Warning: This WILL be a long post. (If you don't want to read it all then at least read the part about Saturday - my FAVORITE day!) This past weekend was one of the best in my entire life. A couple weeks ago I thought "Abby, why not go to all the countries in the UK? I mean you have plans to go to Ireland and Wales so why not book one to Scotland too?" Haley, Bri, Jenny, Erin, Erica, Carly and I took off for this new place. Little did I know booking a trip to a place that I knew very little about would so incredible! I am going to write this post as if I were writing in a journal, just to keep things straight for you and to keep events straight for me when I look back on this in the future. Here goes trying to put this experience into words...
Friday - February 1, 2013
What a wonderful way to start a new month than to jump on my first ever train ride and head 4 hours (well via train) north to another country. (From Bowling Green, I can jump into my car and drive four hours to Cincinnati, or to Knoxville and maybe even to St. Louis, but I am no where near 4 hours to another country. That in itself was amazing!) If you know me at all, then you know that if I am in moving transportation for an extended period of time I will knocked out. Well, nothings new. I fell fast asleep and unfortunately missed the countryside until about an hour outside of Edinburgh when a gentleman came and sat beside me. Talk about one nervous man...he stood up a few dozen times and fiddled with what looked like to be presentation notes. Poor guy - hope he had some luck on his side that day!
Sign on the door in our hostel.
We were met in Edinburgh with grey skies but our adventurous minds were far from dreary. We checked into this hip looking hostel called, St. Christopher's Inn. Our room was a female dorm of 10 and the most interesting room mate we had was a young woman from Australia who has backpacking through England. She has already been to the States before and drove a car from California to New York...she's seen more of the U.S. than I have and I am from there!
We dropped our stuff off in the room and headed to find a vegetarian restaurant called Henderson's. In the group of 7 girls, 3 were vegetarians. Again if you know me then you know I am a meat and potatoes kind of gal. I grew up hating pretty much every vegetable but corn and potatoes...healthy right? But hey, I am experiencing new things so why not add vegetarian list to this also. I ordered some kind of lasagna packed full of veggies and two salads that were nothing like I am used to. Surprisingly I loved this restaurant and all my friends were amazed that I even tried it...yum!
We walked out of the restaurant and spotted the COAST down the street. I begged and begged to walk there but was talked out of it. It was probably a good idea because by this point we were all exhausted from the trip and week prior. We wandered around that side of Edinburgh and eventually made our back to the hostel to plan our next two days and collect our thoughts. The hostel had an awesome pub downstairs and we ate for dinner some of the best burgers that I ever had. Although we all crashed before 9 p.m. our first day in the city was pretty great!
Saturday - February 2, 2013
This was the GREATEST day! We woke up at the "butt crack of dawn" (a phrase that my family jokingly says at home and that I taught Erin - who completely laughs at the "country" things that I do and say). We layered up our clothing and wandered down to Royal Mile towards what is known of as Arthur's Seat. Basically a "hill" that is 822 feet tall and overlooks the city. Our goal was to CLIMB that sucker! We couldn't find the foot of the hill for the longest time (kind of crazy to think we couldn't find the looming mass in the darkness!). We made it to the bottom of Royal Mile and ran into a gentleman who we asked. He simply said "Look that way!" We did, and there appeared a great MASS of land. It was here, at 5:45 A.M. that we realized we didn't have a flashlight and none of us had eaten breakfast...oops!
We made our way to the mass of land and had our first challenge...take the left or right path? We choose right (this is an important fact for the day) and made our way up what I now refer to as mini mountain. We all thought that we were making our way up Arthur's Seat...that was until we reached the top and started our way down. We FINALLY found a path at the bottom of mini mountain that started the climb up to the top Arthur's Seat. About half way up I told the group, "Hey guys, I am afraid of heights." Probably should have mentioned that before the climb, but oh well!! After walking in darkness, up a mountain, without a flashlight, in a foreign country, and me being afraid of heights we made it to the top as the sun was rising. I have never experienced such a beautiful sight! The view was breathtaking. I looked out and saw the city of Edinburgh and to the coast that borders it! I had about 30 minutes to myself at the top and was able to think about the absolutely beautiful the world is. I really am just one tiny weeny small part of this great big world!
That afternoon we joined a New Europe free walking tour with our tour guide Eoin (pronounced Owen). To sum this walking tour up in a sentence: IT WAS AMAZING!!! We did not have to pay for this tour (hence free walking tour) because the guides solely work off of tips, therefore their tours have to be good or they have wasted an afternoon walking around showing tourists random buildings. We ventured all over the city in 3.5 hours. From the St. Giles Cathedral where Jenny Geddes threw a stool in protest of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer to Greyfriar Cemetery where the most loyal dog, Bobby is buried. Wandering around a city filled with so much history seemed like heaven to me. It was freezing cold that day but no one in our group complained (well too much) because viewing the city from a local's perspective gave us a greater understanding of Edinburgh.
Bobby the Dog (statue form of course)
Sunday - February 3, 2013
Our main goal for this day was to experience Edinburgh Castle. We checked out of the hostel and walked up Royal Mile for the last time and ended at the gates of the magnificent castle. The castle is built on top of Castle Hill (duh) and overlooks the city. We made it just in time for a free tour (we tend to like anything "free" in the title) and was pointed in the direction of the many structures that lie within the fortified walls.
There are two different war museums, an old firehouse (taking water up the Castle Hill was no an option during those times in case of a fire, so they just built their own firehouse up top), barracks of the British Army who currently live there today, a church and my favorite - a memorial to all of the Scottish war veterans who have died in combat. I walked into the memorial and opened up a book to read off the names of a few veterans who gave their lives fighting in the Iraq War, a war that has defined much of my childhood in the states. I had never even thought that about the individuals from other countries were also loosing their life to protect my freedom at home. Definitely a humbling experience.
View looking at Arthur's Seat from Castle Hill
Another amazing thing about the castle was that the crown jewels of Scotland are held there AND the famous STONE OF DESTINY. Carly had talked about the Stone of Destiny since we got to Scotland but honestly I had never even heard about the stone before this. We started up a conversation with the security guard in the heavily vaulted room and he told us the background history of the stone. Apparently Edward I took the Stone of Destiny from Scotland during his reign and placed it under the coronation throne in England. (Hence the beginning line) It laid there until 1950 when a group of college students broke into Westminster Abbey and stole the stone on Christmas Eve and brought it back to Scotland. It stayed there for four months and then returned to England. In 1996 Elizabeth I presented Scotland with the stone once more with the promise that it would only be returned to England when a new king would be crowned. Pretty neat that I was able to see this in real life huh?
Another favorite memory of the trip happened that afternoon. We went to a cafe called the White Elephant. Ring a bell? Well, this is the cafe that J.K. Rowling sat in and created Harry Potter. WHOA!! (insert fan girl scream!!) We ate some delicious food and was even lucky enough to sit in the window which overlooked Edinburgh Castle and gave the inspiration for Hogwarts! After lunch we ventured into Greyfriar Cemetery and found the graves of Thomas Riddle, Moodie and McGonagall!!
The infamous seat!!
I was not ready to leave this beautiful place and getting on the train was a bittersweet moment. I was ready to go back home (yes the manor has become my "home") but I did not want to leave such an amazing place. Scotland has been my favorite country I have ever visited. I ventured around a breathtaking city, walked in a castle filled with history, climbed a mountain to watch the sunrise, ate at a strictly vegetarian restaurant and made some incredible memories that I will cherish for a lifetime. Let's just say, I have left a piece of my heart in Scotland and I will be back someday.
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