The story of Scotland (Pt. 2)

 When we went to Edinburgh on Sunday, we met up with a girl that Laura had mutual friends with who is Scottish. Her name is Tracey and she brought her friend Sam with her too. They took us to all the best places in Edinburgh which was nice because we didn't have to worry about getting lost. We walked down Princes Street, which is really cool to me because Trainspotting is one of my favorite movies and the opening scene is a chase down where we were walking! There were statues all over the place and you could see the castle up on the hill.

Scott Monument - Princes St.

Then Tracey and Sam took us to the "Royal Mile" which is just a long road with a bunch of touristy things to see. We went to the Elephant House which is where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter. I thought that was really cool since I'm such a huge HP nerd. On a side note, on our way to our new hotel in Edinburgh there was a huge school off the right and our cab driver said that's what JK Rowling based Hogwarts off of! So cool.

From there I think we went and got some coffee and then headed up to the castle. We didn't actually go in the castle but we just walked around the (free) outside part.

Life-sized castle guard.

The castle from the side view.

Castle gate.

After that we went and got drinks and food which turned out to be really fun. Sam and Tracey were both hilarious and they loved our accents. Actually, all the Scottish people I met were nice and funny and super helpful. As one of our taxi drivers said "Scottish people are the nicest in the world." It's funny too because Sam and Tracey were both hungover pretty badly and then went right to drinking when they felt better. So Scottish.... haha.

Laura and Tracey

Sam, Me and Tracey

When it got dark, we went into the vaults under the city. Apparently there is an old city built under Edinburgh because they decided to just build on top of it after the bubonic plague. Pretty crazy. It cost like £8 and they took us underground on a tour and told us all these ghost stories. I didn't think it was very scary but it was worth it to go. Tracey was scared and claustrophobic so she didn't actually even finish the tour but she met us at the top when we were done. Our tour guide was hilarious. He was wearing a big black cape and talking all quiet and creepy. Edinburgh has a pretty crazy history too when it comes to torture and stuff. We learned a lot about that too. Apparently they had a big problem with "body snatchers" back in the day where people would rob a grave and then sell the body to universities for medical experiments!

Finally we went to a Frankenstein-themed pub. They had this big Frankenstein that came down from the ceiling at midnight and it was pretty cool. It sat up and looked around at people and everything. There was karaoke too but none of us sang. It was hilarious because there were some girls who got up to sing and they said "We're from Canada," and Tracey yelled out "Well we have AMERICANS!" She was great fun, it's a shame she lives in Edinburgh... so far away from the US. The next day we didn't do much, I mostly just packed up and ate before heading home on the train. The other two girls stayed an extra night because Laura was heading to Dublin on Tuesday, but I was running out on money! All-in-all Edinburgh was AMAZING and highly recommended to anyone who gets a chance to go :)

Frankenstein.