Upon asking ANYONE in St. Andrews, “So, how is Edinburgh?” Their response would ALWAYS be, “It’s just GORGEOUS!” (Unless you’re speaking to someone from England, then its “It’s just LOVELY!”). Ok, St. Andrews residence, SCOTLAND is gorgeous. Can I get a little more distinguishable details on this one place in particular? But, upon seeing the country’s capital myself, I finally understood what they meant. IT IS GORGEOUS. That is all you can say. To attempt to try and explain more would be to detract from… its entire atmosphere. So, this generic and all-encompassing word is basically all you can use to someone to relay just how Amazing Edinburgh really is.

So, summation: Edinburgh is GORGEOUS!

After a late Friday night, Erin, Hannah & I struggled & grumbled out of bed at 7:30am on Saturday to make the early bus to Edinburgh. After some last minute packing, trekking in the rain, a delayed bus and SEVERAL unsuccessful attempts at calling to wake Michael up, we were finally on the bus to Edinburgh: Michael-less. Come to find out an hour into the 1hr 45 min bus ride, Michael had forgot to set an alarm and slept right through the time we were supposed to meet. FAIL GILMARTIN! Seeing the country side of Scotland made the long bus ride a calm and beautiful one. The rain turned to a beautiful sunny day that perfectly illuminated the hills and herds of sheep.

What made the bus ride an experience I will never forget though was what happened near the end. We had about a half hour left until we were in the city, and the bus driver found that there were no more empty seats for a young woman to sit and therefore simply told her she could stand in the back until we got into the city. Fifteen minutes later, with her standing calmly in the back of the bus, an extremely old man (with a tartan/Scottish Plaid bag, of COURSE) turns to the lady looking all distressed. He asks if she would like to sit down, and looks beyond troubled, because he said he had not noticed her sooner and felt terrible for not asking earlier. This old and hunched man truly feels remorseful that he did not ask this teenage girl if she would like to take his seat. I’d hate to make false generalizations based on one man, but it just made me think how differently some people and some places within the United States are from here. Of course there are men that would do this in the United States, I am not COMPLETELY being negative and misunderstanding of the US, but it’s just the sincerity in his eyes that made me feel like this was an unthinking custom for some of these traditional Scottish men, and it touched my heart.

After little sleep the night before, an early wakeup and absolutely no breakfast, once we got into the Edinburgh bus station we decided it was time to get some good ol’ Scottish breakfast and a huge cup of caffeine. So we trekked through the city center lugging our bags in order to find “The Royal Mile”. Once we found the cobblestone street leading up to the historic Edinburgh castle (Royal Mile), we picked a very Scottish looking tavern & ordered our FIRST “Fry up”. This consisted of fried eggs, tomatoes & mushrooms, baked beans and HAGAS! Yes, not only EVERYTHING sopping in grease, but we ordered our first plate of Scottish HAGAS! This is a veeery traditional Scottish dish, and if you are not aware of what is in it, please look it up. I do not want to go into describing it, merely that I was the first to try. (See Video). Despite its ingredients, & my seveeeere apprehension, it wasn’t that bad. It was simply gritty and kind of bland. I am not going to be ordering it again anytime soon, but at least I FINALLY tried it. Scotland would be proud.

After a taste of our Sheep’s bladder & some white coffee, it was time to walk back to the bus station & find Mike, who woke up realizing he missed the bus & was forced by my angry words to hop on another one as soon as possible. After what should have been an hr & 45 min but SOMEHOW took this man a solid 3hrs 15min to arrive, we had our full crew & decided to walk around the city some more before it was time to check into our Holiday Inn haven. Just saying, walking around a large and gorgeous city on a SUNNNY day, hearing a bagpiper on the corner play the soundtrack to your expedition just MAKES YOU FEEL GIDDY!

The beautiful thing about Edinburgh is that while it is one of the oldest and MOST historic cities in Scotland. It is as if the city built itself around that history. Every building you see is older than our entire country, and yet it may hold a drug store or cheap & corny (yet amazing) Scottish souvenir shop. You can stand on the royal mile, look to your right and see the castle looming on the highest hill, and look to your left and see the crags just ASKING to be climbed. Personally, I would rather climb the cregs than see the castle, but seeing the castle of Edinburgh is a MUST, and therefore we went to tour that and save the cliffy mountains for the next time (most likely the main goal of padre’s visit to Edinburgh.

We walked the Prince street gardens and ran across this LARGE and looming monument. We have become quick to learn that the biggest and most austere monuments are usually not dedicated to fighters or politicians, but to Scottish literaries. This one, proved no different. This Large monument was dedicated to the famous Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, of whose (Thanks to my Scottish fiction class) novel I had JUST read a week prior. (Fun Fact: Sir Walter Scott & his novel Waverly (the novel I finished) was the FIRST historical novel. Way to go sir - literally!) So, seeing as how each one of the three guys we were with were scared of heights, the girls paid the 3 pound entrance fee to be able to climb to the three tiered top. Before the hill we climbed the next day, this view was the provided a 360 view of all of Edinburgh and therefore proved the most beautiful. To reach these three different levels, one had to climb up a small (& I mean TINY. I admit I am a small person, but it was even hard for ME to fit.) spiraling staircase that climbed one of the legs of this standing monument. While up at the highest point, the bagpiper standing at the corner below could still be heard, therefore, we had not only the most beautiful view of all of Edinburgh, but we had a bagpipe to provide the cliché, yet epic soundtrack to our view of one of the most beautiful cities in Scotland. I must say, one of the most valuable three pounds I have ever spent (:

