THIS is a city I would live in, in a heartbeat!! Simply stunning (so much history, gorgeous architecture and FREE museums)
& for you Harry Potter fans this is where J.K. Rowling was inspired to write her beloved Wizard tales. Alana (my backpacking buddy/best friend/partner in adventure) LOVES Harry Potter, I like them but, she's read all the books and has a wand and everything..so she was ecstatic to say the least.
This city is the perfect example of old roman and Gothic architecture, with the castle and Calton Hill it was easy to forget that what you were seeing was actually REAL and of course the intriguing history and other natural landscapes such as Arthur's seat (which we hiked) was magic!
We stayed at Budget Backpackers near the famous Grass Market and Greyfriar's Kirkyard cemetery (where J.K. Rowling retrieved some names for Harry Potter! Which we saw). This cemetery is also home to some wicked ghost tours and a dark history in itself, allegedly with thousands of bodies buried within the grounds without tombstones due to the black death/plague that wracked Europe).
Just a man and his kilt #soscottish #amazing
Our hostel was great and super cheap! We booked a few days in advance for about 8 euros.8.EUROS. a night. It was clean, had a great location and free pub crawls and walking tours around the city, PLUS we met some great people (& *takes breath* every bed has a charger!! what?! It was fabulous-you won't be so lucky in most hostels). We heard about it due to our Australian, Ben, that we met in Dublin. And we are very happy we went with his advice.
We had come to Edinburgh from Stirling and Glen Brittle (Isle of Skye) and having hiked in the rain I was sick but it didn't stop me (almost) from climbing Arthur's Seat. And what a trek! It was rather foggy that day so we couldn't make out a crisp Edinburgh city but it was so worth it, you are so high on Arthur's seat and you do see most things. If you do this (and you should!) be sure to wear GOOD shoes, going down (we took a different way on another side) I was basically surfing dirt! Not too fun when you're fearing for your mortality, it's steep. The soles of my sneakers were not good enough and we all definitely had to take our time going down to not have that happen too often. Luckily, we were with awesome men, Bruce from South Africa and David from New Zealand who were so sweet and made sure we were OK. That's another thing, Alana and I were so awesomely fortunate to meet genuinely good guys who just wanted to be friends and travel with us and have adventures! As two females traveling it was nice to hang with good guys like this in most of the cities we traveled in.
View from Calton Hill of Arthur's Seat
Smelling some gorse, I was obsessed!! Smelt like delicious coconut. It was everywhere around Arthur's seat.
Making our way up to Arthur's Seat!
Our Kiwi photographer extraordinaire, David, always looking for the perfect shot.
Alana and I!
We MADE IT!!!
Felt so Scottish ;). Had my Blue Tartan scarf from Stirling and my red tartan beret clip (alana and I HAD to get them-too adorable not to).
Deliciously Divine St. Giles Steak pie (couldn't finish it, but the boys were with us, so food never went to waste, obvs.) from MUM's Comfort food. A girl we met at our hostel who had been staying in Edinburgh for a while and this was her favorite restaurant, she was OBSESSED. So she made us all go, and it was so GOOD. Def. check it out if you go.
Scottish money honey!! Scottish money was different than money in Belfast, though a part of the UK, I enjoyed looking out for the differences in the look of cash.
Me on the famous Royal Mile :)
/div>an attempted selfie on the Royal Mile
Our Dutch friend Daan who purchased this sweet pair of Scottish tartan pants. #VIVAlaTARTAN!
Love this pic. I think it captured the enchantment of the city of Edinburgh with a bit of darkness as well.
Did NOT try this however, I did witness someone who lost in a game at our hostel before the pub crawl and as punishment had to take the MOST disgusting shot I've ever seen, complete and topped off with some good 'ole HAGGIS.
This was an interesting read that Alana and I saw on our way back one night, caught our attention. Edinburgh has curious coincidences like that, read about the Last Drop (had a cup of Joe from there) on GrassMarket (LOVED Grassmarket, alana and I had lunch there one day and also learned more about the eclectic and curious history on a walking tour.
In the famous Greyfriar's cemetery. Famous for lots of reasons, like Greyfriar's Bobby, the loyal dog (also buried there) that would never leave his master's grave for many years (there's also a restaurant named after him near the cemetery. This cemetery is also notorious for hauntings and also where J.K. Rowling got some famous Harry Potter names...like Voldemort's aka Tom Riddle! (I tried not to take too many pictures there out of respect for the dead) It was definitely a beautifully creeptastic place. Cemeteries are naturally a little strange as there are dead bodies but, I've always found it intriguing to look at tombstones, to see when a person was born and when or how they died along with their epitaphs (did this a couple places on the trip too)#odddontcare! Alana and I actually went there twice because, she desperately wanted to find the Hermione or the Harry Potter grave that inspired the names for Harry Potter that we couldn't find the first time around (..I told you she was obsessed! It was a creepy task for sure. She made me roam about the grounds trying to locate the names. We did this for a while before it was getting dark and then I told her, enough was enough! There's only so many tombstones I care to look at. The names were not found..to be continued..until next time we are there..
But we did the next best thing and just went to the Elephant Bar, the place where J.K. Rowling often frequented to write H.P., and we got some treats! We would have completely missed this charming place if one of my friends on FB hadn't let me know, since she knew I was in Edinburgh (thank you social media and anna!)
The Bathroom of Elephant Bar-a homage to J.K. Rowling
Found this beer, Cuillins! From the Isle of Skye mountains that we hiked! So cool.
Apparently the Scottish spit on this, the heart of midlothian, so we had to. It used to be the point before public execution, I guess a last hoorah of contempt for the law.
The Edinburgh castle in the background. We discovered the color saturation on my camera, and saturated a lot..too much sometimes.
National Museum of Scotland
This city was just amazing. Definitely on top of the list of places I'd like to return to. 3 days just wasn't enough, we didn't even make it to the new side of the city but, we did do a lot!
I hope you can make it there too! A guaranteed awesome time.
xoxo
Kels
