Wow. Edinburgh is amazing! It is the most incredible city I've ever visited in my life, hands down. The pictures don't even begin to show the beauty of this place. If anyone travels to Europe, Edinburgh is a must. I know that it is still early in my traveling, but I think this place will be hard to beat. I STILL can't believe my round trip ticket was only 10 euros!
We left Dublin at 6:30, which meant I had to wake up at 4:00. This just so happened to be the one night that I couldn't fall asleep and I actually didn't go to bed at all. I was extremely tired until we arrived in Edinburgh. Well actually, until we arrived in the city centre. I really can't explain it in words. It was Harry Potteresque if that makes any sense! I've already seen a ton of old buildings, but these are sooo different. I think going there during fall was a good decision. The trees were all different colors and it was beautiful.
There was a group of 13 of us that were on the trip. The majority stayed only one night, but two entire days. But there were three of us that stayed an extra night and despite my current illness, I'm so glad that we did! The first night I stayed in a flat (apartment) of a friend of a friends. Erika, who goes to school with me at DCU, has a good friend that lives in Edinburgh. Allison and her roommates were so incredibly gracious and I'm really lucky to have met them. Allison was our own personal tour guide the entire first day. We went to a lot of places I'm sure that we would have not known about if it wasn't for her.
The second night I stayed at my first hostel! It was only 12 pounds a night and the boys & I stayed in a four bedroom with some backpacker that we didn't know was there until the next morning. The hostel was a lot nicer than what I expected and the people were really nice. They actually offered a "bar crawl" at night to show us the best pubs!
Day 1:
Arthur's Seat, an inactive volcano that we hiked. It was a good workout and a gorgeous view of Edinburgh!
Edinburgh Castle. There are spectacular views of the castle no matter where you are in the city.
Cathedral
We also went to University of Edinburgh, it was an amazing school that served good lunch!
We went inside the Parliament Court House and the people working there still wore those old fashioned wigs!
We saw the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote his first Harry Potter book (just a fun fact even though I'm not really a Harry Potter fan)
That night we went to Frankenstein's, a pub that we had dinner & drinks at, before passing out at 23:00 :)
Day 2:
According to this guy's sign, playing the bagpipes on the streets is now banned in Edinburgh. If this is true, it is a shame. The music was amazing.
We went to National Gallery and saw a ton of old paintings. We also went to the National Museum of Scotland & learned a lot about its history. My favorite part was stuff from the 17th century and when women were being accused of being witches. Very interesting! This is the view from the top of the museum...
This day the big group split up and we all did our own things. We ended up just wandering around for a bit and observing this wonderful city!
The boys (Tomoro & Diego) and I, we were the three who stayed an extra night. This night we went to the pubs for a bit and enjoyed the Scottish whiskey (and coke for me!). I had a guinness and was shocked with its taste. Scotland is so very close to Ireland, yet the guinness is just not the same.
Day 3:
We took a bus to Portobello Beach & saw the North Sea
We climbed Caldon Hill. Right when we were about to leave to catch the bus to the airport it started to rain. We really lucked out because the weather forcast predicted heavy rain all three days in Edinburgh, but it never did! :)
We also went to the Botanic Gardens and wandered around the streets being amazed by random street entertainers.
Our flight was supposed to depart at 22:00, but was a bit delayed. Luckily the flight home was only 45 minutes!
WHAT A GREAT TRIP!!
