After a 3 and a half hour bus ride we arrived in Edinburgh
on a relatively nice afternoon. It was still overcast but was a bit warmer than
Inverness. We walked the 2 miles from the central bus station to our hostel
which was in the ‘West end’ area in a huge converted cathedral church! I hadn’t
told Bec that this is where we were staying so it was a bit of a surprise when
we rocked up out the front of a big old sandstone cathedral and found our room
which was in the basement area… but due to the renovations was actually quite
nice. The shared bathroom was also one of the best by far and was never busy!
The hostel was called “The Belford Hostel” and had a massive common room and
kitchen. I would recommend it to anyone despite the walk to town.
On the first afternoon we headed into one of the pubs nearby
to get food, but unluckily for us this one did not serve dinner midweek (?!???
What’s with that?), so we had to walk another kilometre or so to another pub
which was a little expensive, but after an afternoon of walking after a long
bus ride it was by far the best option.
During the evening we also decided that after being in the
cold of Ireland and Scotland we needed some warmth and booked flights from
Glasgow on the 16th to Barcelona in the south of Spain which
according to my phone was experiencing 30 degree sunny days!
ON our first full day in Edinburgh we headed the 2 miles
back into the centre of the city to meet up with a free walking tour organised
by the Sandman group. We had heard about this due to the pamphlets in the
hostel and it looked quite good. The way they work is it is free however you
are welcome to tip the tour guides who are volunteers, if you decide the tour
was worth it. There is no obligation to tip and we found they definitely were
not pushy about it.
Our tour guide, Jonny, was a late 20’s English Literature
grad from the Edinburgh University, and hence knew a lot about the history of
the city. We spent three hours walking in and around the ‘Royal Mile’ and various
other historically significant areas, such as where they hung a lot of the
Covenant people and also the Covenant Jail. We visited one of the most used
cemeteries in the city (estimated 500,000 people buried there) and heard the
story about the watchmen who was buried there and his dog that slept at his
grave every night after he died. Only the wealthy get grave stones in the
cemetery and JK Rowling used a few names from the deceased in the harry potter
series, such as Tom Riddle and McGonngill. We also were shown the castle, which
is a school, that was the inspiration for Hogwarts. We visited the area of the
old markets and heard the punishment for stealing which was having your ear
nailed to a wall in the middle of the market for 24 hours and people would
throw all their waste at you and you were not allowed to go back to your job
until your ear healed, or alternatively you could rip your ear off the wall but
you would have a scar forever and hence you could never work again! Some of the
stories were amazing and the knowledge of our guide was excellent. He also told
us about a strange old law in Edinburgh which is that you are hung if you
‘pretend to be an Egyptian’….
After the tour we headed to a pub to have lunch with some of
the others in our group and the guide before heading back to the hostel via the
“Jam House” where Bec’s cousin Ben used to work (unfortunately closed).
The next day was horrible. After such a beautiful sunny day
before, we woke to rain and 10 degree (with a wind chill of 6 degree) and very
gusty winds. We had until 3pm when we would catch a bus to Glasgow so we headed
to the bus station to store our bags for the day after checking out. The locker
storage at the bus station was excellent. We purchased a medium sized locker
which fitted all of our stuff in it for 6 pound for 12 hours.
After storing our gear we headed in the rain to find
somewhere to print out our flight tickets as stupidly enough Ryan Air requires
you to bring along printed copies and you get charged 60 pound if you do not! This
is like $100, which was the price of the flight anyway! After we finally found
somewhere, we headed across town to the Edinburgh Museum and spent an hour or
so looking around at items including the oldest chess set and the stuffed
remains of Dolly the sheep! We would have liked to go inside Edinburgh Castle
but we had little time left and it was a bit out of our backpackers price
range, but it was still very impressive from the outside.
The bus ride to Glasgow was excellent. We were aboard a bus
called the Panda Express (as it went via the zoo) and we had a four seat booth
on the bus to ourselves with a table, drink holders, individual air vents and
lights and also free Wi-Fi! Definitely the way to travel as it was only 9 pound
for a 3 and a half hour bus ride!
We stayed the night in the Travelodge right near the Glasgow
Prestwick airport and had an excellent dinner at the Italian restaurant next
door before getting up early the next morning to take the 3 hour flight to
Barcelona.
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| Statue near where we started the walking tour |
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| This used to be where people had to pay taxes or go to jail. It is tradition to spit on the heart but apparently people get proposed to on it every year without knowing the history |
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| Cant remember who but its lucky to rub his foot |
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| One of the buildings along the royal mile |
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| This is where Robert Louis Stevenson wrote some of his books |
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| One of the churches on the royal mile. It was here a girl threw a stool at the priest for trying to make them worship the king and through him god, rather than praying straight to god |
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| Where people used to get their last whisky before being hung |
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| The remains of the Covenant Jail |
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| The Hogwarts looking school. Apparently this is were J.K Rowling got her inspiration for Hogwarts. |
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| Commemorative plaque to the watchman's dog. People leave toys and sticks |
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| Up on the hill below the castle |
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| Designing flower beds for the Olympics.. they had hundreds of trays of different coloured plants they used. |
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| Our tour guide |
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| The Castle. |
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| The Jam House... had to visit it! |
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| Our hostel in an old church |
