A wee bit o' Scotland- Edinburgh

Edinburgh is such a great city! Once we figured out how to say it without sounding like an American, or like a Brit, we fit in like a glove. We encountered such wonderful people there, starting with our bus driver who drove us to Edinburgh. I think he was amused by us and when I asked if he could just tell me when we had crossed over into Scotland, he replied, "Is this your first time? I can do even better. We'll pull the bus over and take pictures with a rock that sits on the border with ENGLAND on one side and SCOTLAND on the other." We really did appreciate this even as we walked back on the bus wind-blown to a bunch of people that I am quite certain were annoyed that they just wasted a minute of their life. 

The hostel that we stayed at was on the Royal Mile, which is the mile between the Edinburgh castle and Holyrood, which is where the Queen stays when she comes to visit. This was very convient because it was easy to walk around to all of the sights. Our hostel was very cosy and nice especially compared to the awful one we stayed at in London. We met some fun Germans, Miri and Thany, that stayed in our room and ended up spending a few evening out with them. 

For most of the trip we had the philosophy that if it wasn't free, it wasn't happening. Now, this sometimes resulted us in the People's Museum-yikes- but other times we got lucky and had a great time like the Free Walking Tour we went on. Our guide Mark took us around on a 3 hour tour around Edinburgh to historical things and we really learned a lot. Since he was working on tips, I think that he was much more committed than a guide normally would have been. Here are some of the places we saw...

This is Edinburgh Castle, probably the most recognizable building in Edinburgh.
Our hostel was not too far away, so we saw it a lot, sometimes at night.

During our tour we learned that wear this heart is used to be
a tax building. This is why there is a tradition to spit on it when
walking past. Our guide did tell us that many people don't know
this and end up thinking it is a cute heart and kneel down to
propose to their girlfriends. Little do they know they are kneel in a
bunch of spit! It was fun to see random locals walk by and spit!

This is one of the streets in the old part of Edinburgh. Back in the day this was considered the bad part of town. I really enjoyed the architecture there, and everything was so much cleaner than I am used to.

This is the cafe' that the author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling used to go to write back in the day when she couldn't afford to have heating in her house on. They claim that she wrote the first two books while sitting in there. Funny to, is the school that the cafe' overlooks. It looks a bit like Hogwarts and her kids even attend this school now. The cemetery across the street also may have been the inspiration behind some of the character names. That, or it is a very huge coincidence many names are the same. 

This picture still cracks me up when I look back at it for many reasons. First of all, it is a statue of a dog- the MOST famous dog of all Edinburgh. Now, this dog, "Bobby" was famous because when his beloved owner died, he sat at his owners grave stone for 8 years. People loved this dog and he was treated like a celebrity. So much, that he has his own statue and children books. The second reason that I smile at this picture is because I am starting a new trend of rubbing the dog's toe or "paw" for good luck. One of the other statues on Royal Mile gets his toe rubbed by people for good luck. I really wanted to start and new trend, so that when I went back to Edinburgh in the years to come I can go and watch people rub Bobby's paw for luck. Sounded like a good idea to me, so every time we passed it Bobby got a good rub! 

Some of our new friends...Anna who happens to be Norwegian, Anna from Illinois, and Alex who is Canadian. Add German Stefan to the mix and you have a party!

This is St. Giles Cathedral. It was free to tour this, so of course we did. It was really pretty inside and it had a "Scottish" feel to it. There was even a carving of an angel playing the bag pipes which was cool. Though it was so small we had to ask someone where it was...

Well if you remember the 90's you most likely remember Dolly, the first cloned animal. Poor Dolly has since been stuffed and put on display...Remember how Leigh likes to try to touch things....another prime example!

Overall, we both really like Edinburgh. We met some great people, enjoyed walking around the city and were excited to see how the Scots don't mind being a little "Americanized". (there was macaroni and cheese entrees and baked potatoes instead of jacket potatoes on the menus) Our three days there were thoroughly enjoyed but we were excited to move on up north...