Edinburgh

So this past weekend, Lauren and I took the beautiful train ride up to Scotland and wandered about Edinburgh for a few days. The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire time we were there. We went on a walking tour shortly after we arrived. I've decided that although this is a very touristy thing to do, it also extremely smart. We took one in Barcelona too and I also really liked that one. It is a great way to learn about the city you are staying in and both times I've done it, I've learned so much I never would have known otherwise. Plus, you know, they were free tours. Anyway, our tour guide was this Scottish guy about our age who was born and raised in Edinburgh and clearly knew a lot and really enjoyed telling us about it. He was very humorous. So we learned about how the Scottish hated the past English monarchs and how they took over Scotland anyway; we saw where Scottish people get knighted (including Sean Connery); we saw the cafe where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter and the school that was the inspiration for Hogwarts; and once again heard why the Scottish hate the English. Honestly, they have good reason for it. The tour provided Lauren and me a good list of places we wanted to visit over the weekend.On Saturday, we were going to go on a tour of the highlands of Scotland that would have been about 12 hours of being in a van, but seeing all of the countryside and lakes and stuff. However, the driver was not nice when he heard that Lauren has problems with motion sickness. She had taken some medicine for it, but we could tell that he was not at all sympathetic and he basically talked us out of it. Although it probably would have been cool, I'm glad we didn't go because it was such a beautiful day, that it would have sucked being in a van hurdling along twisty roads for the entire day. Lauren and I had a much more relaxing day, but still packed full. We wandered around the city for awhile enjoying the sun. Edinburgh is not as big as I thought it was going to be and it was easy to figure out where we were. Especially because there is this giant castle right in the middle of the city that makes a pretty nice landmark. I now understand where Peter Jackson got the inspiration for Rohan because it honestly looks like it: a giant castle perched precariously upon a huge rocky, hill. Well, technically it is a dormant volcano. Anyway, Lauren and I paid the ridiculously overpriced ticket to go in and look around. We saw the crown jewels of the Scottish kings and the Stone of Destiny. The Stone of Destiny has some good stories around it, so I will tell you about it. It is also known as the Coronation stone and the English stole it during the reign of Edward the Conqueror cause, you know, he liked to conquer. Anyway, the Scottish have always wanted it back, even though England and Scotland are now under the same monarch and the stone is placed under the throne any time a new monarch is crowned. So of course, some college kids in the 50s decided to steal it out of Westminster Abbey and believe it or not, they did it. They broke it, but they managed to get it into two Ford Anglias and across to Scotland. They ended up turning themselves in but couldn't be prosecuted for stealing because, get this, the court couldn't prove who owned it because England had stolen it originally. Ha. Irony. Anyway, Scotland got it back in 1996 when the Conservative government was trying to win the Scottish vote. It didn't work as Blair and his Labour government ended up giving them their own Parliament which was more appealing than the stone, but they got that too.
After that, we went to The Elephant House which is the cafe where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter. She lived right above it and from the window you can see both the castle, but also this school that is pictured. The four turrets are supposedly the inspiration for the four houses of Hogwarts. There is also a graveyard behind the cafe and there are several names on gravestones that JK borrowed for her books including Potter, McGonagall (who was actually a really, really bad Scottish poet), Moodie, and, our favorite, Thomas Riddell (spelled differently, but still!). It was really fun wandering around the graveyard examining each one trying to find the names.

We also hit up two museums: the Writers' Museum and the National Art Gallery. The Writers' Museum is dedicated to the great writers of Scotland: Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Robert Burns. Honestly, it wasn't the best museum I've ever been too, but still interesting as I didn't know a lot about any of the writers. The National Art Gallery was really good though. They had a great collection with a lot of Titian (who I especially love) but also a nice array of Impressionist paintings.

Overall, I liked Edinburgh, but it wasn't my favorite city ever. I definitely like London better and we are all getting extremely sad that we have less than two weeks left. However, Lauren and I have our Europe trip almost completely planned out and booked, and I'm so glad that I'll be coming back here this summer for my internship.