Afterward, the good portion of the day was spent walking around Edinburgh, trying to find mini coffee and Panini shops, and touring the beautiful castle. The castle, sadly, wasn’t EVERYTHING I had anticipated. I expected dark & torn dungeons, concrete walls and battle torn ceilings. But, realistically the place was very tourist-ized & had little cutout figures made to represent the people that lived in it. Not to say it was not very interesting, but definitely not the true rustic feeling I had waited for.

After the touring of the must-see castle, we decided to go visit the sign that Erin had spotted earlier for the “Free Ghost tour”. We figured, whether it was truly scary, or completely rubbish, it would be well worth it. Well, we had actually HOPED it would be cheesy because we thought that would be so much more entertaining than a struggling “scary” one. We were not disappointed. We met a man standing there in a torn vest, tophat and make-shift costume. He claimed to be some dead scottsman, thus starting the amazing ghost tour. As he began the tour he kept claiming “this way mortals” all the while carting around his modern day book bag. Yes, I know, it WAS as amazing as it sounds. The tour was basically us walking within a one block radius to the various historical buildings all the while listening to the true stories of deaths and hangings narrated by this “dead” tour guide. These stories were sprinkled with numerous corny jokes, and fake rats being thrown in surprise. At the end of the tour, we came to find out that this man invented, researched & wrote the entire tour by himself, and lived solely off the donations and profits of the book he had written (similar to the tour). All in all, it was merely a 10pound donation for a very entertaining hour. (:

After the tour, we decided to find a crappy little Italian restaurant with little Italian dishes we could neither read nor recognize. In my opinion, PERFECT ingredients for a dining experience in a foreign city. Being completely exhausted at this point, we then made the decision to hangout in our little yet modern styled hotel room fitting six people on one bed and a fold out couch. I mean, if you can’t do it college style and get a hostel, might as well have the next best thing, right? We decided to experience the other side of Edinburgh and therefore to get all dolled up & attempt to find a club. After dressing in heals and not-so-warm clothing, we spent the next 3hours walking Edinburgh attempting to ask the Edinburgh natives where “George Street” was, getting an indistinguishable answer. Eventually, about 2hours and numerous miles after our expedition started, we found ourselves at the club DIRECTLY across the street from our hotel. Despite the aching feet due to our ill-thought out decision for heals, the rest of the night was very successful and extremely fun! The girls spent the night tearing up the dance floor all in one close knit circle, while the men (following the British custom of NOT dancing) stayed at the bar. After cross-dressers, choking amount of fog, and a continuous mix of journey & British techno, we went home exhausted and completely happy with the way the night turned out!

It was an early morning for us, and after a delicious and all-encompassing continental breakfast, we trekked to the various parts of Edinburgh that we had failed to hit the day before. We could see from our hotel a large hill (Calton hill) in the center of that part of town, with what looked like Greek ruins at the top. Naturally we decided that was our first destination. After some touristy side-track and making our way down windy lanes, we finally found ourselves at the base of the hill. Standing at the top of the “hill” will be one of the most memorable experiences I have had of Scotland thus far. All the monuments to various Scottish writers were well & good, but standing on the edge of this clear field, overlooking both the city & the large cregs, I could not tear myself apart. It is as if you have to stand there for as long as possible in order to try and soak it all in and yet finding it impossible. It was just one of THOSE moments. Inexplicable. To say it took your breath away would be an understatement, and to say it changes one’s perspective would be to belittle it. Basically, anyone who finds themselves in Edinburgh one day MUST make it to the top of Calton Hill. Just look for the Greek styled ruins and you will never forget it.

After that awe-inspiring view, we decided to just walk down the opposite side of the hill and make our way through Edinburgh the most efficient way possible – walk around aimlessly until we hit something of interest. This proved to work, because as we got down the hill and past a few random streets, we nearly literally ran into the Palace where the queen and her royal groupies stay when they find themselves in Scotland. Now the castle was small and kind of house-with-a-fortress-around-it looking, but THIS was a real palace. We decided not to spend the $20 it took to tour the place, but from the information desk and the view through the front-gate, it looks pretty legitimate. What I found most hilarious was a sign the sign in the gift shop that said (paraphrased) “The profits from ticket sales touring the palace and merchandise purchased in the gift shop all go toward sustaining The Queen and her successors. “ (BADLY paraphrased) but basically it was an intelligent, respectable way of saying “All the money from these sales goes toward keeping the Queen and her family rich”. I only wish I had taken a picture, because it was quite an obvious confession.

The remainder of the trip consisted of discovering the coffee shop that JK Rowling wrote the plotline to Harry Potter in (as proclaimed by the sign in the window) & running across the PERFECT little Panini and soup place across the street (: I realized, after catching the bus back to St. Andrews that it was, overall, a quant but successful day!

Edinburgh, you did not prove a disappointment.