Seeing the Sights: The Birthday Trip, Edinburgh

April 6th, 2015:

All right, so my first full day in Edinburgh started with a walking tour. During the break in the tour I found myself a salted caramel milkshake from this milk shoppe in Grassmarket. Turns out, it's the number one rated restaurant in Edinburgh. I just randomly choose the best. 

Notable moment:

-When discussing Harry Potter, there were two people who had never seen nor read them so our guide starts by a) calling them losers, and b) summarizing with "There's a wizard boy who goes to wizard school." I found that amusing. Boiled down, that's the premise. Not that I'm sure the entire world hadn't figured out that much without knowing anything else. 

From there, I had time until my "ghost tour" so I wandered on my own. I visited St. Giles' Cathedral (which is not technically a Cathedral) where they have this super modern-looking organ.

Epically modern organ in St. Giles'

Mrs. Claus dress in the vintage shop in Grassmarket

I ended up at a vintage shop that was like something out of a movie or a dream. I could have spent so much time and money in there. So. Much.

Inside of the Writers' Museum

The Writers' Museum is just off the Royal Mile and it's free, so of course it went on my "To-Do" list. They have a gorgeous maroon spiral staircase that leads through all four? floors. The lowest level is all Robert Lewis Stevenson. Robert Burns has a large section to himself, of course. The walls are all painted this fantastic shade of green that I apparently captured zero pictures of. All the paint in this museum was amazingly rich in colour; gorgeous! They had bits of poetry cast over the loudspeakers in the different sections. The top floor had a display on the printing press and a discussion between a master printer and his apprentice about the book they were printing, what went into it, how the press was changing the world, relations between Edinburgh and London printing houses, etc. Overall, very cool.

Elephant House, where JKR wrote Harry Potter

When it hit 6:45p I made my way to the spot where the ghost tour was meeting up. It probably wasn't the best tour out there, more history than ghosts/legends, but that was still cool. Just a bit different than what I'd figured from advertisements. But it was free, so you get what you pay for.

Hard Rock Edinburgh: Check!

Post-tour it was still early enough that I hit up a couple more of the spots on my "to-do" list that were in a different party of the city from where I was staying (which is why I hadn't been there before). First stop, of course, was the Edinburgh Hard Rock Cafe. Which just so happens to be on the same street as...

Grand Lodge of Scotland

The Grand Lodge of Scotland! This building was big. Not as big as I was expecting, for some reason, but still really big. I toured a bit of the Grand Lodge of England during my trip in August, and I keep wondering if I'd just arrive at these places earlier in the day (i.e. before 9pm when I seem to be visiting) I might be able to check out the interior. I mean, I doubt they'd let me into a Lodge room. Luckily, the outsides are pretty impressive as well.

A ridiculously large Hollister. This picture
does not do justice to how completely
massive this thing was. I do not understand.

Between the Hard Rock and the Lodge is this massive Hollister. It's ridiculously huge for what it is. My mind immediately went to a "condemning capitalism and materialism" place. Especially since the facade of the Hollister, with it's bay windows and columns, doesn't at all match with the rest of the building. It doesn't have to, I guess, but it's not like the building it's in is unappealing!

I headed up the street, trying to find some of the buildings I'd seen across the way from the Royal Mile. The darkness did not make this any easier, though I do carry a flashlight. I walked up Calton Hill and found a road diverging near a wood, and I, I took the darker one closer to the city lights. I didn't actually make it very far when I turned around and picked the other road (which is unfortunate, because I walked this road back and I was almost at the end).
It passed several monuments before coming upon a grassy field. Voices led me to a few benches where I plopped down and stared out over the city, which might be more gorgeous at night than it is during the day. It was incredible. I have a recording of me complaining how lame my camera is for not being able to capture the awesome. Alas. I sat up there for quite a while before moving on to explore more of Calton Hill and find my way down. I came down next to the building I'd been looking for, this big old Roman-esque, column-fronted building. My tour guide that evening said that it was a high school until the 1960s and has since been vacant. Which is super sad, because it's beautiful! I'd love to go to school there...

After a long day, I flopped into bed.

April 7th, 2015: 

I started by wasting time until I had to descend all the stairs to check out of my hostel. Moving my luggage into a locker, I hit the town. I think it was the first place on the list, but it seems the first place I have pictures of is the National Museum. I wasn't here long, however. It's a poor idea to go into somewhere cool when you're hungry. I was hoping to see the Game Masters exhibit, but the tickets for it sell out first thing, so that didn't happen. Much of the museum looks, of course, like every other museum. The building's architecture is different, but there are the stuffed animals, the busts, etc. The coolest thing about this one was the machines exhibit. Some of them you could put your hand over a panel and watch the machine do whatever it was designed to; wheels spinning, lights flashing, etc.

I'm the only person in the classic section of the museum. The place
was pretty packed, but not this corridor. 

Wandering through what might have been the art section or maybe the world cultures section, I found this set of paintings entitled "Raven vs. Pontiac" which initially hits me as very SEAK. Of course, I read the artist bio and find he's from Juneau!

"Born in... Juneau, Alaska"

Raven vs. Pontiac

Infamous "Irn Bru" tastes like fizzy bubble gum

From here I had lunch in Grassmarket at a little pie shoppe, that was really good (and included haggis). I spent more time than I'd care to admit picking up gifts I'd passed by during my wanderings the previous two days. There was one thing in particular I remembered seeing, but couldn't remember where I'd seen it. When I finally found it again (after a couple of hours of walking in and out of shops around the Old Town looking for this one item) I found it in a shop I'd walked into and out of several times. Ugh.
      Around dinner time I went looking for haggis, neeps, and tatties. But because it was dinner time, so was everyone else. After wandering through street after street of packed pubs (and closed restaurants; Edinburgh closes at 5p everybody) I ended up *sigh* at Subway. The cookies were great, the food was good (at least it's something I can't get in Tartu), but it wasn't haggis. Ah, well.

Since I was missing an Estonian test, I figured gaining some test-luck
the way the UoE students do can't hurt. (Hume Statue)

     I picked up my luggage and made my way to the bus station. I was hoping that a nine hour bus ride on a Tuesday evening wouldn't be packed, but it was pretty packed. The bus was so full they brought in a second bus that was going to take a longer route. Everyone was so focused on the first bus that I just slid on the second one. The time comes for us to leave and (apart from couples traveling together) there's one person for each set of two seats. Fantastic. The bus starts pulling away and stops, and two buddies get on. Of course, of ALL the open seats he had to pass to get to the back of the bus, he chooses the seat next to me. Great. Just great. Either way, we're on our way to London.

I'm a bit sad that I didn't have enough time or energy to climb Arthur's Seat, but I'll just have to save that for my next trip to Edinburgh.

Ad for a pizza company.
I found it both insulting and motivational.

Plaid shoes, tights, dress, purse.
I would totally wear this.