this weekend, i went to SCOTLAND. finally! it's been a life-long dream of mine to go there. i am half scottish, after all. it's about time i made my pilgrimage.
i spent two days in edinburgh, and they were seriously two of the best days of my life.
at 7:07 friday morning, i boarded a train with my friends emma, mary, rachael, and faryal, and we set off on the six and a half hour journey to edinburgh. let me tell you, trains are the way to go if you're traveling around the uk. they're so much faster than buses and the scenery is just stunning. we arrived in the city at around 1:30 and went straight to our hostel, which turned out to be probably the best place we could have possibly stayed. it was in a really cool, really old building and it was right in the city center, so we were well within walking distance to everything we wanted to see and do. and this hostel definitely had character - every room had a name, as did every bed. we were put in "the virgin room" and my bed was called "Jesus." appropriate? maybe not. but still hilarious.
after checking in and dropping off our backpacks, we set out to find a place to eat. about a block away from our hostel was grassmarket square, home to all sorts of shops and restaurants. we grabbed some sandwiches at a little cafe that looked straight up at edinburgh castle, and then headed up the hill to tour the castle.
guys, castles are awesome. we need to get some of these in the US. well, okay, some other than the disney variety. but for serious, edinburgh castle is so stinking cool. first of all, it's a castle. i know i've said that already but i just really want the magnitude of that to sink in. second of all, it's on a giant cliff, so it overlooks the entire city and has some of the best views i've ever seen. edinburgh is a coastal city, so from the castle you can see the entire city with the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. so. cool.
we decided to take a guided tour through the castle so we could learn about it's history, since none of us really knew anything about it. also because the tour guide had a really great scottish accent, but mostly the first thing. i'm not gonna lie, i don't remember much of it, but i do know that it was originally constructed in the 1100s and only one of the original buildings is still standing. also, when oliver cromwell declared himself lord protector, he came in and turned the whole thing into essentially a military base, transforming everything that was used for any non-military purpose into barracks or something else functional for his purposes. and king james VI of scotland (james I of england) was born in the castle. and... that's about all the history i've got.
the castle houses multiple museums, including the scottish national war memorial (not exactly a museum but close):
inside the memorial, there are books that hold the names of every scotsman (or woman) who has died in combat since the first world war. it was really beautiful inside, but cameras weren't allowed. we also went into the royal apartments, where the monarchs would stay when the castle was still used as a residence. it was in the apartments that james VI was born, in the tiniest bedroom ever. queen mary could not have been comfortable in there. today, the royal apartments are also where the crown jewels of scotland are on display, so we got to go see them. once again, no cameras allowed. but basically the crown jewels consist of a crown, a sword, and a sceptre. all of which are heavily bejeweled and beautiful. of course.
after seeing the jewels, we went down into the castle vaults, which were used to hold prisoners of war in the 18th and 19th centuries. they had actual cell doors on display that had carved graffiti all over them from the prisoners who were kept there, which were really cool. historians have actually studied the graffiti and have been able to decipher what each of the carvings are, and by doing so have been able to figure out when a lot of them were made and even who made them (or what country the prisoners were from). that might not sound very impressive, but i thought it was pretty awesome.
we wandered around the rest of the castle for a while longer, but it started to close pretty soon after we left the vaults, so we made our way out and started down the royal mile, the street that runs from the castle down to the palace of holyrood house, the queen's residence in scotland. the royal mile is a really cool street, full of scottish souvenir shops and pubs and lots of street vendors. what i really loved about it - and all of edinburgh, really - was that though it was obviously a big tourist destination, it didn't feel very touristy. it just felt like a regular street in a regular city, where people live and work and live their everyday lives. we walked all the way down the royal mile and intended to turn off and go hike arthur's seat, the highest peak in edinburgh that overlooks the entire city, but our plans changed a little bit when we reached the palace...
i don't know if it was really publicized in the US, but there was another royal wedding this weekend. the queen's granddaughter, zara phillips, got married. in edinburgh. and the entire royal family was there. staying at holyrood palace. so... we might have done a little royal stalking. when we walked up to the palace, there were a couple of paparazzi waiting outside the gates, and several policemen stationed all around the palace. the paparazzi told us we'd just missed the royals leaving for a party, but the police told us they'd probably be back in about an hour. now, you really need to know something about me before you can understand just how much i was freaking out upon receiving this information: i am in love with prince harry. like, celebrity crush to the extreme. and i want to be princess kate's best friend. for serious. so, like i said, i was FREAKING OUT. we decided to go ahead with our hike because arthur's seat is basically across the street from the palace, but we did it a little faster than we might have otherwise. the views from up there were really really amazing.
after our hike, we went back down to the palace to await the royals' return. the police totally encouraged it, which i thought was really funny. they even told us where to stand to get the best view. after about half an hour, the gates opened and...
