Edinburgh Part 2: The Tourist Experience

Edinburgh Part 1

Haley, my friend who I was visiting in Edinburgh, is luckily a list-er just like me. She is also studying and living in Edinburgh, so I decided to leave the planning up to her so she could feel free to show me her favorite things. The List she created became one of my favorite parts of the trip—it was always with Haley, even if we were just going down to the kitchen to cook. We had plenty of random fun things on the list like “bake pumpkin pie” and “wander through graveyards at night” (or we may have added that one after the fact), but we also had a good amount of touristy things to check off. On my first full day we took a really wonderful free city tour and then threw in other key “things to see” throughout the week.

1. John Knox was an important Protestant reformation leader in Edinburgh. Haley hates John Knox. John Knox wanted to be buried immediately next to Saint Giles church. They later relocated all the bodies from that cemetery in order to turn it into a parking lot…but out of respect for John’s request they left him. In spot 23.
2. There is a heart shaped stone in front of Saint Giles called the Heart of Midloathian. The tradition is that if you want to have a good night out in Edinburgh you should first spit on the stone. Honestly, Izzy our tour guide told more about the history of the spitting tradition but I’ve already forgotten. Yeah, my brain’s a sponge. (Sarcasm. You picked up on that right?)

3. Here is the impressive castle atop it’s hill in Edinburgh. Izzy told us excellent stories about the many times the castle was taken or attempted to be taken. She shared an anecdote about someone scaling the side steep side of the hill to sneak in and out of the castle. She called this someone “ninja scot” which became one of Haley and I’s favorite phrases during our own Scottish adventures. Izzy was a fabulous tourguide and I really hope I’m spelling her name right but it might be Izzie. Oops.

4 & 5. Greyfriars cemetery was quite cool even without the knowledge that Tom Riddle is buried there. I loved the many rows of sloping gravesites and the really spectacular view of the city over the walls which I spectacularly failed at capturing with my mediocre photography skills and the grey weather. Oh well. You’ll forgive me when I tell you the story of the cute dog in picture number…
6. This is Greyfriars Bobby. Basically he was the adorable puppy of a graveyard watchman. One day, his owner died. Sad. But Bobby was a sweet loyal dog and he spent the rest of his life (fourteen years I think) guarding his owner’s grave. Every day! Now he has an honorary grave marker in Greyfriars graveyard. I think we can also file this under “reasons dogs are always better than cats.”

7., 8.&9. One day we tried to decide Arthur’s Seat, the famous hill that overlooks the city. We got started late, then we managed to take the wrong path twice and by the time we got ourselves situated back at the start we had lost the light and were pretty muddy and tired. Still snapped some nice photos from attempt 1.

10., 11, & 12. So we tried again on Sunday and HUZZAH we successfully got to the top. It was cold and windy and so we stayed only a few minutes before venturing down to Holyrood Park.

13. Perched above Holyrood Park are the ruins of a St. Anthony’s Chapel.
14. Down below in the park Haley made friends with a swan. We noticed that everywhere the female swan went, two male swans followed and seemed to try to distract her, each from the other. We drew a comparison between the two male swans and Jacob and Edward from the Twilight series. Naturally, we then compared the swan to Bella. And no, it wasn’t until I said “It’s Bella-swan!” that I made the connection…you know, Bella Swan. Oh gosh. Facepalm.

15., 16. & 17. We ventured to a few museums while I was in town. The National Museum of Scotland had an observation deck with the best views all around. But beware: The observation deck also hosts an overly chatty museum worker who, when you show the tiniest bit of encouraging politeness, will talk to you for an hour and insist on showing you her favorite artifacts in the museum before your clever excuses finally set you free. Yeah. {It turns out I am actually too polite…Haley later on questioned whether I was actually in fact in interested in the geography and artifact lessons the lady was giving us because I was that good at acting polite and interested. Gosh darn my parents for raising me right.}
18. Haley may have actually been wishing this thing worked if it would get her away from the friendly but overly chatty lady.

There you have it! Your touristy taste of Edinburgh. Next up: All the other random stories and photos I feel like sharing with no particular common theme. Woohoo!