Edinburgh

Heey,
long time no see. Its not that I didnt have anything to say, its just that there was no time. So much going on right now! And all good things: traveling, Mateja coming over to visit me, meeting new friends and doing new things. So all is grand with me.

Today I have an amazing trip to share with you guys. Its our trip to Edinburgh, Scotland (click). Its just a quick flight away from Ireland and not a very expensive one, so when I got the opportunity to visit this beautiful city, I immediately said yes. This is where I spent the second part of my study week, strolling around the capital of Scotland!

We did a lot of awesome things that I want to share with you. My travel company: Franzi and Anja (Gremany) and Dani (Spain). After arriving to the airport and taking the bus to the city centre we found our hostel, that looked like this:

Yes, it was a former church! I didnt know whether to feel that it is interesting or wierd.:) By the way, they are really into re-using old churches here. I saw one, that is now a restaurant and another one was a climbing centre. Crazy. Than we walked to the city centre and did a free walking tour. How this works is you find your tour guide and he takes a group of people to the guided tour around the city, on the end you tip him whatever you feel is right. We got our tour guide Dave of the Sandemans New Europe. He took us to one of the best tours Ive ever been on! It was an entertaining and educational from the first minute to the last and he kept us interested fot the whole 2 hours the tour lasted. If you ever come to Edinbourg, I recomend you to check the tour out, its totally worth the time. Franzi shared a very cool story the guide told us on her blog: click. After that we bought some food and in the evening the last part of our group joined us: Anja.

Some glimpses of the city:

That hill in the distance is an extinct volcano. Yes, Edinburgh is so cool, it has a volcano in one of the city parks.

In the evening we went for a pint and later on we joined another tour: the Edinburgh vaults night tour. The vaults of Edinburgh are small underground chambers, built way back in 1700s that during some parts of the history provided a living habitat for the poor and the criminals, and are not a very nice place indeed. They are small, dark, cold and presumably one of the most hunted places in the world. Well, if you believe in that stuff. (Some more info: click)  First they show you (and explain the use!) of various torture devices, than they lead you downstairs and explain the ghost stuff. But I can tell you, I got scared. An entrance to the vaults:

The next day we decided to explore the surrounding area of Edinbourg. So the girls decided to check out the Royal botanic gardens (nice) and then walk to the seaside (not so nice). Dani did some busking.

And the evening was the interesting part: it was halloween night. We dressed up indeed:

So there you have it, scary masks. Firstly we joined the party that was going on at the hostel and later we went out to a party. It was great craic!

On Saturday we went to check the graveyard where JK Rowling got inspiration for some Harry Potter character names, while writing in a nearby coffee house and later we had some thai all you can eat. We whached the sun set from a nearby hill with a lot of monuments and a great view around the city.

Any HP fan will know what that is.

By night.

Sunday was our last day. We went to the National museum of Scotland, which is totally worth checking out and later Anja and me went to some more museums, including The Museum of childhood with a massive collection of toys. Also some unhealthy food: if you think, that deep fried twix is bad, try a deep fried pizza. Not kidding. And in the evening we had our own whiskey tasting, as I thied my first real Scottish whiskey in a Scottish pub. Very cool.

So this was our trip, I got home very tired, but ful of new memories and experiences. Edinburgh is a lovely city, ful of nice pubs, restaurants and nice people (also surprisingly a lot of cementeries. really a lot. i have pictures to prove.). The whole city consists of old buildings and everwhere you turn, there is a place worth taking a photo (I took sooo many:)). Its a small city, so after four days, everybody knew their way around. The Scots are great fun, a very welcomning nation too and also very proud of their heritage and that is clear in their capital. Definitely the trip, I will remember!
 

Love,
Urška