Finally. . .Edinburgh

I finally have the time [well, not really, I should be reading for British Studies] and the desire to write. I promise I will be fully caught up soon.
Edinburgh, Scotland was the 18th-20th of September. I can't believe it's almost been a month. The coach ride was a good six hours to get there, but I didn't mind. [Considering it takes 4 1/2 hours to get to Evansville from Alexandria. . .and that's in the same state.] I was sitting next to Mary and we enjoyed having our ipods and a good view. The valleys and hills were BEAUTIFUL! Green and rolling, sheep everywhere [because honestly, who doesn't love sheep?] cute little cottages sprinkled here and there. It was just really neat to see.
We got to our hostel, which was pretty nice, and put all our stuff away. I roomed with Mary, so not much was different. We decided to have a nice look around. I had to get batteries for my camera, and we also stopped and had something to eat. The food was awesome. We mostly just walked around, shopped [a lot], and had a pretty relaxing evening. That's one thing I enjoyed most about Edinburgh. . .we just enjoyed our surroundings. It wasn't this mad rush to get everywhere and see everything, we just walked around with our typical "ooh's and ahh's" and a few of "look at that's" snap snap of the cameras, and we ventured on. It wasn't stressful. We did end up taking a nap, because we were all pretty tired. But we had to get up and head back through town for our Ghost Walk. On the way we got some hot chocolate and saw [I want to say he was Polish] pyro guy doing all these fascinating tricks with fired batons. Like burning his feet and throwing them around all fanciful like. We stopped and watched him for awhile before continuing on to our ghost walk.
I wish I would have taken a picture of this guy because he definitely looked the part. He was really funny, though, which made the tour really comfortable. We went to the church and began there, and he told us about torture methods in Scotland back in the ye olde days, how to tell if someone was a witch, and what the punishment was if they were. Regardless, you were dead. And so was your family. We walked down an extremely narrow road and a little bit through town to get to Greyfriar's Cemetery. He told us about Greyfriar's Bobby, which is a really famous dog because when his master died he would sneak into the cemetery and sleep next to his grave every night before the dog died. So the town adopted the little fella and he was even given keys to the town. This meant that this dog had the right to vote in Scotland before women could. I find this oddly humorous.
We began the tour on the "goody" side, where the people buried there were generally of the good sort. We learned about Scottish documents and how the Declaration of Independence is somewhat based off one of their independence documents. We also got to see the room where J.K. Rowling sat and wrote Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone. [Because everything is always about Harry Potter.] It made sense though because from that room you can look over and see an intricate looking highschool named "Harriet's."... so it makes some sense. We continue on and get around to the "baddie" side. He told us that the cemetery [which is on a hill] used to be a valley. We were basically standing on a mass hill of bodies, and that's why it was higher up than the surrounding areas. That was kinda creepy/interesting. Part of me wonders if I should really be fascinated by that. But the reason was Edinburgh closed off it's walls because it feared it would be overthrown by the nasty English. So the sewage was horrible, living conditions were unfathomable, and the plague hit hard. It was voted Europe's [2nd? 1st?] nastiest city. There had to have been only around 150 gravestones in the entire cemetery, but over 150,000 bodies. Or a number like that. I'm sorry I can't give more accurate information, this is what I get for waiting a month later to blog.
Then. The entire reason for going on the tour. We wanted to meet the Mackenzie poltergeist. I think his name is George, so let's just go with that it sounds like a pretty okay name. George Mackenzie was the ward at the prison in Greyfriar's Cemetery. He would sign all the death warrants and penalties and was basically a [bad word inserted here]. He just killed a lot of people because it was easier than letting them live. You have to pay for people to live. So when he died, I guess the fear and emotions that were attached to him stayed. Fear built up over the years and hence: poltergeist. He hangs out in a certain part of the cemetery, and the town actually had to close it off to the public because the attacks were getting too frequent and inexplicable. So the day that the town locked off the part of the cemetery, the touring company bought the keys and are the only people allowed in. Our tour guide had to lock the door behind us and everything. We get inside the mausoleum where he supposedly lurks, and the tour guide goes on about him and everything. Supposedly people walk out of there with scratches and bruises, or people that really attract the poltergeist (I believe it's called an inductor) pass out cold within seconds of getting near one. I, personally, received no marks, and I did not pass out. So the poltergeist must have moved on to someone much more suitable. I wish it was scarier than it was, but it was pretty neat and informative. There was a guy who jumped out and screamed, causing us that adrenaline rush, but I knew that it was going to happen because I have anxiety attacks, so I had to tell him, that way it didn't trigger anything.
