First, the internet blows here and I can't upload pictures which is really pissing me off...but in the mean time I wrote this so enjoy and hopefully I can get the pictures of my last two posts up soon.
I would like to start by saying I am writing this blog post in a cafe called The Elephant House. This is the cafe where JK Rowling started to write her extremely famous book series, Harry Potter. She wrote it here in order to save money on heat in her apartment because she was broke...now she is one of the wealthiest women in the world, and worth more than the Queen of England. So I thought it would be cool to write my post in this cafe.
The first day I was here I started off by taking the Sandemans free tour that I took in Prague, Berlin, and Hamburg. The tour guide was very good. He was from Portugal and came to Edinburgh to study performing arts and storytelling. Storytelling and tour guide go together nicely and I knew from the start that it would be good. He showed us the sites such as the castle, a church that Sean Connery was knighted in, and taught us a lot about the history of Edinburgh. My hostel was also right near the castle and this is what the view looked like from my door
(Picture of Castle)
The tour ended in the middle of town and there was a pub near by that we could get a slight discount on for being on the tour. I got a beer and some Haggis. Now you might be asking yourself, what is Haggis? and I will tell you but you might want a garbage can near in case you get a little sick. Well it starts with the fact that there are about 10 times as many sheep than people in Scotland so that is a major source of food. Once all of the good, normal meat is gone there are a bunch of leftover parts of the sheep like the brain, heart, liver, stomach, etc... They take all of these parts and grind them up, add some barley, oats and a ton of spices like pepper. Next they toss it all in the stomach and boil it for a few hours. What comes out is a mush of black stuff which is put on top of Nips and Tatties (Turnips and Potatoes) and a whiskey sauce is poured on top. It sounds like the grossest thing you could possibly make but it was actually really really good and I am extremely glad that I tried it because I was slightly hesitant.
Our tour guide also mentioned a ghost tour that he was doing later that night at 9:30 and I planned on going. Ever since I took a class at UNH called Folklore and Folklife, I have been somewhat interested in ghost stories. One unit was on ghost stories and urban legends and one thing the professor mentioned was that it does not matter whether the story is true or not or you believe in ghosts or not. What is really important is the way the story is told, because storytelling is an art form. I agree 100% and since the tour guide is a "professional" storyteller, I thought it would be an interesting tour.
After I ate the Haggis I went back to the hostel for a bit and then went across the street to The Whiskey Experience. It is a ride that takes you through the process of how to make Scotch Whiskey, the regions of Scotland, and how to taste/what to look for in Scotch. It also included a taste.
The tour was very informative and I can now say a thing or two about scotch. The place also had the largest collection of Whiskey in the world with 3300 unopened bottles. The most expensive was bought for $1000 US dollars in the 60's and the oldest was from the 1880's. His favorite, very surprisingly was Johnny Walker Red Label. Here is a photo of a corner of the room filled with bottles.
(Whiskey Room)
After the tour and the drink I was very tired so I went to take a nap before dinner and the ghost tour. For dinner I went to a bar called Maggie Dicksons. This was also the name of my bed in the hostel. The rooms are numbered, but also have a name and my room name was Pubs of Edinburgh. On the free tour our guide also told the story of Maggie Dickson before I could ask the question about her importance, but apparently she was hung for concealing a pregnancy (because that was illegal in the 1600's), but after they thought she was dead and put her in the coffin she woke up. They tried to hang her again but a young man saved her by saying that you can not convict and punish someone for the same crime twice. She then married that man and he bought her a pub, which is now called The World Famous Maggie Dicksons Pub.
At 9:15 I showed up to the ghost tour and there were a few people from the earlier tour that I had talked to before so it was nice to see some familiar faces. The ghost tour didn't turn out to be that great and there really were not that many stories but it was interesting and I am glad I did it. There were more stories about wiches, a few about cursed places in the city, and grave digging. The tour ended at a bar where we got a free drink and a few of us got a table and chatted for a while. I left around 12:30 because I made plans to Skype my brothers and I was already running a bit late. I also made plans with someone in my hostel who was on the earlier tour to go on a hike to Arthurs Seat (a park/hill in the city) and I would meet him in the breakfast room at 8:00.
So in the morning I woke at what I thought was about 7:30 or 8 but it turned out to be 6 so I went back to sleep for a while. I really haven't been sleeping well lately. Every night for the past week I have woken up more than once during the night and haven't slept past 9 in the morning. I am not tired though so I guess I am getting enough sleep. The sun here also rises at about 4:30 and sets around 10 because it is close to the summer solstice and far up north.
Anyway I met up with my friend, checked out of the hostel, and put my stuff in the luggage room and headed off toward the hill. The hike up to the top was incredible. This area is pretty much just some untouched land just outside of the city and perfectly resembles the Scotish countryside. Here are some pictures
(Arthurs Seat)
A little later we went and grabbed some lunch and watched a street performer who was actually hilarious. My bus leaves back for London at 10:00 PM so I have a lot of time to kill so I am just relaxing now and writing. This hostel, like many others, has a book exchange where you can leave your book and take one of theirs. I guess you don't really need to leave yours but I am not an ass hole so I left The Shit My Dad Says for someone else to enjoy. There was not the best selection so I grabbed another comedy about the life of Billy Conelly, written by his wife.
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