After our adventures in the highlands, we returned to Edinburgh for two days of exploration on our own. This time around we stayed in a hostel directly below the legendary Edinburgh Castle, conveniently called the Castle Rock Hostel. (Note - if you're heading to Edinburgh and you're looking for a great place to stay, we thought this hostel was fantastic. It has beautiful common rooms on the lower level, a TV lounge, massive kitchen, and great dorms and washrooms upstairs. We really, really enjoyed our stay there. On our first night in Edinburgh - back before we went up to Skye - we stayed at the Budget Backpackers on Cowgate, which was also very good. If you plan to stay at just one hostel whilst in Edinburgh, however, we definitely recommend Castle Rock due to its fantastic ambiance. But I digress...)
At 7 p.m. that evening we went to The Last Drop in Grassmarket to join a free ghost walk of the city. There are haunted tours of Edinburgh advertised everywhere, but we chose the free tour because we figured anyone working solely for tips is going to have to have their shit together. Thankfully, we were not disappointed! Free tours from The Last Drop operate 365 days a year and are FANTASTIC! Edinburgh has an incredibly rich and violent history, so it's rife with gruesome tales and legends. The meeting point itself is actually quite legendary as it used to be the place where prisoners had their last drink before heading to the gallows. Next door to The Last Drop you'll find a pub called Maggie Dickson, named after its former owner, a woman who was unsuccessfully hanged in 1724 and was thus allowed to go free. I won't give you all of the details, but I will definitely encourage you to visit Edinburgh and take the free tour. :) After the tour wrapped up we wandered around the Royal Mile, and took in the view of the castle and surrounding city at night - pretty spectacular.
The next day was cool and sunny, so we spent hours upon hours just wandering around. As previously mentioned, Edinburgh is a fantastic mix of old and new, so we found ourselves crossing back and forth between modern shops and ancient Gothic churches, cemeteries, fountains and parks. We both found it pretty incredible to browse tombstones which are older than our countries. :) In the evening we walked around the streets above Grassmarket before Court took in the local music scene and I relaxed in the hostel.
The next morning, we walked around the crazy looking parliament building and admired the majestic Holyrood Palace (through the gates, of course), before boarding the train for Glasgow.
Our trip to Glasgow was shorter than intended, as I had decided while we were in Edinburgh that I would head to Ireland for 10 days before we ventured to central Europe to wrap up our trip. Our first afternoon was rainy and cool, so we hunkered down in a pub to enjoy a Sunday roast (Court) and some football. (Real football, not that American gridiron shit. ;) In the evening we walked around a bit, but didn't really get a sense of what Glasgow had to offer - that happened the next day.
In the morning we wandered the streets, but in the afternoon we jumped on one of the red double-decker sightseeing buses to see more of the sights. We went all over the city, taking in the university, arts centre, monuments and shops. We visited the Gallery of Modern Art which was really interesting, and finished the day with laundry. Thrilling, eh? :) Glasgow is definitely a city which deserves more time and attention than we paid to it - hopefully we'll be back someday!
The next morning I flew to Dublin and Court took the train back to Ian's place in Saltaire. We spent the next ten days apart (which was tough), but it allowed me the opportunity to visit a place I had always dreamed of whilst providing Court with the time and space needed to follow up on several job applications. I hope to post pics and stories from Ireland in the next few days - thanks for your patience while we're getting caught up!
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