Adventures in Edinburgh

Thankfully (mercifully) tutorials have at last come to an end, and because I have my flat until December 14, I can spend the rest of the term traveling! In my effort to hit every country in the UK, the next stop on my list after Ireland was Scotland! To celebrate the end of term, Torey, Kathryn, Brett, Mickey, Clair, Dylan and I all planned a weekend jaunt to Edinburgh together. After an exhausting 10 hour bus ride from Oxford (the bus being the most economical option, but not the most comfortable one), we had arrived. And so our adventures began.

Our friend Kevin surprised us at the bus station – he had just completed his internship in Dublin, and he met up with us in Edinburgh. He had already been there for a few days, and knew where our hostel was. He helped us navigate towards our check-in point, and then we immediately started sightseeing. First, we headed to the Castle.

The Edinburgh Castle

We walked the Royal Mile (the distance from the Castle to Parliament), to the tune of (valiant) bagpipes!

Does it get any more Scottish than hearing bagpipes on the Royal Mile?

Parliament

When we walked past Parliament, we were overwhelmed by the sight of a giant mountain. Kevin explained to us that at the top was Arthur’s Seat, a national landmark. It was an 822 foot climb to the top…and though we were all exhausted after our epic bus ride, we thought, why not? Let’s climb it!

If this mountain looks familiar, that's because it's the same mountain they climb in Chariots of Fire!

The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking (literally – I was out of breath by the time I reached the top). But we could see all of Edinburgh from up there, and it was worth the hike! On the way back down, we sang songs from the Sound of Music (because the eight of us all felt very much like the Von Trapp children). I still can’t get ‘Adel Vice’ out of my head…

Arthur's Seat - on top of the world

We stopped for a spot of lunch and a brief respite at our hostel, before going to mass at St Mary’s parish (it’s Advent, after all!) We got caught in a Scottish ice storm after mass, and dodged in and out of pubs until Brett finally found a winner for dinner!

The next morning, we went to find ‘The Elephant House’ – the famous coffee shop where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series.

Behind the shop is an historic graveyard, where Rowling used the names on a few of the headstones for the names of her characters in the books! We found the stones of McGonagall, Moody, and Tom Riddle! 

Greyfriar's graveyard, where JK Rowling borrowed
names for her characters in Harry Potter! (Slightly creepy?)

It had just snowed that morning, (did you know that Edinburgh is the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska? Yea, it was THAT cold!), so after searching the graveyard for a while, we were ready to warm up in the coffee shop. We all ordered coffees and teas, and sat inside, mesmerized by the JK-Rowling glow that colored every aspect of the shop. In the bathroom, fans had scrawled messages of gratitude to the author. There were also secret compartments in the table, with letters from adoring fans to future patrons of the shop…we wrote a few replies.

We solemnly swear, we were up to no good

When we were thawed through again, we braved the cold Scottish weather to do a little souvenir shopping. The boys shopped for Scotch, we all wanted tartan plaid scarves, and I wanted an ornament as well. After splitting up for a bit, we came together at the chocolate shop to sample some whisky fudge!

After taking in some culture at the National Gallery, we headed over to the city Christmas festival for a bit, and watched the ice skaters. We recapped the week and agreed that the trip was a success!

The Christmas Fair in Edinburgh