Edinburgh, Scotland

I
t took me one day to adjust to the time change. I traveled straight from work to the airport on my way to Manchester. I planned this trip to England to visit my friend, Brit Boy. We both had a few ideas of things to do for my short trip, but being the sweetheart that he is, Brit Boy even made reservations for a few of the activities. He bought tickets to a football game and reserved a night at a guest house in Edinburgh. So after spending one day in Leeds walking around I was ready for a short train ride to Scotland.


I have never been to Scotland before. In fact, even though I studied in London for a semester I never traveled up north. Edinburgh is a very walkable city. You can pretty much get anywhere by foot so that was our plan. After we arrived by train, we headed towards the guesthouse, City Center Guesthouse, to drop off our bags. On the way we stopped by an outdoor market. I was starving, because the train was running a two hour delay (their was a tragedy on the tracks that stopped our train midway).
We walked through the market in search of food when we noticed it was a French market. We purchased a simple meal of potatoes, ham, vegetables, and cream all mixed together. It hit the spot, but also made me very thirsty.


A short while later and we had dropped off our bags at the guesthouse and headed back out towards Edinburgh castle. I thought the weather might be nice for us, because had been shining all morning, but right when we headed out again it became dark. I knew it was going to rain and get very cold. I pretty expected that, when I bought tickets for November!
In fact, as we toured Edinburgh castle we heard a Scotsman say, "If you can't see the hills then it is bloody raining and if you can see the hills then it's gonna rain!" I loved Edinburgh castle with the many nooks and crannies to explore. I know we didn't do it justice, but we had a small time frame and we wanted to see other parts of the city. One part of the castle that I found very interesting was the prison.
I learned that the prison was used during the Revolutionary War. Many American sailors were held captive in the dungeon and left their graffiti through out. Of course I had to take a picture, which I plan to use in my History class.
We spent the rest of our stay exploring the city in the rain. I went into every Christmas shop looking for nativity sets. I was surprised to find that one store didn't even have a single nativity set. What is a Christmas shop without the story of Christ's birth? I was shocked! We also spend the night doing a pub crawl. I don't drink, but Brit Boy does and he wanted to check out a few of the pubs. I was open to that, since I knew that we would be having dinner at the first stop. I knew that I would find something else that I could drink. During dinner I tried haggis, and I must say I really enjoyed it. I also thought it would be something rather distasteful, but I must say it is worth trying. During the pub crawl I also tried a Scottish energy drink, Irn Bru, which is similar to Red Bull. I didn't like it, but then I don't like Red Bull either. After that I pretty much drink coke or water.

Although it was a short trip to Scotland, I truly enjoyed it. I would like to see more of Scotland and go further north. One day I think I will have to take that option, but until then I have to be thankful for my short breaks from work!