Wednesday, February 29, 2012

We Fell in Love in a Hopeless Place: Edinburgh, Scotland


If I wasn't already a random traveling mess, Scotland sealed the deal. For the first stop on my first ten-day break I went to Edinburgh, Scotland, which set the bar very high as my favorite city. To make things even more random, I was there for less than 24 hours! To prepare for my ten-day adventure, I managed to stuff as many sweaters and socks as I possibly could into my backpack... and then managed to stuff my backpack into those tiny metal cages that the evil airport workers actually enforce the measurement limits on (which is what I get for buying an $11 plane ticket.) Personally, I believe they are an evil cult because they managed to single me out in every airport I flew out of on my trip. I am a professional packer, however, I have absolutely no muscles in my upper body and they would watch me use my entire body weight to shove my backpack in and out of their torture devices. Obviously, I defeated their corrupt system, but can someone help a sister out before I throw out my back?

Gothic!
I digress. After we passed security and boarded our flight I noticed many different things about flying on a budget internationally. They strip the planes of all seat pockets, legroom, and neck pillows and insert advertising everywhere possible. Also, if you fly Ryan Air they are sweet enough to play celebration trumpets every time you land. I find this a bit unnerving, and imagine them playing horror music if the plane goes down, but lets not think like that. I was in charge of booking the hostel in Edinburg for one night, so I figured what better time to go economic? The hostel cost 11 Euro a night and looked great in pictures, and probably would have been had the seven of us not been in a sixteen person dorm with smelly French people.

I am obsessed with the zoom on my camera
** Note: I am not saying the French people as a whole are smelly, I am saying that we rolled up to the hostel and our roommates had dreadlocks and the room smelled like body odor. Hygiene was not a person priority for them. I do not judge them harshly on this, because by the end of my trip... well you'll see how it turns out.

We arrived in Edinburg around one in the afternoon and it was like walking into cultural mayhem. I thought it was funny how every hostel I looked at seemed to be booked up on the day we arrived. Little did we know we arrived on one of the most important days to the Scottish people, rugby game day. The energy on the street was insane people were everywhere wearing their scarves, obscure fan gear, and of course KILTS! There were kilts EVERYWHERE. It was awesome! Also, the men in Scotland are absolutely huge, never have I seen such large calves come out of a skirt. Even luckier for us the day we were there was the Scotland vs. England match, so we were really getting the full UK experience!




SO green!
Pretty


I found this hilarious... want to see the monster? Definitely not mature


This bagpipe player was shredding it on the corner!

Hehe




Instantly our game plan changed and we were so pumped to experience a real rugby game in a real pub. However, the match did not start until five, so we had to cram in all the sights of Scotland into about two or three hours. Also, we had to wake up the next morning at seven to catch out flight to Dublin. Go hard or go home ladies and gents, you only live once!
Honest Abe honoring the Scottish American soilders

Luckily, we happened to have The Brice Moon in our group who is character, but has the gift of being an excellent impromptu tour guide. He led us on a hike all over Edinburgh and I can honestly say that afterwards I felt complete in my tourist duties. We saw the Edinburgh Castle, Arthur's seat, the Royal Mile, St. Giles Cathedral, St. Mary's Cathedral, the parish of St. Cuthbert, a cemetery with a statue of Abraham Lincoln, two weddings, the Scott Monument, and Princes Street. Not too shabby and we got in a mean power hike (with the help of my lovely sponsored Sorel snow boots, thank you Mother.)I loved Arthur's seat the most, it is a 251m high extinct volcano that sits in the middle of Edinburgh.

Arthur's Seat unfinished pillars
A fun fact about Edinburgh is that it is called the Athens of the north, they attempted to build a Parthenon like structure there, but ran out of funds, and so now random columns just sit on the top of the hill. I saw my first gothic cathedrals in Edinburgh that were absolutely stunning. I always considered myself a baroque fan. I love the over the top glimmering intricate churches, but the dark grantor of St. Mary's was truly beautiful.
St. Giles... or St. Mary's not 100% sure about this one
St. Mary's

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