Scott's Scottish Adventure: Edinburgh

The trains barely left the station and I'm already missing Edinburgh. Seriously, the city is one of the coolest places that I've ever been to. Arriving in the Scottish Capital, my first site as the train came out of the tunnel was the majestic Edinburgh Castle.

And if that wasn't enough, as I left the station a fully costumed bagpiper was playing some traditional highland music. Talk about a great introduction to Scotland. After checking into my hostel, I set off towards the castle. Upon arriving, I was confronted with another amazing site. As Edinburgh Castle was built on top of an extinct volcano, it gives excellent panoramic views of the city, which is buffeted by both oceans and mountains.
Truly breathtaking...

I had come to the castle for two reasons 1) To see this amazing historical site 2) Meet up with my friend Morgan, who is studying abroad at the University of St. Andrews for the semester. Together we explored what was a truly remarkable castle. As I mentioned before, the castle is built on top of a volcano and inside it is hard not to feel invincible, with rows of cannons (including the famous Mons Meg), several thick walls, and commanding views of the surrounding areas providing plenty of protection.

Why do I smell something burning?

The Castle also holds such treasures as the Scottish Crown and the Stone of Destiny on which the Scottish kings were crowned (pictures of the actual objects were not allowed)

The Castle was both a royal residence and a prison (similar to the Tower of London), and we saw the rooms where Mary Queen of Scots lived around the time she gave birth to James I.

we also saw the prisons where both nobles and commoners awaited their fates. In fact, during the American Revolution, American POWs were held here. As we moved through the prison, voice-over recordings illuminated the prisoners' daily struggles.
Recording of American POW: How dare they call us tratiors, we are patriots! Just wait, one days in its hour of need, Britain will need to rely on America to save her.
Confused British Tourist: What's with the American accents?
Me: MURICA!

In addition, we also visited the famous 1 o'clock gun, which apparently isn't as loud as people seem to think it is.

After leaving the castle, we strolled through the city of Edinburgh and saw sites such as the Sir Walter Scott Monument...

We also visited Calton Hill Park which hosts a collection of buildings and the incomplete  National Monument of Scotland (referred to as Scotland's shame because they never had enough money to complete it, its the bottom picture).

We also saw the tomb of philosopher David Hume.

After a quick dinner at a local pub it was time for Morgon to head back to St. Andrews and me to return to my hostel.

I began my second day in Edinburgh with a walking tour of the city... well actually I started the day by going to Sainsburys to get food, but that's not exciting. Anyway, the tour (which was organized by the Hostel and, more importantly, free) began in Greyfriars graveyard.



