Edinburgh: Discovering Scotties & Ireland’s Cousin

Hello Readers!

It’s beginning to be spring time in Cork!! It hasn’t rained in about a week, its’ starting to get warmer, and the sun is beginning to come out a lot more! It has been a welcome change and you can definitely tell the difference in just how everyone looks on campus, a little less bundled up and happier.

This week’s post will recap my recent weekend trip to Edinburgh with my friend Allison and her roommate, Julie. Scotland is often thought to be similar to Ireland because both of these nations are descended from the Celts and speak a form of Gaelic. Upon arrival, I was caught off guard by the Scottish accent. It was much thicker than I thought it would be and quite different from the Irish accent which I’ve grown accustomed to.

Friday was spent wandering through the streets of the city (and getting lost a few times) and settling in to the air bnb. On Saturday, we woke up and headed to a free walking tour of Edinburgh’s Old Town. Our tour guide was American but had been living in Prague for about a year. We began on the Royal Mile, a stretch of street equalling exactly one mile between royal buildings, Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace. We winded our way through the narrow streets making stops to see Edinburgh Castle, St. Giles Cathedral, Greyfriars Cemetery (where Tom Riddle’s grave from Harry Potter is located), Greyfriars Bobby ( a memorial to a loyal dog who never left his master’s grave once he died), and the National Museum of Scotland. We passed by the Elephant House, the cafe where J.K. Rowling allegedly wrote many of the Harry Potter books. Our tour guide debunked this myth and told us that she actually wrote the books in a different cafe that is no longer in existence. The Elephant House has none the less capitalized on the myth that she wrote it there (way to milk it Elephant House).

Next, after some refueling we headed to Holyrood Park where King Arthur’s Seat, the summit of a mountain/hill  is located. The peak is called Arthur’s Seat because it is thought to be one of the possible locations for King Arthur’s castle, Camelot. We began ascending the hill and faced some tough obstacles like mud, rocky terrain, and overall vertical incline, but after about 45 minutes, we finally made it to the top of the hill. Unfortunately there was no actual seat at the top, but there were spectacular views of Edinburgh! After snapping some pics, we made our descent which did not take nearly as long. Although we were pretty tired from our long day, we rallied for our final event of the day, a pub crawl. We made our way through Edinburgh’s New Town stopping at 5 pubs along the way and finally ending at a nightclub. I had an early morning flight the next day so we made our way back to the air bnb after a long day.

Edinburgh was exhausting but it was a really nice place to visit. It was a little bit more touristy than Cork, but had a certain charm that made it worth visiting. Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and it’s a national holiday in Ireland so no school!! Easter break also begins at the end of this week so I’ll try to post one more time before I leave for break. Until Next Time,

Keep Calm and Ascend

Elena

Stunning

Half Way up the Hill.

Me outside Edinburgh Castle.

Tom Riddle’s Grave

St. Gile’s Cathedral

Allison, Julie, & I at the top of Arthur’s Seat!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 16th, 2016 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.