Konichiwa!: Road Trip pt. 2 - Ye Olde Edinburgh

Yea it's been quite a while. Normally I write a bit when I'm at work, in between calls. It's been quite busy though lately, and I've also started looking through job sites there. Plus of course the drag in blogging, haven't felt like writing in a while. But I guess I have to get this sucka out of the way first, before I can move on with other topics..

The best small country in the world.

We definitely need to get a funky slogan like that, too. When we got to Edinburgh, it looked like they weren't kidding, the city looked awesome. We arrived at the road that divided the Old and New Town, and the Old Town district simply looked liked it hasn't changed at all since the Medival era.

After gawking at the scenery for a minute, we made our way to the hostel (also in Old Town), which wasn't easy since the Old Town district was on one of the hills in Edinburgh. Going uphill with a heavy backpack is no fun, especially if the hill is steep. The hostel was cool, but hard to find, being crammed up between all kinds of shops. After settling in we strolled through the neighbourhood, it was already late afternoon, so there wasn't any time left to see the sights. We went looking for a supermarket, trying to even out the budget for food after last evening, and a Lidl seemed perfect for that.

We explored the area a bit, of course visited ye olde weapon shops and noticed that the hen parties are also quite popular here. And it's not just the girls, either...

For the night we decided to go on a ghost tour,

walking around the city and reliving Edinburgh's horrific past. We had a lively tourguide, who guided us through all the places where not only crimes and murders took place, but also the circumstances in which people used to live in. I for one, am glad to not live during the medieval era, where people would throw out all their 'bathroom waste' out the window at night. Imagine being a tourist there, walking down the street and suddenly people shouting something from above at 10 o'clock, looking up surprised with mouth wide open and, well, you get the idea. Horrifying, indeed.

The trip took us through most of the Old Town, where at a certain point the tour guide selected someone as a witch to show how people dealt with witchcraft and alleged witchcraft. Or rather, with people whom they didn't like, seeing as witchcraft doesn't exactly exists (except at Hogwarts!) One guess who she picked.. That's right, yours truly. Probably because I was standing at the front next to her, but still, I don't look much like a witch do I? Anywayz, I've been accused of all kinds of things, and seeing as I don't have any proof that I didn't do any of it, found guilty as charged. Well, I wasn't entirely without options..

I could prove my innocence by being tortured, hung, drowned, torn apart and of course the old crowd favourite: burned. If I was truly a witch, these things wouldn't hurt me. What better way to prove my innocence than by roasting on a spit? The tour ended with an excursion to an 'underground dungeon', including creepy ghost stories and the usual big scare at the end.

After the tour we met up with some people that were staying in the same hostel, apparantly they were Dutch too, so we decided to hang out together. They had some sort of aquantence here, so they (and we) got together in a pub.

I was a bit wary of where we would go, seeing as they were into the metal/hard rock/goth scene, and well, I wasn't. But the pub was alright, just like any other pub, except with an adjacent building where the hardcore music was audible. We just stayed in the pub though, so all was cool.

Next day: Edinburgh Castle. In contrast to Dublin Castle, which was more like a big house or mansion, Edinburgh Castle was more like an entire medieval village, complete with a moat, 4 defensive gates, cannons, barracks, churches, etc. I think pictures say more than words in this case, so here they are. Occaisonally accompanied with some info that the tour guide gave us, he was excellent.

The entrance to the castle. At the front of the entrance, there were two statues. On the right, Sir Robert the Bruce, and on the left (see picture), you probably guessed it: Sir Mel Gibson.

Or rather, Sir William Wallace, whom Gibson was playing (if you haven't seen Braveheart, you have no business here)

Cannons! And lots of em. I guess they had a lot of defending to do from invading enemies (*cough* the English *cough*).

One of the cannons, named Mons Meg, was quite large, given as a gift from someone I don't remember. Anywayz, it turned out to be quite impractical, being so heavy (weighing 6 ton!) it couldn't be taken anywhere and it wasn't easy to aim either. Powerful though, it's not everyday you see cannons that can fire 180kg cannonballs..

Did I mention it was big?

The top of the castle offered a spectacular view as well. I put 2 pics together for that panoramic look ^^

The tour took most of the day, the rest of which we spent cruising through the New Town part, bit of shopping around and seeing others sites, like a huge cathedral with amazing frescoed windows.

Some more nice views

The hostel had a (perhaps weekly) Sunday cook-off, where they would make dinner themselves for the guests for just F2,-. They also made one of my favourites: oven-grilled chicken, with veggies and a mashed potato salad. Good eatin'. Especially when the leftovers were up for grabs (at first everybody got one serving, but they made much more). Very good eatin' ^_^.

Next day packing up already, but our flight went in the evening, so we had some time left.