Ed-in-bur-eh

Edinburgh, Scotland

March 8

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh.... what a cool city. It's fairly small and hilly here and the weather is a lot like Portland's. I personally like the Scottish accent more than the English one and I can also see why these two groups of peoples have had such a contentious relationsip. It seems like the Scots have a lot of pride while the English are more about decorum. I've never seen so many redheads! 

Trying Haggis 

The cafe next to our new hostel offers a cheap full scottish breakfast with Haggis included. Phil and I both sampled the Haggis and thought it was delicious! It's the stuff on my spoon picture above! I can't believe people make such a fuss about it! It tastes kinda like Thanksgiving stuffing but with more spices. Yummy!

Edinburgh Tour

After our delicious Haggis breakfast we embarked on a free 3-hour walking tour of Edinburgh. These free walking tours are awesome! Pictured above is Phil pointing out "trick steps" for the tour guide. The trick steps were false steps that stalled burglers back in the day. 

King Charles the II in front of the Edinburgh Cathedral

Edinburgh has a unique history. This statue was nicknamed "King Charles on his way to a costume party riding a drunken pissing donkey" by the locals. 

Edinburgh Cemetary

Above was voted the second most popular spot in Scotland to have sex (the first is bathrooms). This cemetary holds a grave for Tom Riddle. Hee hee!

The Birthplace of Harry Potter

This is where J.K. Rowling thought up Harry Potter when she was living here!!!!

Pretty sunset outside our hostel.

Harrowing journey to Scotland

March 7

Scottish Countryside

We traveled from London to Bath by bus and decided the 3 hour wasn't that bad, depsite being situated next to a rather odiferous bus toilet. Our journey from Bath to Edinburgh... left more to be desired. We took a "night bus" on which our journey lasted from 10:30pm to 8am the next day. Saved us a night of hostel accommodation costs.... but that's about the end of the upside. The bus up there was crammed full of travelers. On a side note, there are a LOT of Australian travelers in Europe. Those Aussies get around...
Anyway so yeah. We get on the bus and Phil literally DOES NOT FIT in the the seat. With his knees at the back of the seat in front, he is still halfway up his seat back. So who loses in Phil's battle with the seat? Yours truly. And any aislewalkers that happen by Phil's seat as well. Needless to say we did not get a good night's sleep.

The best part was finally rolling in to our new city. EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND!!!! Ed-in-burra for those of you not in the know. I finally get to see mountains! Who knew?!? England was so flat and now coming into the city there are hilly, green fields with a snowy mountainous backdrop! So pretty! There were sheep EVERYWHERE! I saw a lot of rugby, cricket and croquet playing going on too.

Immediately Phil and I feel more comfortable in Edinburgh than stuffy ol' England. The population is near that of Portland and the people are way more laid back and kooky- just the cheap camper style. We found a laundromat and experienced the joys of clean clothes for the first time in a week. We finally arrived at our hostel, after waiting two and half hours for the shuttle. Then we slept like the dead. About 12 straight hours. Somehow we were blessed with a totally empty hostel dorm and we took full advantage of not having drunk travelers wake us up every 2 hours.

Globetrotter Inn - March 7

So that's it, how we spent 24 hours getting from Bath to Edinburgh in the cheapest possible way. Here we have 5 solid days to experience the Scots. Hoorayeth!