Edinburgh-- Rain, Hills, and Pubs

SO! As some of you know Edinburgh was totally depressing me! The first couple of days here rained like crazy, so that made it hard to sight see, take pictures, and meet people outside of the weirdos staying at my crazy hostel. I did my nails, got myself into a book, called some friends and family, and just hung out for a couple of days (to make things less dramatic!) Edinburgh has definitely brought the homesickness out in me, but yesterday the sun came out and it all got better! I went on a free walking tour of the city, soy latte in hand, ready to start over in Edinburgh and take advantage of the good weather! I immediately met a girl named Tierney from California, and she saw her hostel mate Josh, from Australia. Really cool, incredibly NORMAL people, which was an awesome change from the crazies I've been running into! Very happy to have broken that little streak! Anyways the tour was awesome as usual, our guide Seth was really funny. We didn't learn too much about the history, but more about funny random things about the city. We passed by the Gilles Kirk, city chambers, Edinburgh Castle, the sight of the witch burnings, where the gallows and public hangings once took place, where J.K. Rowling wrote the first 2 Harry Potter books, a creepy cemetery, a school that inspired Hogwarts, and much more. It was 3 ½ hours long, and really informative. We learned where a lot of things originated, like sayings like “shit faced” and “the loo” and other things came from, as well as the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Really fun tour with some cool people.

This is where J.K. Rowling wrote the first 2 books of Harry Potter. She was so poor that she would turn off her heat during the day and come here and drink tea all day and write. Now apparently she's worth more than the Queen!

And this is the school that she could see from the window of the Elephant cafe that inspired Hogwarts.

Then, Tierney, Josh and I got some amazing Thai lunch/dinner, and shopped for souvenirs along the Royal Mile. We all agreed to go on the pub crawl, organized by the same company as the walking tour, so I went back to my hostel to get ready for that. Met up with them at the Bank Hotel bar and began our pub crawl! Met a really cute couple, Justin and Kristin, from LA, and Senka, a girl from Croatia. I had an awesome night! Kristin was so funny, we were laughing all night. And Kenzie, the tour guide, was from Nova Scotia, so we chatted about St. FX University and showed the Americans that Canadians have west and east sides too (haha Kristin.. “You guys do that too?!”) Had quite a bit to drink, as these 3, very well groomed Italian guys kept buying shots for everyone, and drinks were less than 2 pounds all night. By well groomed, I mean they had Monroe piercing and had more heavily tweezed eyebrows than any girl I know. I almost asked what brand of tweezers they used. Really attractive guys, but I’m hoping they went home together because they definitely didn’t give off a hetero vibe! Anyways, once we got to the club, Justin, Kristin and I walked back towards my hostel. I’m so not into clubbing and dancing, even over here! But it’s all good and I had a great night!

Today I walked down the Royal Mile to window shop, and walk Arthur’s Seat and see the Holyrood Palace. The palace is where the Queen stays when she comes to Scotland, so it was really nice and heavily guarded, even though I’m 99.9% sure she’s not there. I rounded the corner of the palace, took one look at Arthur’s seat, and headed right back up the mile. I was wearing thongs, a skirt, and had no idea that it was a huge hiking dormant volcano! I guess that was really naïve of me, but I just thought it was a nice walk lol. Might do it when I come back in August, we’ll see.

That’s all for now, not too exciting. It is raining harder right now than I've ever experienced in my life! And it's the middle of July! But I'm gonna try and trek through it soon (I'm buying am umbrella first off!!) and head to Henderson's for dinner, supposedly an amazing veggie cafe, and then tonight I’m going on a ghost tour of the city, and tomorrow is the history making 'Gathering' highland games! Very, very excited about that. And tomorrow night I’m off to York, England! I hope that my hostel in York has free wifi, because I’m about done with paying for it!