We arrived to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, around 1 pm on Wednesday and went straight to our hostel to leave our bags there so we could start exploring immediately. Then began the long walk to the Edinburgh Castle... the long UPHILL walk. Please bear with me as I try to keep the complaining to a minimum, but in all fairness I don't think I've walked that much, that uphill, for that long (over the course of the 3 days I was there) in I can't remember when. ANYways, the Castle was probably my favorite part. It was built on an old volcano so it is one of the highest points in Edinburgh, the view is absolutely amazing.
This picture is from a higher level of the castle so you can see a part of the castle, the lookout over Edinburgh, and the ocean in the distance. At this castle is where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to King James VI&I. There is so much more history to this place but I was pretty much overloaded with so much information I can barely keep it straight. After the castle we walked down and went to the Scottish National Art Gallery for a while then back to the hostel.
Hostels- theres an interesting topic. The one my class visited was very nice but there are indeed questionable hostels in Europe. Lucky for me my roommate does a thorough back ground check on hostels for our travels. A typical hostel room hosts 4 or 8 people furnished with bunk beds, a cupboard for belongings, a separate shower stall, and a toilet room. Unless you book your hostel with friends, you are subject to rooming with strangers. It's a lot cheaper than a hotel and not a bad experience though I've only been to one, so I'll have to keep you updated on the subject.
The second day we visited the Scottish Parliament building and watched a live debate on regeneration. The debate was interesting enough... but I'll admit my favorite part of it was listening to the awesome Scottish accents the whole time. After that we met a former Scottish politician who enlightened us with his Labor Party and Scottish National Party experiences (two of the main parties in Scottish government) in which the main topic was the subject of Scottish independence from England. Which is so conveniently the topic of a paper that is due next week. Then (I know you're all enjoying my play by play) we visited the Royal College of Surgeons where a lot of the information we know today in terms of surgery came from. But it wasn't by fair play. What I mean by this is we learned about the famous "body snatchers" or "grave diggers" who would steal bodies from graves and sell them to people of this school so they could use the cadavers to practice and learn. There was even cases of people being murdered so others could practice on them. Dirty business if I do say so myself. But honestly, I found most of the museum quite disgusting (with the displays of body parts and deformed skeletons) so I stuck to the corner about Author Sir Arther Conan Doyle who wrote the adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Edinburgh itself. Arther Conan Doyle attended this college of surgeons where he met, and based his amazingly observant main character Holmes on, Joseph Bell. The history behind Sherlock Holmes is quite interesting and much more my taste compared to body parts and needles lurking around every other corner of the muse. We listened to a man lecture us on more English history (which I cannot even recall at this point because it was massive overload type lecture) after our visit to the College of Surgeons.
Now that was a full day. Me and my roommates decided, after we were free to do our own thing, to......... wait for it........ do nothing other than.......... take a nap! It was 7:30 by the time we ate dinner and settled down and we all figured we would take a couple hours to unwind from the 8 hours of education we just endured, then go out for a night on the town! I'd rather not dwell on the subject because it still upsets me to think about it, so I'll just tell you we didn't wake up from our "nap" until 12:30 am. That puts a damper on a night. Needless to say, I didn't paint the town red like I had originally planned. Friday morning we walked more hills and scaled the town once more but we saw the unfinished National Monument as well as a cemetery where I saw this lovely monument-
-honoring Scottish American soldiers that died in the civil war. And it was only after these endeavors, and many more, that our trip came to an end and it was time to pack up and head out. I was sad to leave, Edinburgh was beautiful and the people were very nice. I even had the pleasure of being complimented on my smile and at one point called gorgeous so the city treated me well while I was visiting. I can't tell if I'm in love with the town or if it's just a crush that will fade once I meet Ireland :) Either way, it's a place I would love to come back and visit again someday. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in Scotland.
Although I feel like I've been babbling about what I did, then after that, then after that, then after that etc. I hope you all enjoyed reading about the history I learned and the sleep I unfortunately got caught up on and my favorite parts of this amazing city. I miss you all and I hope you all miss me!!! (Oh and this is me in front of the Edinburgh Castle.)
-PRINCESS KYRA:)
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