Weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland

I had a fabulous weekend. In Scotland. In EdinBRAAAAA (as I was told to pronounce it by a coworker).

We took the train up on Friday morning from King's Cross, and during our 5 hour journey we got to see some English countryside and a bit of the blue North Sea. I had a short exchange with a little Scottish boy who had orange hair, and looked like a young version of Ron Weasley from Harry Potter. He asked me if I was an American, and he was pretty cute. We eventually got to Edinburgh at around 2, and walked out of the train station to the sound of bagpipes.

My two flatmates and I dropped our bags off at our B&B right near the city center. The room was about twice as big as our entire flat back in London, and it had a great view with comfortable beds. We set off exploring the city, and walked towards Princes St. and St. Andrew's square. Later we climbed to the top of Calton Hill, the site of an observatory and several national monuments. Here's a pic of me on the national monument at the top:


After that, we stopped for dinner in a small pub, where I met some interesting Scottish men. We were pretty exhausted from the early train ride and decided to have an easy night with the satellite (!) TV in our room. We got some Tennent's beer, which may be my new favorite, and some digestives (cookies meant for tea time) and went to bed early.

On Saturday, we were up early for a day tour of the Highlands, Stirling, and Loch Lomond. The highlands were beautiful, and none of the pictures I have do it any justice. Loch Lomond (the one from the song "you take the high road, I'll take the low road, and I'll be in Scotland afore ya") is the biggest freshwater lake in Britain where many Scots go to vacation. We took a boat tour around the lake, and saw all of the luxury hotels and a few castles. After that, we headed over to Aberfoyle for lunch at the base of the highlands. I had a steak pie with fresh grass-fed beef, and it was delicious.


On Sunday, our train didn't leave until 7PM so we had a full day to see the rest of Edinburgh. We started out at Edinburgh Castle, the inspiration for Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter series (there's a theme here...). The series was actually started by JK Rowlings in a little coffee shop in the city where she lived for several years. The castle was pretty touristy and didn't really have that much stuff inside it, but I did enjoy it. I probably wouldn't go back again, but it was worth it for one time.

After Edinburgh Castle, we walked the Royal Mile (High Street) where there was a large crafts market. After dropping a bunch of pounds (British Pounds, that is) we headed over to Holyrood Palace, the summer residence of the queen. We were able to walk through the apartments of Mary Queen of Scots and saw the ruins of the abbey. The abbey was destroyed by a group of Catholic-hating Protestants, and was the inspiration for Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, or, the Scottish symphony. After the palace, we headed up another crag in the area, Salisbury Craig, to get some views of the city.




After climbing back down the mountain, we had to head over to the train. I would love to see more of Scotland in the future.

I had to be to work early this morning, but at noon, everyone went over to the local football pitch (in central London, heart of the financial district) to play for an hour. During our "adult recess" I asked one of my coworkers if she had ever heard of Brett Favre, and she hadn't. Our two cultures are definitely different.

This week I have two papers due, so I will be busy until Wednesday, but afterwards I am free to explore the city again. I will hopefully update you with my findings later in the week. Until then!