Across the Pond: A Weekend in Edinburgh

Last Thursday was the all day trip to Edinburgh with the University so Kyle and I decided to stay the whole weekend instead of going back that day. We booked an 8 bed dorm room at the Haggis Hostel right in the middle of the city (near Princes Street) for three nights.

Day 1 - The university provided a free walking tour of the city in the morning so we did that when we first got to the city on Thursday. At the middle/end of the tour we were stopped by a giant mob on the Royal Mile due to the presence of the Queen, her husband, Kate Middleton, and Prince William. We joined the crowd hoping to get a glimpse of royalty. Unfortunately we got there too late and the crowd was too thick to see anything. However, a few of my friends here were able to get up front and get great pictures of the Queen and Kate:

Even though I didn't actually get to see Her Majesty and other members of the Royal Family, it was still cool to be in their presence.
After the Royal Family left, the mob of people went crazy trying to get out of the Royal Mile. Kyle and I lost our tour group and it took forever until we finally made it to a less crowded street. We decided to get lunch at a pub after that and then go shopping until 4:30, when we had to go back to the coaches to get our suitcase that we left there.
We checked into the Hostel right after everyone left to go back to Stirling. After checking in we rested for a little bit and played a Scotland Trivia game that was in the community room in the hostel. After resting we went out to find something to eat for dinner. We walked around for a while until we finally came across a pizza place that looked good. After dinner we walked around town for a bit then headed back over to the hostel. The hostel was located on the third floor of a building that had a restaurant, bar, night club, and convenient store on the ground level. So, we decided to check out the bar that was right below the hostel. The bar was old fashioned looking and had an awesome atmosphere. After a couple drinks we headed back up to the hostel to get some sleep before waking up early in the morning for the Edinburgh Zoo.
The hostel room we stayed in was with 6 other people besides Kyle and I, like I said, and it was not very pleasant. These random people happen to be all guys, even though it was a mixed sex dorm so there was A LOT of snoring. Very loud, obnoxious snoring that kept waking me up throughout the night. It's safe to say I did not get much sleep that first night.

Day 2 - The next day we woke up early, hopped on a bus, and went to the Edinburgh zoo which features the near extinct panda bear! There are only 2 zoos in America that have pandas in captivity which are located in California and New York, so we were excited to get to see them since we can't see them back home. The zoo was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside which was very surprising. It was a very neat zoo that had lots of free talks about the animals which were interesting to hear about. My favorite part of the zoo, besides the pandas of course, were the chimpanzees. I swear I could watch them for hours and not get bored, they're just such entertaining creatures!
After spending almost three hours at the zoo we got really hungry but didn't want to spend money on the expensive zoo food, so we decided to go back into town to the McDonalds near our hostel for a quick, cheap (but not ideal) meal.
After lunch we headed over to the Edinburgh Dungeon on Market street, not too far away from the hostel. We had a coupon for a 2 for 1 ticket plus we could get a student discount so we thought it was a good deal and we needed cheap entertainment! The Edinburgh Dungeon is like a haunted house with 2 rides but it incorporates Edinburgh/Scotland history and stories into the skits that are put on by the workers there. It wasn't too scary, but there were times where I got spooked. It was more interesting than scary because of the history that was behind the skits. The skits were humorous at times as well. Before going to the dungeon I was really interested in the story of the Sawny Bean family, a family of Cannibals that supposedly attacked and ate travelers that wandered by their cave. The dungeon put on a good skit that included a boat ride about the family, so that was really cool to learn about.
After the dungeon, we went back to the hostel to rest and get ready for dinner. Kyle made reservations at a fancy Italian restaurant because he promised he would take me out to a fancy meal while we were here. We both got dressed up, I wore a dress and heals while he wore a nice button down shirt and tie with a blazer. The restaurant was super fancy and the food was amazing. We ended up staying three hours talking over a bottle of wine. Kyle surprised me and decided to buy the ENTIRE bottle of (expensive) wine that I had wanted with my meal.We had a lovely evening, I'm glad he promised me that wonderful night :)
After dinner we headed straight back to the hostel because we were so sleepy from that wine and had to get up early again to go to the Edinburgh Castle in the morning.

Panda!

Monkey!

Wallaby!

Sleeping Chimp!

Penguins!

Day 3 - The next morning after we got ready we walked over to the Edinburgh Castle in the pouring rain. It was a terrible day to visit the castle because it was raining nonstop the entire day. But we made the best of it, going into all of the free museums and exhibitions they had inside of the castle, soaking up so much history.
After seeing as much as we could see in the rain we left back to the hostel to dry off and rest. We were so annoyed and exhausted because of the rain. On our way back to the hostel we stopped at a souvenir shop so Kyle could buy a kilt. Yup, he actually bought one! I didn't think he would actually do it, but he did. It's green and purple and looks ridiculous! But he's happy now and that's all that matters.
At 5:30 that night we had plans to attend the Taste of Edinburgh food festival. We had already purchased tickets online and everything. So when we got back to the hostel we went online to check the location of the event to make sure we knew where it was. As soon as we logged on to the site a big banner popped up saying that the event was cancelled due to the rain. We were both really disappointed because we were looking forward to trying some new Scottish food and drinks that we haven't tried yet.
Since we couldn't go to the festival we decided to go to the movies instead. We grabbed a quick dinner at a little cafe before hand then went to the 8:50 showing of The Five Year Engagement. The movie was really funny, I mean anything with Jason Segal is bound to be a hit.
We had to get up early yet again in the morning to head back to Stirling so we went back to the hostel right after the movie.

Edinburgh Castle

Skit put on inside the castle walls

Kyle getting knighted

Day 4 - We took the 9:33 train back to Stirling on Sunday. It only took an hour to get back, even with several stops. I had to finish up my final photography project, which is about tourists, so we walked all the way to Stirling Castle from the train station right after we arrived, carrying all of our luggage. It was a longer walk than I expected and all uphill. (If I don't have calves of steel after this trip I'm going to be very disappointed.) So once we got to the castle we just stayed out front because you have to pay to get in. There were a bunch of tourists taking pictures outside the castle walls so I got lots of good shots for my project. After about 30 minutes of being there I decided I needed to head back. I had started feeling sick, like a cold, the day before and it was just progressing into something worse. So I just wanted to get back to my bed and sleep! We walked back into the city center and caught a bus back to the university. Like I had wanted, I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Despite the rain on the last day and getting sick, it was a really fun trip. I think Edinburgh is definitely my favorite city that I have visited in Scotland. It has such a cool vibe with beautiful architecture and so much to do and see. After being there twice this trip I feel like I know the place so well. I am definitely going to miss that city.