This weekend, I finally got to be a tourist in Edinburgh (the capital of Scotland)! I have been to Edinburgh once in late February for a day visit to the National Gallery for my Art History class, but I did not really get to see much of the city. On Friday morning, Alyssa and I left Hillhead at 7:10 to get our 8:10 bus. This was a nice change from the 6:30 buses that we had to catch the previous two weekends. The bus ride to Edinburgh was just over three hours and I got two seats to myself, which was extremely nice. We arrived in Edinburgh just after 11:00 and our search for a bathroom began. We could not find an indoor mall in the whole city so we ended up at Starbucks, where we had access to not only bathrooms but also free WiFi. By the time we finished up at Starbucks, it was time to walk to our accommodation: The Alexander Guest House. There is a super long street that has all of the guest houses and we just followed this street for about 30 minutes until we got to our guest house. Our room was on the first floor and was quite spacious. I had a large bed and there was even a chandelier in the room. Unfortunately, this guest house did not come with breakfast. I really have no complaints about the guest house otherwise.
After settling in and dropping off our bags, we headed back to town to start exploring. Our first stop was Calton Hill, a large hill overlooking Edinburgh that also has the Dugald Stewart Monument. This picture is the "Edinburgh picture" that everyone takes when they visit. Google "Edinburgh" and you will see what I am talking about. I was so excited to capture a good picture up here but the weather was just awful so none of my pictures turned out. (The picture below is from Saturday morning, not Friday) We walked down from Calton Hill, passed by the Scott's Monument and headed up to the Royal Mile. I should nickname this street the Cashmere Mile because every single shop sells Scottish Cashmere. The top of the Royal mile is home to the Edinburgh Castle. We did not go into the castle (tickets were over $20) so we just took pictures from the outside. This castle is not my favorite castle in Scotland that I have seen. From the castle, we walked down to the Grass Market and visited some shops, including the Harry Potter themed ones. Back up from the Royal Mile, we went into St. Giles Church. This Church is absolutely beautiful. I now have a greater appreciation and understanding for churches and cathedrals from this Art History course that I am currently taking. We soon took refuge in clothing stores because of rain. The rain would not stop so we decided to make our way back to the guest house. On our way back, we needed to find breakfast for the next two days. We found a dozen sprinkled donuts at Tesco for only 2 pound 50. What a steal. You cannot get donuts for that cheap back at home. We then stopped at Pizza Hut to get dinner. We enjoyed our pizza in the guest house and then planned our adventures for the next day.
I slept extremely well on Friday night and woke up feeling quite refreshed on Saturday morning. We enjoyed our donuts for breakfast and left the guest house at 8:30. We set off for Arthur's Seat, which is this huge hill/mountain in Edinburgh. This was probably one of the craziest, most adventurous things I have done in my life. The walk up the hill was not too difficult. I was surprised to see how many people run up and down this hill every morning. I was getting out of breath just walking. At some points, there were established paths, and then other parts, we needed to just climb up rocks and hope that they would not fall underneath us. Climbing up to the peak of the hill was quite difficult because the wind was absolutely brutal. I was getting blown around and did not feel steady at all. When reaching the peak, I was holding onto the marker for dear life. I have never experienced such strong winds. Going back down the hill was the scariest because of the wind. I thought for sure that I was going to fall but I didn't. The scenery from Arthur's Seat was simply incredible. This was a great way to start the morning.
From Arthur's Seat, we went to Hollyrood Palace and Abbey. We did not get to see much since you had to pay to get in. We ended up at Starbucks next for a bathroom break and to warm ourselves up. Leaving Starbucks, we went back to Calton Hill to capture the picture above since the weather was so nice. We then went to Dean's Village which was on the outer edge of Edinburgh, near the river. The scenery down here was beautiful and the architecture of the houses felt very German-like. From Dean's Village, we went to Stewart Mellvile College, which is a preparatory school for girls and boys. We had passed this school on our way in to Edinburgh and I was amazed by the austerity of the building. This school was prettier than any castle I have seen. It is crazy to me that students go to school here on a regular basis. While walking to and from Dean's Village, we ran into a bunch of sport fans. I am not sure if the game was rugby or football, but there was obviously a big game between Scotland and Wales. Everyone was decked out in their scarves and jerseys and there was obviously a strong rivalry between the two countries. We had Subway for lunch and then went back to the guest house because we were tired and it was beginning to rain. We had an hour rest and then headed to the train station for our next adventures of the day.
We took a 50 minute train ride from Edinburgh to Stirling. We only had an hour in Stirling, so we literally ran up to the castle, took pictures, and then ran back to the train station to catch our train to Falkirk. This tight time schedule is because of the Kelpies. The Kelpies are these magnificent, large horse head sculptures deigned by Andy Scott. We wanted to be able to see the Kelpies in the daylight and at night time. However, the walk from the train station to the Kelpies was 40 minutes. The sun was to set at 6:03 and that was our estimated time of arrival at the Kelpies according to Google Maps. We played our little game and raced Google Maps, arriving at the Kelpies at 5:53, beating the estimated time of arrival by 10 minutes. We were able to get some pictures in the daylight, but the sun was setting quickly. We walked 40 minutes back to town to get some dinner. I got fish & chips and it tasted amazing. We thought that we would have enough time to walk back to the Kelpes to photograph them at night but it would be physically impossible to accomplish this and catch our train at 8:08 back to Edinburgh. We ended up calling a taxi, which then took us to and from the Kelpies just so we could see them lit up in the dark. This was hectic but was worth it. We made it back in Edinburgh, walked back to the guest house and then went to sleep. We did over 41,000 steps that day.
On Sunday, I woke up, showered and ate breakfast. I did not sleep as well as the night before and was feeling tired still. It was raining the entire morning so we stayed in the guest house until 10:00. We checked out and headed to Starbucks. We planned a bit of our Spring Break Part 2 trip in May. We finally got our final exam schedules so we were able to plan a trip! We will be going to Malaga, Spain, then to Marrakech, Morocco, then to Vienna, Austria, then to Cyprus and back to Aberdeen. I am super excited for this trip! Throughout the previous two days in Edinburgh, we had visited everything that we wanted to see. The only place left on our list was the University of Edinburgh. We left Starbucks and headed there. The wind was horrible and blew my umbrella inside-out multiple times. We snapped a few pics of the Uni and then went to Subway for lunch, taking refuge again because of the awful weather. After Subway, we went to a bakery to get a cupcake. The cupcake was very expensive and was not good at all. We then went to another Starbucks and spent the remainder of the day here. The weather was just too bad to be out exploring and we had nothing to do anyways. We planned some more of our Spring Break Part 2 Trip. I had Subway cookies and a banana for dinner and then went to the bus station to get my bus back to Aberdeen. I did not arrive back in Aberdeen until 11:30. I was tired and exhausted. Overall, I really enjoyed Edinburgh. The city is beautiful and there is a lot to see. The weather could have been much nicer but I am grateful for the experiences that I had.
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