So, I have decided that in order to process this whole trip that each time I finish or nearly finish my time at a location, I will do a blog post describe my experience at that location. So, city 1 out of 11, is Edinburgh.
We left in the afternoon on Thursday the 5th and right out of the gate we ran into a problem. Due to some miscommunication on my end, Sara didn't have any of the tickets for the next weekend, including the bus we were leaving for in 40 minutes. Trying to keep calm, we went to a nearby cafe and tried to make reservations. We successfully managed to get all of the tickets but at a considerable mark up and the night bus was different and left 30 minutes later.
Relieved that we had gotten the tickets, we went to London for a 2-3 hour layover before the night bus to Edinburgh. We met up with Heather and had a nice dinner and she agreed to stay with Sara until her bus left which was a half an hour after mine. Though as it turns out this wasn't necessary. The previous night continuing into that day, Scotland was experiencing heavy wind and rain storms which were slowly passing over the whole of the UK. As a result, my bus was delayed an hour and Sara ended up leaving before me. I did get on my bus and manage to get some on and off sleep for the next 8 hours.
We arrived in Edinburgh at 7am (for Sara) and 8am (for me) and made our way to Naoko's flat (The friend I told you guys about in an earlier post). We dropped off our stuff and had a nice breakfast and caught up (picture below of our reunion). Then Sara and I went wandering and off to find a hostel.
Now Edinburgh is probably the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It is gorgeous with stone buildings and castles and in particular the hilly area and the dormant volcano in the very centre. Naoko suggested we visit this nearby hill and I am so glad that we did. The view was amazing. The sky didn't look real. It was as though we were trapped in a dome and the sky had been painted on by a masterwork artist. The whole city was unfolded before us. Safe to say there are plenty of pictures (below). We also visited the Holyrood Castle which was neat in itself but we couldn't take pictures.
Sara and I have never stayed in a hostel before, but I looked online and found one very close to where Naoko was staying. It was cheap (<$20 a night) and had high reviews. We arrived to the most homely hostel I had seen. They had just had Christmas decorations and there was free mulled wine in the kitchen. They had male and female dorms and we put down a deposit for a key which locked the dorm room and a locker assigned to our bed. We hung around the hostel which is where we met a few people. Two of which, older gentlemen, once they found out Sara was a musician, invited us to hear authentic Scottish folk music at a nearby pub. We had dinner plans with Naoko, but we agreed to go.
We had a wonderful dinner with Naoko and then we dropped off our things and the hostel and went to the pub. It was a night of beautiful music and Sara and I even performed renditions of one of our Sorority songs and cups by Anna Kendrick using an empty cider glass. We were openly accepted and even some Welsh guests, quite inhebriatedly, sang the national anthem. It was a great musical exchange of culture and reminded me that music really is a universal equalizer and where ever we go, Sara should always be able to relate with people through her musical ability. This will open many opportunities for us and I look forward to seeing where these take us.
Safe to say, Sara and I slept really well (Sara didn't sleep well on the bus and had pulled an all-nighter the two previous nights). The next morning we made a quick breakfast and then set out to climb Arthur's seat and have lunch overlooking the entire city. Arthur's seat is the peak of the volcano and the centre of Edinburgh. We had a mixed bag on this trip. Unfortunately, along the way, Sara or I accidently dropped Sara's camera on ridge along the path. A nice couple saw it and moved it closer to the path. Well not long after we had taken a picture with it, we realized that it was gone. I tried to go find it, but because it had been moved to a location not at all along the path between when we last took a picture and when we realized it was gone, I didn't find it. We continued up the summit and ran into the couple (as at this point we were asking everyone we saw if they had seen it) and they told us where they put it. I went back down to try and find it with them, but the camera was gone. Frustrated and tired (given that I had run up the hill about 3 times now) we finally made it up the steep climb to the top. Where it was freezing cold and windy. We scarfed down a few bites and then decided that we needed to calm down and re group. The site was amazing and I made sure to take pictures and a few videos (Shown below). Sara got a new camera but nothing can replace the 1200 photos on the memory card that are lost.
(Sorry about the shaky-ness and the wind...it was loud and windy up there)
(Added some music to remove the wind roar)
(Arthur's seat from half way up the climb)
(Recognize those Arches? We were there the other day)
Adventures Await
~KH
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