After the ghost walk, we went back to the hotel and watched a Disney movie (tradition for traveling together), but I fell asleep during it. Which was sad for me because it was "The Great Mouse Detective" and it has been YEARS since I've seen this. But it was okay. We woke up and had breakfast. Then... the forever famous feat... we climbed [cue inspirational music]...Arthur's Seat.So, of course, we [being myself, Mary, Stephanie, Elenya, Rebecca and Sara] look at this giant mountain and immediately get excited. This was going to be epic. We walk to the extinct volcano, which turns out to be a shorter walk than everyone let on, and see a sign that distinctly says "Please stick to the path and do not climb the steep areas." Do we listen? Absolutely not. We climb the steep path, with only bunny holes as our footing. I was absolutely terrified. And exhilarated. And planning my funeral in my head. Stephanie walked behind me, bless her. It didn't help that I wasn't wearing the right prescription of contacts so my depth perception was kind of off. But we made it up. And we had our moment of glory, and continued to laugh at our boldness and somewhat stupidity of taking such a risk. Was it worth it? Absolutely. However, we had another 3 hours of climbing, because that took only around 15 to 20 minutes. It felt like an hour.
So we continued our trip. It was exhausting, dirty, and terrifying at times. But the feeling that I had when I finally reached the top was worth it. I had done something so incredible, something I never thought I would do in a million years. I never imagined I would have the capability or the opportunity to do that. And it happened. I allowed myself the well deserved feeling of accomplishment. Oh, and we made ourselves immortal by carving our names on the side of the mountain. [See shutterfly for all my pictures].The clouds were close, and it was crazy because we looked over and saw this lake and a boat, but it didn't look like a lake. It looked like the boat was either floating through the clouds, or it WAS a cloud. In either case it was a pretty neat sight. We ate a little bit on top of the mountain/volcano/really tall formation of rock and trees. But the food was deemed unsatisfactory, and because we began our trek at 9ish, and it became afternoon, we decided to make our way down the mountain/volcano/mass of rock. However, the thought of going back down the way we made it up was terrifying. There were some parts that had NOTHING to hold onto, and the lack of traction made it difficult. So going down would basically be signing our own death certificate. So we walked around until we found a sufficient alternative. And alas, there was green grassy paths that lead a peaceful way down. And we laid on the most soft wonderful grass I had ever felt in my entire life. I just wanted to lay there for the rest of my life. But we eventually continued on and made it down the rest of the way, seeing beautiful sights the entire way down.
We ended up eating at a pub, which was pretty good. The rest of the day was still more relaxing, just walking around, shopping, doing the normal things. We got to see the castle on the outside, because there was something going on inside when we got there. We made our journey to take a picture of Greyfriar's Bobby, since we didn't get to the day before. Mostly it was just a carefree, enjoyable weekend. I think Scotland has been my favorite trip so far. But Liverpool is coming up soon, so I'll have to get back with you all about that.
The next day we went to Hadrian's Wall and Durham. Nothing spectacular worth writing about. Except we did see a sheep rubbing itself up against the wall, must have been some itch. That was cute. And these two little boys were dressed as Roman soldiers and playing around on the wall, trying to keep out the "emenies".
So I give Scotland an A+. This week is going to be crazy, but I need to still post Stratford, Ireland, and now Oxford/Bath/Stonehenge. I'll try to get Stratford up tomorrow, and try to get all my pictures up on shutterfly. But this week D.J. graduates boot camp (yay!), I leave for Liverpool on Thursday, and we have a full day of British studies on Wednesday. I'm going to be terribly busy.
But I love you all, I miss you all so much!
Love,
Erynn