european chronicles- edinburgh, scotland

Sorry for the long pause! I was traveling again, but this time for a wedding!! And now I’m back in Oregon and working on some exciting projects… but more of that later. For now, its back to the travel journal-

After a long and horribly stressful goodbye to Paris, we had about 1 week left together and so our next stop was Scotland!  The start to this trip was really tough- leaving Paris basically included last minute packing and cleaning, a hangover, taking all of our luggage from the whole trip down 4 flights of narrow stairs to sit in the rain to try <and fail> to catch a cab to ship our giant luggage home, then horrible traffic, and a missed flight.  When we found out how expensive shipping luggage back to the US is, about half of my clothes and remaining toiletries went directly to the dumpster to clear up some space/weight. Everything was just a logistical and physical nightmare.  So technically our last night in Paris was at a Best Western, and our last Parisian meal was Pizza Hut. We were sad and disappointed to leave Paris on such despairing terms, but still really excited about the next adventure… and grateful that our problems could be quickly and easily solved with money.  And I’m not saying that because I have a lot of money… I do not. Especially at this point of the trip :) but one of my family’s favorite quotes/pearls of wisdom passed down from my great-grandmother is that problems that can be easily solved with money are not problems at all. And when you’re on a grand adventure through Europe with one of your best friends, it is time to see the bigger picture and be really grateful. We were determined to not let this spoil our journey. I’m going to be honest, though, it was rough. And then on our flight, the pilot got on the speaker to warn a passenger that was being defiant, and threatened to land the plane. It was a little startling but entertaining to see everyone’s heads pop up to look for the culprit <an ornery old man>. Then after that, we missed our bus stop to our hostel. Per usual. Off to a great start!

{ugh.}

Anyway, we had planned on splitting our time between Edinburgh and Glasgow, but since we missed our flight and lost 1 full day in Scotland, we had to rearrange our trip a bit. Also, we found out that the New Zealand All Blacks were in town to play Scotland’s rugby team, and we thought it would be fun to stick around for the game. So Glasgow quickly got sacrificed… mostly for the sake of our sanity. But also for rugby.    

We made our way into town and tried to go to the Edinburgh Castle. The ticket lady warned us that is was an hour till closing so we postponed our Castle tour for the next day. Failed castle attempt #1. I had read somewhere that there was a school in town that was J.K. Rowling’s inspiration for Hogwarts so we asked a castle guard for directions. He was brilliant! He told us all about the school and where it is, and where to go for the best view of it. He also told us to go to this little café where Rowling wrote most of the Harry Potter books, and several other tips for our very own self-guided HP themed tour. So we walked around a little bit and went to the café, then to the cemetery that has a great view of Hogwarts (technically called George Heriot’s School). We really geeked out about this, and I am not ashamed.

{in case you can't see, that sign says "birthplace of harry potter"}

{happened upon this gorgeous church}

{hogwarts from the cemetery walls}

{magical}

The cemetery, Greyfriar's Bobby, is also a popular, artsy hangout and has graves for a McGonagall and Tom Riddle (more HP trivia!). We wandered around the cemetery until it started getting pretty creepy. We used the flashlight app from my phone to get around, which incidentally looked like a lumos spell. So much nerdy fun. We got really spooked and decided to move on.  Later that weekend, we found out that the cemetery is haunted by a notorious poltergeist. Oops.  

{lumos!! but also, look at the sky! how did we not notice it was haunted?!}

{yikes!}

After escaping unharmed by the ghost, we went on a pub crawl. We experienced our first jager train, which is super cool. We met some kids that were from all over and studying abroad in Edinburgh and they were hilarious. They probably thought we were so old, but whatever. One taught me some kind of waltz, which was basically just a lot of twirling. We had another epic sing-a-long, this time to Kings of Leon, went to a Frankenstein themed bar, and raced paper airplanes down the street.

{i'm not sure how we got through college without learning about these!
there are jager train vids on youtube if you're just as curious as we were}

{twirling! i mean, who dances like this anymore? come on gentlemen, let's bring it back!}

The next day we took a tour of an underground “close” or alleyway. Apparently at some point, royalty decided to just build a new city on top of the old one, and this particular alley is still fairly preserved. We were way too tired for the walking tour of a muggy, underground alley that is supposedly haunted. After that, we walked to the castle for some fresh air. We had made reservations for the tour the day before, but then decided we were too tired. Failed castle attempt #2. So we went next door to a tartan weaving mill that was really cool! I wanted to buy a big tartan blanket, but settled for a tie for my dad since my luggage situation was already pretty full.

{tartan weaving factory}

After we recovered a bit more, we made our way to a pub on the same street as the rugby arena and watched the match from there since last-minute tickets were too expensive. The All Blacks won and men in kilts came pouring into the pub! We made new friends that we could barely understand. Scottish accents are so strong! At some points, I swear they weren’t speaking English. This crew plays rugby together so we got to ask them all sorts of questions like “how many concussions have you had?”… apparently, too many to count. We also thought it was funny that they think soccer players are divas and American-football players are pretty cool. We also asked them if we could only have 1 meal in Scotland, what would it be? “Haggis!” They wouldn’t tell us what it is, but told us where we could get some and took us to a place nearby. We tried it, and decided we didn’t like it. And then googled it and felt so sick. I actually think it was the exhaustion that was finally setting in, but I’m still going to blame the haggis. We went to bed at 9:30 pm for probably the first time of the trip.

{enjoying a beer and rugby}

So on our last day in Edinburgh, we finally made it to the castle! It was okay, but my favorite part was actually the view from it. You could see all of Old Town and clear across to King Arthur’s seat, which had a beautiful rainbow that day! And we went back to the cemetery to see it when it wasn't quite as spooky. 

{view of old town from the castle walls... and there is hogwarts again!}

{gorgeous view from the castle}

{greyfriars in daylight}

In conclusion, I loved Edinburgh! The whole town was very quaint and I loved all the Harry Potter references! But yet again, the best part was the wonderful people we met along the way. That, and moments like hearing "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes by a kilted street performer in front of the castle.  I wish we could have had more time to visit Glasgow or the Highlands, but we had to make our way to the airport for our last stop together- Amsterdam!