When can I move to Edinburgh? It is absolutely stunning! There is so much history in the air you are swimming through it. The buildings are all the same type, made from this light brownish stone color making the city look so beautiful and put together. Despite the fact that the weather the days I was there were rainy, windy, and cold for the most, I fell head over heels for this fascinating, historical town.
We journeyed to Edinburgh by bus from London, which was a horrible idea, it was 11 hours on a bus, and I will most likely refrain from that sort of thing in the future unless the situation called for it. The only reason we took the bus was because it was considerably cheaper than the train. Anyway, once we finally arrived I remember being there not even five minutes and we were still walking to the Airbnb flat when I turned to my friend and told her I could live there. Once we got to the flat we discovered that the lady we were renting the flat from was extremely nice. She had left us food and wine which was like a gift sent from heaven because we were absolutely starved.
After we were all settled we adventured out into the heart of the city to see the famous Edinburgh castle! On our way there it became clear to us that Edinburgh, or at least the road we were on was centered for tourists. There were souvenir shops everywhere, as well as cashmere shops, which makes sense the more I thought about it because sheep graze the vast hills of Northern UK. Thus, I was compelled to buy a Scottish scarf. After a delicious lunch and a quick stop at Starbucks we came across a ghost tour booth. Due to the fact that the day we were in Scotland was Friday the 13th in October, we had to sign up for a tour and that tour had to be a graveyard and vaults tour
at nighttime.
On the tour we learned some basic information about the history of Edinburgh. Here are a couple of the interesting facts I remember…
- There are ‘Closes’ which are like little alley ways, reeking of urine, which branch off the road leading up to the castle The Royal Mile
- Edinburgh was a walled city so they could not expand on the ground they had to expand upward
- Our guide said that before there was a proper sewer system, people would go to the bathroom in a bucket and at a certain time everyday every one would open their windows and dumb the feces and urine out into the road
- JK Rowling got the names for McGonagall and Tom Riddle from a grave yard which holds an estimated 250,000 bodies in not a lot of square feet
- The vaults exist because Edinburgh had to keep
being built on top of to accommodate the population due to the city being walled - There is a heart made out of stone near a current church and what used to be a prison. This prison had horrible treatment of prisoners so as people would walk by they would spit in the heart as a way of saying the cruelty was bad. Scottish people still do this today and yes I took part in this tradition
Something which really hit me during my time in Edinburgh and especially the graveyard is that Scotland is so much older than America it is almost hilarious. There were graves in there from before the United States was even a thought.
Another adventure I experienced while in Scotland was a hike on the nearby volcano to the top known as Arthur’s Seat, this has no known reference to King Arthur. I was originally under the impression that the hike to the top would be a nice stroll to do with just a bit of an incline. Boy was a wrong. It was no way impossible or even hard, but when its 50 degrees out and you haven’t eaten anything, it is a bit of a struggle. Though despite all my complaining and my friends singing the view was 
absolutely astonishing. The grass was an incredible shade of green and there were
e random ruins of old stone building just there on the side of the volcano. At the top you could see the whole city, the castle, lakes, far off mountains and hills, and it was worth it. At Arthur’s Seat there were two stone table like things there 250 meters up and when I was next to them I thought the wind was going to blow me off the mountain it was so strong it was scary. After a short break on the top we headed down to go do a bit of Harry Potter sight seeing and souvenir shopping. There was so many little things we did during our short time in Edinburgh it is hard to name and recall them all, I will one day return and explore more of the country.