"This is where the fun begins"Aer LingusDublin, Ireland: The Battle of JetLagIreland: Wicklow and the last day in DublinOur London experience...Change of plans - I'll be in Scotland 'afore ye (Part I)Change of plans - I'll be in Scotland 'afore ye (Part II)The cross country tour: Edinburgh (Part I)The cross country tour: Edinburgh Castle (Part II)The cross country tour: Journey to Thurso (Part III)The northern adventure: Thuro, Stromness, and WickEdinburgh, Glasgow: To and fro'A few randomsOban, Scotland: The AC Choir and the ColiseumCraignure, Isle of Mull: Yeah...about thatOban, Scotland: Back to Oban / Queen's HotelWestern Adventures: Mull, Iona, Staffa, & Oban (Part I)Western Adventures: Mull, Iona, Staffa, & Oban (Part II)The finale: Last morning in Oban / Last day in Glasgow
 | Zathrak |  | Ireland, England, & Scotland |  | The cross country tour... |
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May 5 2010, 09:46 AM
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Edinburgh, United Kingdom
-The mountains-
We started our day at 8am. I woke up with a very sore throat, so much so that it was burning every time I would breath, drink, eat, swallow, whatevs. The plan was to get do the quick breakfast thang and hop aboard a train to get in to some mountains that we saw on the way in from the airport. This way, we would have day light when mountaineering. Then, we changed that so we could go to Edinburgh Castle first since it had a closing time in the early evening. So we trekked our way through the city trying to find the best way in to the Caslte from our hotel, which I should remind you was directly outside of our window. :-) Anyhow, there we were just trekking along side of this fancy modern looking building made of steel and such when I started getting excited. I didn’t realize it until that moment, but when I did, I had remembered that 4 years ago almost exactly to the day, I was in this same spot at the foothills of a mountain. In fact, it was there that I had gone up that mountain a bit and played a few tunes on my bagpipes. There are some photos on facebook of this if you look for the Scotland trip of 2005/2006. Well, I had explained all of this to Jo and that is when I convinced her to hike up the mountain with me. It was a pretty good time. It was definitely a good thing to do after sitting around on a plane for 7+ hours on the flight here, and all of the driving around the city. It was certainly nice now that we’re on a 7+ hour train ride. We found a fun outcrop in the side of the mountain where we took a 20 minute break. I recorded a good 10 minute video while I was there. We made it down the rest of the way and the entire thing took about an hour and a half. When we got to the end, we saw another far more treacherous looking mountain (which we later learned was a volcano) and decided to give it a shot as well. This time however, there wasn’t a nice path way or nice leveled trails. This time, we had the pleasure of climbing nearly vertical “stairs” to get to the top of what we later found out was Arthur’s Seat. The “stairs” were more like piled rocks in a stair like formation. Every level was different. We had no idea how long it would take to get to the top and we weren’t able to see more than 10 – 20 feet ahead of us without there being another jagged turn so we just kind of went on. We must have been a good 90% complete when it started sprinkling. Normally I don’t cry much about rain but having rain on already unstable piles of rocks really wouldn’t make for a great time. So, we decided to turn around and head back down in the event that it did start raining (which isn’t a bad bet in Scotland). On our way back down, Jo heard some woman say that it takes 20 minutes to get to the top. We had been climbing for nearly that. We may have been right near the peak when we made that decision haha. Anyhow, we got back down and decided to walk around the foot of the mountain to get back to where we started. As it turns out, people apparently drive to Arthur’s Seat and then climb it, not hike the mountain prior and then go climb it. In all, it was a good time and I’m glad we did it. Though I did end up getting a sunburn on my face and neck that is still showing up pretty red. :-(
(Jo’s going to take over this next bit)
-Back to Central Edinburgh-
On our trek back to the city of Edinburgh, we ran in to a group of protesters at the parliament building. Now as some of you may or may not know, I love a good protest! They really are the best. This group was a bit small, I would put them at about 30 or so and they lacked any and all rhythm, so their beating and chanting was not as powerful an effective as it could have been (but this is just my protesting opinion). We never were able to figure out what it was they were actually protesting about, but since it was outside of the Scottish Parliament building my guess it had something to do with a touchy subject in this election that happens on Thursday I believe. After watching the protesters attempt to make a point and the police officers yawning at them, we decided to move on and try to find a bus that would take us back into the city and up to Edinburgh Castle. We spotted a lone bus stop, and although there was no map or anything, it did say that it heads into the city, so that was good enough for us! Once we waited for just under 5 minutes an empty city bus rolled up and let us on. Of course I first asked him (from outside the bus, which made things exceedingly difficult until both Jes and the driver managed to shoo me onto the bus) what was the best way to get to the castle and that I let him know that we didn’t have any exact change to give him for our tickets. But since we’re in Scotland now and not in London (thank goodness), he was kind enough to tell us to get on and not worry about the tickets. He then said he would drive us around and get us close to the castle and give us directions from there. It’s amazing how far asking for help and a smile can get you! Seriously, the people of Scotland could not be any nicer!
Once we got back into the city centre, we decided that it would be a good idea to grab some lunch before we head into the castle for the next few hours. Afraid of another iffy lunch, we found a place that we knew there would be something that both of us would like. We spotted a nice little place that wasn’t crowded and had simple but very tasty looking food. While we were in there Jes found a wonderful salmon dish that looked and tasted amazing (really, the best salmon ever). I personally have had salmon or fish for every meal since we’ve been in the UK. Now I love fish, specifically salmon, but I was ready for a nice pasta or sandwich or anything that did not come swimming onto my plate from the sea. However, this restaurant had a salmon fettuccine with a white wine cream sauce, and well I just could not turn that down. It was absolutely incredible! It may have quite possibly been the best meal we’ve had while here. Now from here it does go a bit downhill from here because we ordered desert and it seemed they had forgotten about us. Specifically because we saw the two loan chefs there were come up from the kitchen to sit at the bar and eat lunch. That and we waited twice as long for our two small desserts than we did for our actual food. Jes was, well kindly put, exceedingly unhappy. Everything had gone so well, but as you all know from his previous post, waiting patiently in a restaurant is not one of his fortes. Though this time it was merited, because they actually did forget about us! But they figured it out and brought out our desserts free of charge and all was well. I would absolutely go back there again and recommend it to anyone. I was extremely satisfied.
While we walked along the “Royal Mile” (or High Street technically) on our way to the castle, there are just tons and tons of shops amongst the restaurants. Most of them are the tourist shops that you would expect to find in any “tourist” area. There were “kilts” you could buy all around, and the scarves were just flowing everywhere! You couldn’t walk past a shop without seeing walls of family clan scarves and such. Though it was sad to me that both of Jes’s family clan scarves were quite difficult to find and not as popular as many of the others. The highlight of this bit for me was when we went to a whole kilt making factory. You could see how they made the fabric (even buy yards of clan fabric) that was in every single clan possible I’m pretty sure. Most of them looked fairly typical to me (the green plaid you expect to see), and then there were the really interesting ones. My favorites were the purple Montgomery one, the yellow MacLeod, the black and white (I don’t remember the clan, but it was awesome), and the Burberry styled one. It really was an incredible building. There was even a weapons area and I got to hold a Claymore! I felt extremely epic, though I’m sure if I tried actually doing anything with it I would just fail miserably. Jes got to hold a few other swords and was pretending to be epic and manly (which worked out a bit for him).
To be continued...
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