Friday, June 1, 2001

Five hours and a country after leaving York we arrived in Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, and a very wet and windy place. The train station is at the bottom of this canyon that cuts right across the city, and we had to climb a gazillion steps to reach the street level above, find the Tourist Information office, and make our way to the hostel.

Danny smiles triumphantly after braving the harrowing climb up to Edinburgh's
street level in chilling winds and rain (Lari made it too, she took the pic).
Day 4: June 1, 2001

Our hostel, the Eglinton YHA, was a massive Georgian townhouse (actually, 2 combined) with Victorian interiors and a wooden staircase that, literally, sucked your will to live way before you reached the 5th floor (6th floor to Americans), which is where we stayed. Our packs secured and our hunger satiated, we set out into the winding streets of Edinburgh, our destination, jutting out like a mountain, quite visible from every single part of town: Edinburgh Castle.

Danny, aka. Mapman, successfully finds Edinburgh Castle!
Day 4: June 1, 2001

There are few words to describe our experience at this castle. Our second castle, it had a completely different character than the Tower of London; this was more grizzled, ancient, like a battle-scared veteran standing fast against cold, buffeting winds. The very rocks spoke of history, peaceful and violent, all with a heavy and proud Scottish accent. Situated on Castle Hill, it overlooks the entire city, old and new, as well as the surrounding countryside for miles around. Like a knife it cuts through the ever-present gray mist that hangs over the city, a beacon of security and identity for thousands of Scots.

Seen from the street below, Edinburgh Castle looms majestically
over the Edinburgh skyline, every inch the fortress it is.
Day 4: June 1, 2001

We wandered the castle up and down and around every single corner we could find, just awed at the sheer majesty of this fortress in the mists. Eventually we left, making our way down the Royal Mile, stopping to buy souvenirs and post cards, Scotch whisky for take-home gifts, and wool sweaters for the chilling wet cold (for which we were utterly unprepared).

Lari (in front) pleads desperately for Danny to finally take the picture he has
had them pose for the last five minutes (Val, Yvonne & Yvette in back).
Day 4: June 1, 2001

Built as it is between two jutting mounts with a canyon down the middle, all movement in the old city (the Medieval part) is either going up or down, with level surfaces the stuff of legends or of modern development. Various main arteries cut across the city, with hundreds of tiny alleys and halls branching off vein-like into all directions and destinations. We followed one such corridor, in between two buildings that seemed to be leaning against each other for support, only to find a Latin restaurant (Latin, and especially Cuban, stuff is big in Europe, we discovered to our amusement) and an underground pub called the Jolly Judge, where we promptly decided to stop to escape the falling rain and quench our thirst with liquid gold. After this, the city of Edinburgh itself became our sight for the day, and what a magnificent sight it was! Eventually we made our way to the so-called new part of Edinburgh.

The Walter Scott monument, a neo-gothic explosion
of spires reaching to the misty skies.
Day 4: June 1, 2001

The "new" city (mainly Georgian in age, with a few Victorian areas) was just as delightful as the medieval center, just in a different way. A product of Georgian design, the new city sported grid-like rows upon rows of massive yellow-stoned townhouses, the design broken by fanciful "crescents", or semi-circled streets. After traipsing around various streets and taking the double-decker bus back from the city centre, we eventually made it back to the hostel, as we had a few mundane (yet important) tasks to do, like our laundry. During the rest of the evening we took it slow, did our laundry (and learned about drying rooms, the budget traveler's best choice for warm, dry clothes for free) and wrote in our journals. Later at night we went out for a bite to eat, quickly finding out that the UK is not very fond of late hours (as we are in the States, for example), though we found a small Indian-run pizzeria where we satisfied our travel-weary appetites while drinking that most wonderful local soda, Ironbru.

Bathed in the Scottish sun, Lari takes a quiet moment by the Victorian
windows to write the events of the day in her journal.
Day 4: June 1, 2001

After really deciding we were done for the night (you had to be in order to make that tiresome climb to the 5th floor), we made the harrowing climb to our aerie and slept like babies. The morning would be spent in Edinburgh, but we would be traveling north in the afternoon... way north.

To Day 5: Culrain / Carbisdale Castle