Edinburgh

Edinburgh had been a place I wanted to see ever since I was a kid.  I was always so interested in its seediness and history.  It always looked so haunted and creepy, so naturally, I wanted to see it.  We arrived from Iceland into Glasgow, where we took a bus to a train station, ultimately arriving in Edinburgh.  It was unseasonably sunny, the locals kept insisting.  The first thing that struck us was just how grimey everything was.  Coming from Iceland, where nothing is out of place and it is so clean, Edinburgh was a shock.  We had to navigate twisting stairways, narrow alleys and haunted streets before making it to our Airbnb.  It was a nice little spot overlooking one of the oldest market areas in Scotland.  It was also where hundreds of people were executed.  Turns out that was the norm around these parts.  We settled in for a bit before wandering back out on the streets.  We were still exhausted from the early flight out of Reykjavik, so we kept it light and breezy.  We got lunch at a famous old timey pub across from a haunted cemetery.  We then spent an hour or so getting our bearing before limping back to the apartment for a quick nap.  Getting old sucks.  

Sun setting over the Royal Mile.

We woke up hungry and decided on getting Mexican food for dinner.  Surprisingly enough, there were like 4 Mexican joints in Edinburgh.  That made me a very happy camper.  We got enchiladas.  They were alright.  I was just happy to get chips and salsa.  It was dark by now, so the city took on an extra eerie vibe.  The streets cleared out of people, as if they knew something we didn't.  Definitely was a bit unsettling.  The bars, excuse me, pubs were all packed to the brim.  The pubs all had great names and all looked so inviting.  We promised to investigate them the next day.  For documentation purposes, of course.  

Edinburgh Castle at night.

Invisible hand guy.

We managed to get a great night sleep and woke up the next day refreshed.  We decided to go for a run up to Arthurs Seat.  A hill slash park on the outskirts of town offering amazing views of the city.  It was great to get out and stretch our legs and get the endorphines going.  I hadn't ran since forever and it showed.  Kristin,of course, was unfazed.  Feeling good about ourselves, we got ready and walked over to the Edinburgh Castle.  It was really amazing.  So much important history took place there and it was really awesome to see it.  We wanted to stay longer but I had booked a tour of the underground vaults.

View from Arthur's Seat.

Ruins of an old monastery at Arthur's Seat.

Battery at the castle.

The vaults were a series of arched underground chambers where people lived, worked and died.  Originally constructed as part of the foundation to support the bridge above, shady slum lords decided they could make profits by renting out the chambers.  The tour we took explored these chambers.  They were used in many forms for almost 200 years before they were buried and forgotten.  In the 1980's, a pub owner doing renovations in his basement found the buried vaults and spent 10 years digging them out by hand.  He found old relics in the different chambers, allowing archaeologists to piece together which chambers were used for what.  Now, guided tours operate there and it was something I had to see.  Oh, and they are reputed to be one of the most haunted places in the world.  Going down there and seeing them, it is no wonder why.  Bodies were stored there, people died there and a whole lot a bad stuff carried on down there.  Body snatchers operated a lucrative business, as it remained cool all year round.  There is a rumor that there was a secret passage to the Royal Medical College, where aspiring surgeons would purchase the bodies for dissection.  It was definitely a creepy, creepy place.  There are also ghosts.  Lot's and lot's of ghosts.  There are 3 for certain that are a constant presence.  One is a little boy who is known to hold peoples hands.  Another is the ghost of a woman who lost her life during pregnancy.  She attacks pregnant tour guests.  The other entity is known as Mr. Boots and he's a dick.  Luckily, we had no encounters, but Kristin sensed some weird JuJu going down.  She has history with ghosts.  Later that night we watched a ghost hunting show about them to get some more insight.  After the vaults, we wanted to lighten the mood, so we stepped into the Scottish Museum.  It was really, really cool and we both liked it a lot.  It was later in the day at this point, so we didn't get much time to see everything before it closed.  Oh well, the pub was calling to us.  We went to Deacon Bodie's Pub for some much needed pints.  This pub was named after the man who was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's "Jekyll and Hyde".  Apparently, Deacon Bodie was the most upstanding citizen in Edinburgh by day, but by night he was a gambling degenerate.  He was hanged for being a dickhead, but had a bar named after him.  We luckily got a good people-watching table and had the quick company of a local Edinburghian.  We didn't catch his name, but he was fun to talk to.  He was very interested in Donald Trump. By the time we finished up at the pub, it was dark out.  To add to the scariness of it all, there was a Harvest Moon that night.  It was so big and bright, casting some really eerie shadows over the city.  It was so beautiful. 

Old church soot stained from centuries of coal smoke.

Scary moon over a scary city.

Moon view from our apartment window.  Doors were locked extra tight that night.

We both had a fitful sleep, but managed to wake up the next morning at a decent hour for breakfast at The City Diner.  We gobbled down a hearty Scottish breakfast before packing and heading to the train station.  The next stop on our trip was Inverness and Loch Ness to do some monster hunting!

Final Thought:  The Scottish people are so gregarious and fun.  Much different from the understated Icelanders.  It was kind of nice to get back to a place with noise and seediness.  I missed the cleanliness of Iceland, especially the water.  Kristin made a funny comment about how she didn't know how to talk to people anymore after Iceland.  So, being back in a place where there were lots of people to talk to was a sweet relief.