Across the Channel to Scotland

Hello friends!! It's been awhile since I last posted. This week I want to tell about my trips to Edinburgh, Scotland, both with my parents and with my friends! Bizarrely enough, it worked out that I did two very different sets of sightseeing with each group. Let's start with the first go-round with mom and dad!

As soon as I arrived and was picked up at the airport, we were whisked away to eat lunch at a pub called Sheep Heid Inn, purportedly the oldest still-standing pub in Scotland as established in the 14th century. It was named as such due to the "charity" of the rich in medieval times to leave the only unusable part of the sheep--the head--to the poor, who resided in this district. However, our meal was not at all as repulsive as a sheep's head, thank goodness. In a back room they also had to lanes for traditional bowling (there's no holes in the ball) called skittles! The groups playing were kind enough to let us have a go, which I did rather poorly at. Oh well.

In the afternoon we traveled to one end of the Royal Mile to see the Edinburgh Castle, sitting atop the hill at the head of Old Town. Built in the 12th century, the castle has been a stronghold for rulers of Scotland ever since. It still houses the Honours of Scotland: the crown, the scepter and the sword of state, which are also the oldest known complete set of crown jewels. The Stone of Scone, upon which all of the monarchs of Scotland were traditionally crowned, was also kept in the Crown Room since its return to Scotland in 1996. Though we weren't allowed to take pictures of them, I do have plenty of other pictures of the castle:

Walking up to the castle. The freezing wind tried to tell us it was a bad idea, but the Graham Clan is not so easily deterred.

Inside the castle walls.

One of the buildings within the castle walls.

Several of the rooms had huge, beautiful fireplaces. Mom, with her great affinity for them, said that she was in "fireplace nirvana." As such, I thought it only appropriate to include a few. Pretty fancy, huh?  The top two were from palace bedrooms and dining rooms; the red room was the Great Hall, where royal councils of Scotland were held.

          

 That evening, we got all dressed up to go to a dinner banquet for Robert Burns Night. Burns is Scotland's most famed and beloved poet, and the banquet held for him annually across the country is quite elaborate and very traditional. Upon arriving at the Ballymore Hotel, we heard music--A man stood by the entrance playing the bagpipes! I made Dad film some of it for me:

This same man headed the procedure and ceremony for the rest of the night. Interestingly enough, he wasn't the only man wearing a kilt! Instead of tuxedos, men here still wear kilts made of their clan's tartan (plaid). We bought a few things earlier that day of Graham of Montrose plaid, which looks like this:

I bundled up in my Graham tartan scarf against the Scotch cold!

The dinner was lovely, and involved five courses. Each of the courses also had a pairing of Scotch whiskey. Needless to say, I think forced myself to try two before I couldn't do any more. That stuff is disgusting. However, the ceremonies were perfect! The bagpiper loudly recited Burns poetry and, as an English major, I was ashamed to say that I didn't know any Burns poetry at all! The most hilarious (if not most disgusting) poem was the "Address to a Haggis" which the bagpiper recited while presenting the ugly, protruding sheep's stomach on a platter to the banquet. (If you ever need a reenactment, I would be more than happy to give you my best aggressive harsh Scottish bagpiper accent. I've already done it several times.) Using the small knife traditionally worn in one of the socks, he then cut it open, and the black haggis oozed out. Thankfully, our haggis dish was served with hashbrowns! It really wasn't that terrible, for it is a collection of herbs, spices, bread, and blood. All in all, the evening was lovely, and quite the cultural experience.

The next morning, we went to the other side of the royal mile for the Hollyrood Palace. This beautiful building houses the British royalty when the queen comes for a visit to Scotland. Again, no pictures inside were permitted, but the exterior was lovely in its own right.

Hollyrood Palace

Well-kept courtyard

The adjacent abbey which was the original reason for placement of the palace

Thus concludes my weekend with my parents. The weekend with my friends in Edinburgh was a little slower paced, but equally fun in its own right! To keep this already long post from being any great deal longer, I'll confine most of our short trip into pictures with more explanatory captions.

Just arrived to Edinburgh from Dublin! Had to ride upstairs on a double-decker bus ;)

My friend Arianna and I went to check in to our hostel. If you can see the other wall there on the right hand side... I'm not exaggerating when I say the room was exactly big enough for one twin bed. It was positively cozy :)

List of essentials for a walking tour of Edinburgh on a blustery crisp morning: Tweed hat, camera, puffy coat, and coffee!

My friends Brittany and Victoria here are posing in the Elephant Room tea house. Besides having delicious food, it was actually the cafe in which J. K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book of the series!

The Elephant Room overlooked a gothic-style cemetery with graves dating back into the 13th century onwards. (Fun Fact: The term "Scottish Lasagna" is used to describe the way that the city is actually built on layers upon layers of dead people! Yay!)

However, the REAL fun fact came in looking at certain graves. As I said, J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter in the cafe overlooking this cemetery. Occasionally, she would walk through it, perusing the head stones. More than a few of the names in the cemetery are now forever immortalized as characters within her books. This one above is the most infamous: If you can read it, it commemorates one Thomas Riddell...

We briefly went into the St. James cathedral near our hostel. The woodwork and sculpting were absolutely stunning (which is saying alot, because I have already seen more churches than I can count since I've been here).

Recently restored, the ceiling of the church was painted a brilliant blue as it originally had been. It was a shock to us--we are used to all dark stone!

Brittney and I pose for a brief picture in The Cellar, which was a traditional and very delicious Scottish restaurant.

Our last stop of the weekend was a climb to the top of Calton Hill to see the sun set over breathtaking views of the city.

I was able to meet up with my friend Heidi, who is studying this semester in Edinburgh and was my roommate freshman and sophomore year at Vanderbilt!

All in all, the city is absolutely lovely. Though I'm partial to Ireland, I do have to say that Scotland is pretty nice too, I guess ;)