I SAW PRINCE HARRY, PRINCE WILLIAM, AND PRINCESS KATE. IN PERSON. REAL LIFE. 100 YARDS AWAY FROM ME.
(kate's in green and the two men behind her are william and harry.)
i cannot articulate how ecstatic and overwhelmed i was at the moment. it was surreal. and the craziest part was that we had no idea they were even going to be there when we got to edinburgh. it was completely serendipitous. and definitely one of the best moments of my life.
after the five of us each got our heart rates back to normal, we went to find a place to eat, hoping to find some good authentic scottish food. we decided on a pub down the street from our hostel called the castle arms. i got a steak and ale pie and oh my goodness it was delicious. if you've never had one, you need to. after dinner, we really wanted dessert, so i went back up to the bar to order some sticky toffee puddings (also ridiculously delicious), where some english guy tried to hit on me by insulting my clothes and insisting that because i'm from texas, i must have voted for bush. that was a fun conversation. thanks but no thanks, mike.
after dinner we decided to check out the edinburgh night life. we'd heard it was a big party city, but every bar we passed was filled with mostly middle aged men. awkward. we stopped in a few places but didn't stay anywhere too long, until we were directed to a club called "espionage." it was hot and crowded but there were people there our age so that was a plus. and they had karaoke... so i sang. for a club full of strangers. in a foreign country. who am i?! in case you're wondering, i sang "umbrella" by rihanna because, well, why not? it was actually really fun and believe it or not, it's way easier to do karaoke in front of strangers than people you know. but we were all exhausted at that point, so we called it a night pretty soon after my little performance.
saturday morning we started the day with a trip out to rosslyn chapel, right outside of edinburgh. the chapel isn't super impressive from the outside, but the inside is amazing. it's (i think) entirely made of sandstone, and it seems as though every inch of stone inside has been intricately carved into some design or figure. it's been worn down some over time, but it's still really beautiful. unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but here's the outside:
we got a great tour of the chapel and got to walk down to the ruins of rosslyn castle. the castle is in a beautiful glen and walking down there i couldn't help but think "i need to live here." the view was just breathtaking.
i mean, come on. how can you not want to live there?? so so pretty.
after leaving the chapel we went back into the city and had lunch at the elephant house, the cafe where jk rowling first began writing harry potter. we all totally geeked out. it was awesome. but the place was actually really cute - they had elephant figurines and art everywhere - and the food was really good. i highly recommend it. from there we walked back up to the royal mile to do some souvenir shopping. i got a scarf of my family tartan! my family's in the maccallum clan, in case you were wondering. (and macalister and macphee, but i couldn't find those anywhere.) that was one of my main goals in going to scotland, so i'm really excited about it. we eventually made it all the way back down to the palace, where a giant crowd had gathered to try to catch a glimpse of the royals as they left for the wedding. we worked our way through the masses as much as possible and got as close as we could and waited. and we saw them! well, we saw their cars. we weren't really close enough to see who was in any of them, but it was still really fun to be in the middle of all that excitement. congrats to the royal newlyweds, zara and mike!
it was then time to make our way back to the train station and start the trek back to oxford. the trip home didn't go nearly as smoothly as the trip there, but i won't go into detail. let's just say i have a bone to pick with sir richard branson. you can ask me about it later if you're really curious.
this weekend was without question the best weekend of my life. i love edinburgh. i think it's my new favorite city in the world. at least it's giving london a good run for it's money.
i can't believe how incredibly blessed i am to have had this experience. God's grace just really blows my mind. thank you Lord for everything i just wrote about and more.
i hope you all had fantastic weekends too! you're great and i love you a lot.
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