There we learned the story of Greyfriars bobby. According to legend, during the 19th century, the graveyard watchman got lonely and bought a dog. The two became best friends and when the man died, the dog return to his grave to sleep every night. This made him a local celebrity, and, since there were laws saying taht dogs without owners were to be killed, a member of the city council adopted the dog and gave him a seat on the council. As such he reeived the right to vote, which, as our guide pointed out, was 50 years before women did. While the story is a fabrication by an American author who had never lived in Scotland, the city has embraced the myth. There's a tombstone for the dog, and the statue right outside the cemetary is the most photographed statue in Scotland, beating even the William Wallace statue. The graveyard is also home to the site of the covenators tortue site. The Covenentors were a group who didn't lite the idea of the king being in charge of both church and state. Naturally, the king didn't take to kindly to their opinions, so he rounded them up, killed a bunch and then sent the rest to this graveyard, where they were forced to lie on the ground for six months, if they movied they died. Finally, after the 6 months were up, the men who had survived the ordeal were brutally tortued until they died. Cheery stuff. The burial sites were also home to the Flodder Wall, which was built to keep the English out of Edinburgh. Long story short... some idiot left the gate unlocked and the English walked right in. On a happier note, jsut beyond the gate lies a shchool where JK Rowling would often walk by and allegedly based Hogwarts on, while several tombstones in the graveyard were alleged to have inspired the names of several HP characters.
Moving on from the cemetary, we visited the North Bridge. The original bridge built on the site collapsed, which many residents believed to abe a singe that the area was cursed. When the replacement bridge was completed, the town council arranged for the oldest person in edinburgh to be the first to cross it. Unfortunatly, she died 3 days before the bridge opened, so the town council put her in a cart, propped her up, and carried her across the bridge, just like the Simpsons episode where Homer and Smithers put a seemingly dead Mr. Burns on wires to give a presentation.
Moving onto St. Gildas Cathedral, we learned that there used to be a heart on a nearby bu9ilding. This place in question was where the people went to pay taxes, and becasue nobody likes to do that, as they would leave they would spit in the heart. The building no longer exists, but a heart made out of Bricks lies on the pavement and is the spittinh image of the old sign. They say if you spit on the heart it is good luck. I don't know if it is true, but I wouldn't recommend stepping on the heart. The tour concluded at Grassmarket Square, where we learned about the many hangings that occurred there.
With the tour over, I headed off to Hollyrood house, the monarch's official residence in scotland. Unfortunatly, flash photography was not allowed on the inside, but the exterior shots I took provide a pretty good idea of its gradure. The palace was begun under James IV and was the site where Mary, Queen of Scots, husband murdered her secretary in a fit of jealousy. Ram-sacked by pissed-off British soldiers during the Jacobite rebellion of Bonie Prince Charlie, today the Palace is peaceful and recently played host to the wedding of the Queen's granddaughter. another thing to note, at the back of the palace, is a deserted abbey. Built by King david (not the biblical one) it declined during the reformation but its foundations still hold up today. After completing my tour, I decided to go climb Arthur's Seat. This impressive ancient Volcano is the highest point in the city. While our tour guide said that it took her over an hour to climb the peak, I managed to climb it in 20 minutes (self-five). Needless to say, the views at the top were stunning.
After a lesurely climb back down I visited Parliament...
The Scotish Musuem and the National Library...
I finished my day with some tea in the elephant house. While this house might not seem noteworthy, the fact remains that...
Yep, JK Rowling wrote th first few chapters of Harry Potter here. With its atmosphere (which includes good tea and a great view of edinburgh Castle) its the perfect place to start a masterpiece. Around my table several German girls were working on Math equations, a gnetleman a few tables away was feversly writing and I was... drinking tea. so I might mightn ot be the most productiive person, but

Around the UK: London

As I write this (the original journey entry, not this blog post), the suburbs of London are speeding by as I journey to Scotland (they named a country after me, isn't that nice?). London was lovely to say the least. Despite the fact that my train left at 6:41 in the morning, I was wide awake by the time the train arrived at Waterloo. After a short tube ride to the Hostel, I headed out to explore. My first stop was the Victoria and Albert Museum which had wonderful examples of from all over the world.

Wheter it be Reinassance, Korean, Chinese, Buddist, Islamic, or English, the museum showed that great artwork can be found at every corner of the globe.

In addition, they also had a collection (loaned by the Queen!) of works by the Renaissance master Raphael, in his youth was turtle who fought crime. I snappeda few pictures before being told no photography was allowed i nthe Raphael exhibit... oops!

 

After leaving the museum I strolled around the Kennisgton area of London, and then walked through Kennsington Gardens.

After that I met up with my friends Ani, Antoine, and Julian, who were staying in London for the week. Ani wanted to see the Tate Museum of Modern Art, so we jumped on the tube and made our way to London's premier modern art museum. True, I've never been a fan of modern art, several of the paintings did leave an impact on me.

My personal favorite was called, 'confused student'

 In addition, I was also very impressed by the sheer scale of the museum which is housed in a old power plant and the magnificent views it offers of the London skyline.

Afterwords, we walked to the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre...

Ani wouldn't pose for the picture

From the Globe we made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral via Millenium Bridge (the one that's attacked at the beginning of HP 6).

You can see London Bridge in the background of this picture.

While the Cathedral was closed we still got quite a few amazing photos of it.

Afterwords, he were all feeling a mite peckish, so we headed to a nearby tea shop., where I fooled everybody with an April fools joke "Wait is that Prince Harry?" And then failed with another prank "Tyrion kills Cersei in Game of Thrones." In all honestly, I'm surprised that the first one was a more believable statement, considering the high body count in the series (and its only going to get higher as the series goes on, trust me).
After that, it was time to bid goodbye to my friends (you'll be hearing more about them soon when we tour Wales and Ireland) and return to my hostel. Hopefully this won't be the last time I'm in London. It's an extraordinary city, and I've only barely begun to scratch the surface of what it has to offer.