I headed out around 6:45 AM on Saturday with six other international students, taking a bus to Edinburgh,
the capital city of Scotland. It's remarkably close to where I live, only about 45 minutes away. It's incredibly different from Glasgow, but it's hard to know how to articulate the differences. It's far more fancy....Edinburgh has always been the cultural, literary, political hub of Scotland, so it's had quite a lot more money invested in it than Glasgow, which is historically a rough, gritty, industrial port town. Though Edinburgh is far more "posh," it's also an absolute tourist magnet. I have yet to see tourist oriented attractions or stores in Glasgow, but the streets of Edinburgh are lined with tartan scarves, kilts, "I (heart) Scotland" t-shirts, bagpipe players, and William Wallace imitators. That's probably because Glaswegians wouldn't stand for it. Glasgow feels like a city where people actually LIVE, and I love that. It has a buzz about it that's edgier and to me, more exciting.
Anyway, we did have a beautiful weekend! We spent Saturday afternoon hiking up King Arthur's Seat, a mountain that consists of the remains of an extinct volcano. You might know it from a scene in Chariots of Fire. It was a lovely hike, just challenging enough to be enjoyable, and gave us an incredible view of the city from the top. The amazing thing about Edinburgh is that it's surrounded by the ocean...so we're on top of a rocky craig, looking over the tops of elegant stone buildings and then farther out to the stunning blue sea. Wow.
We were blessed with incredible weather (this NEVER happens in Scotland) on Sunday, which we used to roam the remarkable Edinburgh castle. It really seems straight out of a fairy tale, placed on a rocky cliff high above the city. We spent several hours admiring views of the city, impressive canons, the Scottish crown jewels, and the history of the Scottish monarchy.
After a long morning of castle exploring, we searched out (and successfully found) the Elephant Cafe, where J.K. Rowling scribbled the beginnings of Harry Potter on scraps of napkins. Considering that the cafe has a view of the castle, we could see where she got some of her ideas about a certain magical school!
All in all, we couldn't ask for a better weekend, but now I'm exhausted and trying to catch up on the 900 pages I was assigned to read this weekend. Hey, I was supposed to be reading Sir Walter Scott, but instead I explored his hometown....can I somehow get credit for that?
