"Edinburgh is a mad god's dream." - Hugh MacDiarmid

I saw that written on the wall somewhere and it's been stuck in my head, such a perfect way to describe the city. I could gush about Edinburgh for days. It's breathtaking from every angle, and I saw many angles of it through climbing monuments and such. I've never been in a city where my view changed so frequently, even just walking around. We'd be in a tiny cobblestone alley sloping upwards and then we'd come out at the top on a huge street with beautiful old buildings and manage to have a view of the dormant volcano and surrounding rolling hills at the same time. And yes, there were men in kilts, and even some playing the bagpipes on most street corners. It's so rich with history, and somehow even the newer buildings still blend in nicely, so the whole place has this ancient feel. As I learned on my trip, it's been the inspiration for a lot of literary works, and being there I could completely tell why. 

I was there from a Thursday to a Sunday visiting my friend Becca. When I left Norwich on Thursday it was gorgeous and sunny here, everyone was laying out on the grass right outside my window and I didn't get any of the work done I planned to before I left, nor did I want to leave my little Norwich bubble, but I'm glad I did. After interesting mishaps on the train, ending up in the kind of town we would refer to as the middle of nowhere, (read: many sheep, few people) I made it to the airport and then Edinburgh finally. 

The first night we were there we stopped by a pub called Biddy Mulligans (great name, right?) where they had some guys playing guitar and singing, and we caught up with a few of Becca's friends. Had a lovely pub feel to it, just the way you would imagine one of those. The next day was full of stuff: we walked up to the castle, we took a tour of Parliament and I got to see Becca's internship office,  we climbed 287 spiral staircase steps up the Walter Scott monument, stopped for a little shopping, and walked up Calton Hill as the sun was setting to check out some more lovely monuments, and then went for burger & a pint deal at a pub. That night, we went for a ghost tour of Edinburgh's old underground vaults. It was a little cheesy, with some parts obviously dramatized for fear factor, but it was also a historical tour so we learned a ton about how the criminal justice system worked (witch burning and torture) and how people lived back in the 16/1700s (including the origin of the word "shitfaced" - from people literally dumping their shit out of the tenement building windows, and drunks not getting out of the way fast enough). I don't usually buy into ghost stories, but down in the vaults where people had actually died, I was definitely creeped out. 

Pictures from Friday:

Just walking around, there's a statue of Scottish philosopher David Hume

Top half of the Walter Scott Monument

Calton Hill

View of the city from Calton Hill

The next day we took a tour of Holyrood Palace, where the Queen spends her summers. We did one of those audio tour ones, but it was incredibly interesting and actually much nicer than a regular tour guide due to the features of pause and volume control. After our tour we spent a couple hours hiking Arthur's Seat, for some of the most breathtaking views of the country of Scotland. It was unbelievable and also the hike itself was pretty fun, we had a view from the entire way up as we hiked a trail on the side kind of spiraling around up to Arthur's Seat, which is a dead volcano so very cool. I took a video of us at the top actually, to prove we'd hiked it. I'll try to add that in...

On the way up Arthur's Seat

The hike ahead of us

Checking out Scotland

The view from the top

St. Anthony's Chapel Ruins (on the way back down)

Our delicious meal of "haggis, neeps & tatties" for some traditional Scottish food

If this works, it's Becca and I being silly at the peak of Arthur's Seat

That's about all the blogging I have in me for now. I just found out my exam schedule and it appears that I have approximately a month's time to do whatever on earth I please after I finish my exams. It means I'll have less time to study but for me, it's for the best. I need the pressure in order to study, and to be fair I'd only put 3 solid days of studying into an English exam anyway. So we'll see how that goes, my next update may not be until after my Easter break, as I won't be bringing my laptop along anywhere... see how that goes. for now, xxxx!