Edinburgh

January 18th, 2009

This weekend the international society held a trip to Edinburgh. I met up with my friends at the subway pretty early in hopes of catching a 10 o'clock train to Edinburgh. We ended up taking a bus because it was cheaper and the ride was not very long. When we arrived to Edinburgh everyone immediately started taking pictures... the city was absolutely beautiful. We set off towards the Elephant Cafe for lunch, which apparently is the birthplace of Harry Potter, so some people were very excited to eat there. After lunch we found our way to the Royal Mile and began walking up the street towards Edinburgh Castle. This castle was gorgeous and had an amazing view. The castle is set upon the basalt core of an extinct volcano. It cost about ten pounds to tour the castle, so we all went in and explored the different exhibits set up in the castle including the old military prison.

After exploring the castle we decided to make our way back to the city centre to catch the shuttle bus to our hostel. On the way we walked through the Tron Kirk church built in 1630. We also saw a newlywed couple walking into their wedding reception while a bag piper played a tune for them (it was really cute). We ended up stopping for tea- I swear I drink SO MUCH tea now- before catching the shuttle to the hostel. We stayed at the Globetrotter Inn which was about a fifteen minute drive out of the city. The hostel was really nice. Between the 11 of us we had two rooms of six with no strangers (so no worries Keely there was no fear for it to be like the movie).

After settling into our hostel, we took the shuttle bus back into the city and searched for a place to have dinner. We had been really fortunate with the weather on the trip so far, but walking to dinner was probably one of the coldest and windiest nights I have ever experienced! We ended up going to eat at this bar and let me tell you the lasagne was good! After dinner thankfully the weather was much better and we walked to a pub called Biddy Mulligans. We met up with some friends at the pub and then set off to a club called Espionage.

The next day we woke up early to catch breakfast at the hostel before checkout. Most of us were tired... it was a late night and there was some trouble catching a cab on the way home... but we were still looking forward to another day in Edinburgh. After the shuttle dropped us off in the city we set off to explore Calton Hill. Calton Hill had another amazing view of Edinburgh, and probably my favorite monument yet. After taking pictures we walked down towards the New Scottish Parliament. I think the building opened in 2004?? Across the street from the Parliament building was the Royal Castle... while we decided not to tour the castle we did end up using the royal restrooms haha...

That afternoon we split up and some people walked back to the castle, but I ended up heading back towards the souvenir shops. I bought really cool boxers haha. We all met up for lunch at a place called Wannaburger (which had AMAZING milk shakes) and then caught the bus back to Glasgow. The trip was fun, and I would definitely say that the cobblestone streets which were everywhere, were probably my favorite part of Edinburgh!