edinburgh, scotland

Another weekend, another trip with the International Society! And this time we drove out of England into Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Our Saturday morning didn't exactly go well. Around 15 minutes into the trip, our bus had some problems and we needed to turn back near the university to board a different one. I'm glad that noting happened in the middle of our journey, though, because I think that would've been much worse. So after some delay, we were off on our nearly six hour bus ride.

After we finally settled into our hostel around 3:00 PM, my friends and I decided to explore the city. The buildings are ridiculously gorgeous, and they're all situated on top of various hills. We mainly roamed around the touristy Royal Mile, which are streets that are in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Cashmere shops must be in tough competition, as there is a store nearly every 10 steps you take. There were plenty of men in kilts playing bagpipes as well. I'll let the pictures do all the talking now because I fail at giving good descriptions.

I wonder if he's freezing under there...

Since many of the main attractions closed early, we didn't have much time to do anything else. So we headed to dinner at The Albanach, a classic Scottish pub (of course) that serves over 200 kinds of whisky! But forget about the whisky. I was here for the haggis! No trip to Scotland would be complete without trying their national dish, right? According to BBC Food:

Haggis is a traditional Scottish sausage made from a sheep’s stomach stuffed with diced sheep’s liver, lungs and heart, oatmeal, onion, suet and seasoning.

Mmm, how delicious! It actually tastes better than it sounds. I really enjoyed my first couple of bites with the oatcake. The haggis had a lot of pepper and herby seasonings, and it had a similar texture to ground beef. But after eating it for a while, the haggis started leaving a weird aftertaste in my mouth, and my stomach felt a bit weird. I just couldn't go on. I'm glad the dish was shared because I definitely wouldn't have been able to finish it all.

Haggis with neeps (turnips) & tatties (mashed potatoes), whisky sauce, & oatcakes

After dinner, we made the odd and brave decision to go on an underground ghost tour! SPOOOKY. And just in time for Halloween! Now, let me tell you: I don't exactly know why I did this tour. I get scared relatively easily, but this sounded really interesting. Our tour guide definitely didn't leave out the gruesome details when telling us about witches being burned alive at the stake, and criminals having their ears pinned to a wall in public. *shivers* (I literally was shaking though because it was freezing outside). I think the one of the scariest parts was having to move from one room/vault to the next. Most of the time, it was pitch black underground, except for our tour guide's small flashlight (and some people's cellphones). And I was afraid not of ghosts, but of falling down. Thankfully, I made it in one piece by the last vault. Now this was the worst part. At this time, our group formed a circle around the guide as she was telling us a SPOOOKY story in the vault. My friends and I were near the back of the group, so we couldn't really see what was going on in front of us. Suddenly, we hear a guy scream out of nowhere (I'm guessing it was an actor hired to scare us), which caused everyone to scream and push the whole group back against the wall. Apparently, the scare was for the tour guide's "entertainment" to see all of us freak out. Ugh, not cool man. Not cool.

The blurriness of the photo kind of creeps me out.

On Sunday morning, we were given a 2 hour bus tour of Edinburgh. Not to be rude, but I actually slept through most of the tour. I mean, I surprisingly slept very well after the ghost tour, but I generally fall asleep on car/bus rides. And the rain didn't help, either. But I was awake when we were allowed to get off the bus to take pictures of Forth Bridge, Forth Road Bridge, and Holyrood Palace, which is where the Queen resides for a week in the summer. The Queen really lives the life, doesn't she?

Afterwards, we headed to Edinburgh Castle. Yes, I visited a castle in the U.K.! I can finally check that off my list. It's no surprise that the castle is breathtakingly beautiful. The castle also offers more lovely views of the city since it's located on top of a volcano. Because why wouldn't you build a castle on top of a volcano?

As you can tell from that photo, it was SUPER windy. I actually struggled to walk at some moments because the winds were so strong! It also rained a lot throughout the day. Not surprising.

We also stumbled upon an event going on in the middle of one of the castle's courtyards. I'm not exactly sure, but I think it was a reenactment of the Scottish military practicing with their weapons and learning defence techniques. There was one guy in uniform that was laughing the whole time. Very professional.

The guy in the back literally cannot.

Our last stop of the trip was none other than The Scotch Whisky Experience! At the beginning of the "experience," you go on a 10 minute barrel ride to learn the history of whisky. This was actually the part I was most excited for, because I thought they were kidding when they said it was an actual barrel ride. Unfortunately, Stacie and I rode on a barrel that wasn't working properly, and the television screens and lights wouldn't turn on whenever our barrel passed through. Thus, we learned absolutely nothing about whisky. Since we didn't have time to go on it again, we were offered another free glass of whisky at the end of the tour. I guess that makes up for it?

After the ride, we went into another room where a guide gave us a presentation on the various types of whisky from the different areas of Scotland. We were given a "scratch and sniff" card to smell the different types of whisky in order to choose which one we wanted to taste. I immediately went "OOOH" because I hadn't seen one of those cards since I was a kid! I ended up choosing a whisky from the Lowlands, which had citrus flavors and was apparently lighter than the others.

But here is a confession: I don't drink alcohol at all. The only time I've truly had a pint was on my 21st birthday. It was hard cider and I got it for free at a pub on campus, and I couldn't even finish it. I know, I'm in the U.K. and drinking is apart of the culture. But I just can't stand the taste, and whisky was much worse for me. I barely took a sip, but the taste was so strong and it burned my throat. I ended up giving my glasses to my friends because I'm so uncool.

We also went into a room that had cabinets filled with bottles of whisky from all over Scotland. I call it "Ron Burgundy's Heaven."

We got to keep the glasses as souvenirs!

By the end of the tour, we only had 30 minutes to get to our bus! We had to run/fast walk like mad to get to the pick up point, and thankfully we made it just in time. But as we were running, I nearly teared up as I saw the most amazing thing: a pub called The World's End! It was a truly magical moment.

It exists!

Thanks for being such a fun and beautiful city, Edinburgh! I definitely want to come back one day and visit the rest of Scotland as well. I'll be saving up for a good quality kilt, as I hope to be as pretty as your Stormtroopers.