the adventures of pinkaholic girl

Edinburgh

I left the comfortable surrounds of London for a gruelling 10 hour National Express bus to Edinburgh, and only just made it before it left Victoria coach station (due to my poor planning, and sleeping in just a wee bit too much). I slept most of the way and daydreamed out the window - honestly, there's not much else you can do. It was cheap, but if I had the option (i.e. was not travelling spur of the moment) I'd definitely go via train or fly.

The bus passed through Alnwick, a gorgeous little town just north of Newcastle that reminded me of Bath with all its Georgian stone dwellings. I later found out it's also the home of Alnwick Castle, otherwise known as Hogwarts from Harry Potter. Now I want to go back and visit :)

I arrived in Edinburgh at 7:30 and stumbled upon my hostel quite by accident. I'm glad I did, because otherwise it would have been very difficult to find... the hostel is very plain, no locks on doors, but on the plus side the dorms are small.

I withdrew a whole bunch of Scottish pounds from the ATM, not realising they were going to be different to the ones in England. They're still the same 'stirling', but the notes are issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and apparently people look at you very funny if you try to use them in London, or so the nice lady at the hostel informed me. It was not comforting news. I immediately began a campaign to use a note to pay for things wherever possible, and resolved that if I ever got change in English pounds I should keep the note instead of spending it again :p

I went for a quick wander around town after I checked in. Edinburgh is a beautiful city, at night the castle and other historic buildings are lit up. They would make lovely photographs if it were not raining.

My hostel had run out of maps of the city, and since I had not brought one with me (what crazy hostel doesn't provide a map of the city?) the guy behind the desk lent me his Lonely Planet for a couple of days, which was really nice.

Anyway, next day I had a leisurely sleep in and breakfast. It did wonders. I started the day with the free Haggis walking tour, which is recommended because it is FREE and the guides are all terribly scottish and fun. Edinburgh is very easy to explore by foot, so we got a lot of information about local sights.

In the afternoon I visited Edinburgh Castle, and even though it's expensive, it's well worth it, especially hiring the audioguide if you like history. The castle is very big and imposing, and full of history. There are war memorials and museums inside the castle grounds. The Scottish crown jewels are also on display, as well as the Stone of Destiny, which is a stone that all Scottish kings have been crowned on for, like, a thousand years (I don't remember the actual figure, but I'm not exaggerating by far). The English stole it and embedded in their coronation throne for 400 years - it's only just recently been returned, and will be again shipped to Westminster Abbey for the coronation ceremony when Charles or William takes the throne. They also provide a lot of information on Mary, Queen of Scots and her son James VI who eventually became James I, King of England. I'm pretty sure my mum would love the place.

After the castle I headed to Calton point on the opposite side of Edinburgh (the 'new' town) which has a nice vantage point over the city. There's an observatory, a half-built parthenon and a nice view of Arthur's seat which is a great big cliff that sits in the middle of the city.

The weather was very dramatic, lots of clouds and wind. It drizzled pretty much all day, continuing my spell of bringing the rain with me. I also ran into more Australians today, and I'm beginning to think we're like a disease. We're everywhere! I feel a bit ashamed about our abundance.

I went to Bar Trivia with some people from the tour, and we felt really stupid. While it purported to be 'general' knowledge, there were a lot of English or Scottish-centric questions which we had no hope of answering. But, at least we didn't come last. And we got free pizza.

random moment: I heard JXL's version of A Little Less Conversation in a shop today and I started picturing the DDR steps in my head. Does that make me more of a nerd, or a loser (or both)?

posted by d @ 6:41 pm