Edin-burra

Edinburgh is fantastic! Definitely the most 'exotic' of my three spring break destinations, I've also fallen in love with this beautiful city. We arrived in Edinburgh around 9:30 AM and began the trek to find the hostel. We ended up having to take a bus to the main bus terminal and then walk up a mountain [who knew Scotland was so mountainous]! Just when we thought we'd never make it, we finally saw signs to the famous Grassmarket area and new we had arrived! Art Roch Hostel was the best! Unbeknownst to us, we had booked a 4 person private SUITE [which was actually cheaper than any of the other hostels we had frequented] which turned out to be great. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We dropped our bags off with the ineffably handsome receptionist and headed straight to the castle, conveniently located straight up the mountain from where we had just come! When we first arrived, the weather was great! Not a cloud in the sky and a brisk 30 degrees. Well one important thing to know about Edinburgh...the weather is VERY bipolar.

on the way up!

view from the top!

By the time we climbed to the top of the hill, the skies were a dark grey and the clouds looked as though they could burst at any moment. Undeterred, we spent about 2 hours wandering around the massive grounds of the castle. Sadly, there were no free guided tours here, so we were left to create our own historical encounters [some were quite hilarious if I do say so myself]

grey skies...go away!

After the castle, we wandered back down the mountain to the Grassmarket area and our lovely hostel. Realizing it was only noon and check in wasn't until 3, Brigid and I decided to explore the market while Devon took a nap in the hostel lounge.

We headed to a vintage shop that was written up in my tour book called Armstrong's Emporium. It was fantastic! Filled with clothes from as early as the 1930's, we had such a good time looking at all of the period pieces and were left wanting more.

After we realized the prices were a bit out of our price range, we headed back to our hostel, eager as ever to take a quick nap [side note: I forgot to mention that our flight from Dublin to Scotland departed at 6:50, aka we had to catch a bus from Dublin to the airport at 4 AM! By this point in the day, we were all fading very very fast]. As 3:00 finally dawned, we took our keys, said goodbye to our new reception friends and caught some shut eye. Once we were all a bit more refreshed, we realized just how awesome our room was [insert shameless plug for Art Roch hostel...here]! We were in heaven! We quickly changed and headed to dinner, eager to try to Scottish cuisine. While the haggis was oh so tempting [NOT], I settled for grilled chicken with potatoes and was extremely happy with my decision. After dinner we ran back across the street, changed again, and went to a local pub called The Queens Arm. This place was really neat, with an eclectic mix of people and really cool decor. We ended up spending the whole night talking to this guy named Tony Stone, who as it turns out is the CEO of a famous food company in Scotland called Stoats! He was really nice and we were sad to say goodbye to him at the end of the night. 

The Queens Arm

DAY 2:

Everyone had recommended that we take a bus tour of the city so we decided to do it. Not only did we finally get a chance to ride on one of those fancy double decker busses, but the tour explained so much about the history of Edinburgh and about the prominent buildings in the city. 

We drove by the Queen's Palace,

Parliament 

and many other interesting buildings. At the conclusion of the tour, Brigid and I decided to visit another museum that was recommended in my tour book...the Surgeon's Museum! It was so interesting to see the evolution of medical practices and techniques in Scotland [dad, you would have loved it]! It had some really neat exhibits, including this real human face which shows a gun shot wound from around world war 2. Talk about some heavy duty preservation...I was in shock!

By this point, Brig and I were starting to feel a little woozy from all of the blood and guts, so we headed to a place we knew would comfort us...Starbucks! After we each had our coffee, we wandered around the city a bit more and then took refuge from the rain in a restaurant called The Candy Bar. Only slightly disappointed to learn the building wasn't actually constructed out of candy, we ventured inside and were pleasantly surprised by the eclectic and cool atmosphere. The decor was, once again, fantastic and the food was even better. Devon, Brigid and I all got fajitas, which turned out to be KILLER! I've never been so happy to have mexican style food before and boy was it a nice break from italian. 

The Candy Bar

mmm fajitas!

After stuffing our faces with food, we walked back to the Grassmarket area and made Devon come and check out the vintage shop from the day before! As expected, she fell in love too and Brigid even purchased some fabulously retro sunglasses. 

On the final walk back to our hostel, we stopped at a convenience store and were lucky enough to find a Stoat's bar! We bought a few and made sure to take a photo to send to Tony. 

Later that night, we packed everything up for the last time and decided to go out for our last night of Spring Break. As long as we were back by 3:30am to catch our bus to the airport, everything would be fine! We headed to a club called The Liquid Room and it was awesome! At around 2:45 we sadly said our goodbyes and headed back to Art Roch for the last time. 

Devon, Brigid and I

We checked out, thanked the staff, and began the long trek back to the bus station...in the SNOW! That's right ladies and gentleman...in true Edinburgh fashion, it was snowing. Everything was going smoothly until we arrived to the airport and Devon realized....she had forgotten her Blackberry at the Hostel. Surprisingly calm, we used a pay phone and contacted Art Roch who said they would ship it to her once she sent them her address. Still waiting to get the phone back, but at least it's in transit!

What a successful spring break vacation we had! We did basically everything we had set out to do and had so many unforgettable experiences along the way. Dublin was definitely my favorite, with Edinburgh coming in a close second. I've been back a week now and I'm finally fully recovered. It's nice to be back in Florence and traveling through so many different countries really made me appreciate both Italy and America so much more! Thanks for reading my novel posts and Happy Purim to all of my fellow Jews out there!!