Dippy Jones Across The Pond: Day 25 - Sunburnt in Scotland

Yes, I managed to get SUNBURNT in SCOTLAND.

Despite seeing this adorable and reassuring postcard, with cute little cartoon sheep and all, claiming everything I'd heard about Scottish weather was true; this was not my reality.


Instead, this is the weather I got:

Bright blue skies with big white puffy clouds and the most intense, and hot, sun I've seen this whole trip. Very impressive, and marvellous for sightseeing; but it also leads to the most incredulity about your trip.


"Ya, right, you were too hot when you were in *Scotland*"


And so, I have nothing but these photos, and a mild sunburn on my arms (and maybe neck, but there's a mirror shortage round here, so I don't actually know) to prove my experience. So you'll just have to trust me on this one.


I really should have brought neither the long-sleeve shirt I wore there, the black Enter the Haggis shirt or the sweatpants tucked into my knapsack incase I got too cold. But hindsight is 20/20. I honestly thought I'd get myself a nice Scottish sweater while I was there, but I couldn't bear the thought of buying anything warm.


Anyways, on with the saga!



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We arrived in Edinburgh quite late, leaving after work is always a rather painful experience. But it was my first time taking the bus to Crewe. Nice short little jaunt, and quite cheap too.


When we got to the hostel, it was just overwhelmingly awesome. Bright colours, free internet, and best of all very clean. Also; most comfortable beds ever!


But then the bad news struck. Our new travelling companion, Duran, a fellow from Hong Kong who lives in halls with Nina, realized he'd left his luggage on the train! Frantic phone calls and a rushed journey back to the station in hopes of retrieving it were all for naught (he went back early in the morning and retrieved it then), and we wound up back at the hotel with nary an ounce of energy left to find ourselves dinner. Good thing the hostel provides free breakfast!


I had the best sleep of my life that night, however, the loud street noise apparently kept the boys up (we were sharing the same 4-bed dorm though, so I don't know how Nina and I slept so well, while Oliver and Duran slept so miserably).

Thanks to my wonderfully prepared places to go, things to see map I made on My Maps, I had the whole day planned out.


So we started by going over to Dean's Bridge, where I heard you could get a great view. Wasn't a view of what I'd expected, but still beautiful, and I would very much like to explore the walking trails that go underneath that bridge.


Then we went to Edinburgh Castle. More expensive than we would've liked, it turned out to be well worth the money! We learned all about Scottish military history, and it even made Oliver, who's not Scottish in the least, feel patriotic; so imagine how it made me, the only one with Scottish heritage in the whole group, feel!


The guy selling the tickets picked up on my accent and asked me where in Canada I was from; then admitted he'd seen my card. Confused, I looked in my wallet to see what could have given me away... I think it must have been the TD bank cards... because the only other things visible are my student card for Keele, and the card that has my cellphone number on it!



This weekend was actually one for special events at the castle, the Black Watch was there! They did their thing, showing off their colours, and musical prowess, it was all very impressive! ... Even if we did only get to see them from behind...


From there we went through every single part of the castle. We went through the military museum and got shot at by the 42nd regiment. They were doing a demonstration while we were going through the displays, and when we were behind what to us was a window, but to them was just a mural, they started pointing their rifles at us and firing away! Quite exhilarating, I guess I can now say I've had a gun pointed at me? :/


We saw the Scottish War Memorial, and "the Honours". The Honours weren't as exciting as I had thought they might be, it was so crowded and we were so rushed in, rushed out I barely had a chance to see the crown, scepter, sword etc etc.


Apparently, it's a 'thing' in Scotland to have, not only your usual giftshop, overpriced cafe and the like, but also a Whisky and Book Store. But hey, I'm not complaining! I got a couple little books on the history of my clans (Anderson and Graham, though I neglected the Robsons o.O) and got to taste some pretty fantastic whisky from the year of my birth! It was a 1988 Tullibardine, and it was delicious. They apparently only sell the stuff in 3 places (one of which is Edinburgh Castle of course) and the young fellow serving the samples was very nice and chatty and gave me some great book recommendations; so now I must check out "The Ghost That Haunted Itself".


We wound up being there long enough to see the firing of the one o'clock gun, a tradition meant to give the citizens of the town an audible method of setting their clocks accurately as the fog often made it difficult for them to see the observatory dropping it's "time ball".


Also, I believe it's the same tradition the crazy old man with his cannon is trying to recreate in Mary Poppins, but it's been a while since I saw that movie, so I could be misremembering.

After the one o'clock gun, we had seen everything there was to see in the castle, so we headed out. We went to see the cafe J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter novel in, and took some pictures. I think Heather would have appreciated it; it was called "The Elephant House"!


There were a lot of things there that made me think of Heather actually. I guess that's what I get for having a sister with such a good Scottish name. They had Heather tea in all the gift shops, and even a special "Isle of Heather" tartan, which she would hate; it was primarily green, but had stripes of her most hated colour, purple, through it.

From the Elephant House, where we didn't actually go inside or eat or anything, we went to a place I was recommended to try Haggis. OH MAN! I would recommend that place in a heartbeat! In fact consider this it: The Royal McGregor is the best place to try your first haggis in Edinburgh! First, as an appetizer, we had a plate of "Haggis Fritters", it's basically haggis, wrapped in a kind of pastry shell and fried, then drizzled with a honey and chili sauce. It was so delicious! I could eat like, ten of those things! Then for my main course, I decided I'd try the highland burger. It's just like your average burger, but it's a patty of Scottish beef, topped with haggis, and smothered in whisky sauce. So fantastic! And the prices were impressively reasonable for being such a nice, classy-looking place on the Royal Mile.

After that, we'd hoped to hike up to Arthur's Seat, the tallest point in Edinburgh and the peak of what was, once-upon-a-time, a volcano; the one which created the basalt rocks on which Edinburgh castles and many of the other surrounding landmarks are perched. Unfortunately, it was a higher and steeper climb than had been expected, and Nina wasn't wearing very good shoes for that at all; so I will have to return to Edinburgh and conquer that mountain some other time.


In fact, to give you an idea of scale, click through this picture of it, now look along the ridges. Here and there you'll see a little fleck of white; those are the people who have climbed up. o.O And this picture was taken not even a kilometer from the base!


Nobody else wanted to go see Greyfriar's Bobby, mostly I think because Oliver and Duran didn't want to deal with Nina crying about such a sad story, so instead we decided to go catch the train to Stirling, so we'd actually have a chance of finding food there.


Our hostel in Stirling was literally right across from the train station, while it wasn't as nice as the Caledonian Backpacker's in Edinburgh, it was quaint, and comfortable. All of our beds were numered, and then labelled with film star's names. I got to sleep in Ewan MacGregor's bed ;) Awesome! I felt bad  for Nina though, sleeping in Jude Law's bed :P


After dinner, while they perused the streets of Stirling, I decided I'd rather get a head start on sleeping.


And that, is always a good idea.