she was going and led us in the opposite direction of the castle. After a few minutes of walking, we headed back to the station to start from the beginning. This time it only took us 10 minutes to find our hostel. The hostel was located in the Grassmarkets and had a great view of the castle once you stepped out of the door. That night there was a "band" playing at the hostel, and I use the term "band" very loosely. It was really just a group of 4 guys who took turns playing the same guitar and singing. For all we know they might've been a band but just didn't want to play together, either way they weren't the best singers/guitar players I've ever heard. There was also a pub crawl that night that had been organized by the hostel so we decided to join in on that. It was only 2 pounds and we got free entrance into 4 bars and a club where we got a free shot. For only being 2 pounds it wasn't bad but definitely not as good as the one in Amsterdam. Edinburgh is apparently a popular place for stag and hen (bachelor and bachelorette) parties as well. We saw several between Friday and Saturday night. A common sight was for the bachelor to dress in a costume as well. We think this is why there was an Oopma Loompa on our pub crawl. I kid you not he had everything from the green hair to the orange skin and bushy white eyebrows and while overalls. I wish I had gotten a picture but I didn't feel like being a super creep.
Vick jersey at one of the pubs we went to
Saturday morning we headed off to go on a free walking tour of the city. It was run by the same company that had done my tour in Amsterdam. The tours really are a great was to see the city. Since the tour guides only work for tips they are usually very energetic and knowledgeable about the city and really trying to make sure you have a good time. Again I was fortunate to have a native. This time it was Andrew from Scotland who was studying Scottish history at the University of Edinburgh. We went mostly stayed on the Royal Mile but strayed off it a few times to see different sites. The Royal Mile, in the Old Town, is an approximately 1 mile long road that stretches from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyrood, the former palace of Mary, Queen of Scots and is also where the Queen Mother stays when she is in Edinburgh. In the middle of the Royal Mile there is an old building where whenever there was news in for the city to hear someone would climb up to the top and call people to gather around to listen. The announcement was always made 3 days after it was official because often times that's how long it took for news to get to Edinburgh. It is still used today and the news is still reported 3 days late. The latest news they had was when Prince William got engaged. Three days after the engagement was announced someone climbed to the top of the tower and called out the news for all to hear (even though everyone had already heard). We didn't go into the castle since Amanda had gone in before and said it was very similar to Warwick in the content it had. Before leaving for Edinburgh Aleese had also told me that for the price going inside wasn't really worth it. We did walk up to the top of the Royal Mile to get an up close view and went into the gift shop.
Edinburgh Castle
There are also lots of ghost stories associated with the city of Edinburgh. One of which was the story of Molly Dickinson who was set to be hanged to death and was. However, while the driver was taking her coffin to her grave he heard movement coming from the coffin. When he opened it Molly Dickinson was awake laying in the coffin and because of double jeopardy she was unable to be hung again since she had been declared dead previously. There is now a pub in the Grassroots named after her! Another story is where 2 men went around Victoria Street killing prostitutes and druggies and sold their bodies to the local medical school for money. They were only caught when they had killed a well known prostitute and one of the medical students recognized her and knew that she had been perfectly healthy the night before. Edinburgh is also home to the original Jekyll and Hyde.
I also continued my tour of Harry Potter sites! First up was the Elephant Cafe where J.K. Rowling penned much of the first 2 books. Edinburgh is also home of George Heriot's school, the school which she modeled her vision of Hogwarts after. Next to the school is the graveyard where J.K. Rowling often went walking through for inspiration for names of characters. Among the names we saw were Thomas Riddle and a McGonagall.
The real Hogwarts
That night we went on a ghost tour which really wasn't all that good. The guide mostly just told us the same stories we'd heard during the day. After the tour though we had a true Edinburgh treat, a deep fried Mars Bar. It really just tasted like a melted Mars Bar (which by the way is just a Milky Way, also here a Milky Way is what we call a 3 Musketeer. This confuses the Aussies very much since technically they're all made by Mars Chocolate. However, after further research the founder of Mars chocolate in the US sent his son to the UK with the Milky Way recipe where he started producing the same bar under the name Mars Bar.) The next day we walked down to the Palace of Holyrood at the end of the Royal Mile. On the way back up we stopped at at vegetarian hot potato shop for Veggie Haggis Baked Potatoes. Haggis is a traditional Scottish food, I never got to try the real thing, but the veggie haggis was really good. The ride home was another 4 hour train ride but I spent most of it sleeping so it wasn't too bad.
Palace of Holyrood
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