So my plan to get up early to go hike to Arthur's Seat failed. Which worked out for the best. I did end up going but, more on that later. Also, sorry for no pictures yet, but I don't have an sd card reader on my Mac. I do have one phone pic.
So I got up around 09:30 and went to some corner shop and had a delicious "French Fancy" which was a lemon pastry. But it was delicious. It as also right in front of the bus stop. I hopped on the bus to go to the City Centre for my 11:00 Edinburgh Castle tour. I was running early and saw a board game cafe so I went to check it out. It was different than the Rook, because at this one it's 2.50£ per person to play. Kinda pricey, but eh, maybe it works.
So after that I walked to Edinburgh Castle. Which was fantastic. Typically, I don't like a lot of touristy stuff, but this is all so old and historical, I cannot help but like it. It's part of our world the history of it. It also had some incredible views. And below us there were Scotsman playing bagpipes. I heard one man say something like "I could listen to them play all day" and there were lots of people listening. It was crazy how loud it was even as far away from them as we were.
The Edinburgh castle is broken up into different parts. After you walk up into it, there are things you can do without buying a ticket. I had already bought mine and I'm glad I did for the views. But as for the stuff within the castle, that's a maybe. I saw the Edinburgh Castle military prison as well as a prisoners of war area and the Crown Jewels and Honours. The Honours are from ~1500 and apparently Walter Scott rediscovered them in the 1800s after they let him go through Edinburgh Castle. I wish someone who let me randomly search through their castle. Also, I learned Mark Twain thought Walter Scott started the Civil War. Also, the lines to the crown jewels and honours were extremely long once I went out.
Here is an obligatory phone booth photo
After leaving the castle, it was about 12pm. So I stayed about an hours worth. It was pretty crowded at that point. I left and wandered around for a few minutes and came across Lady Stair's Close, a close is kinda like a little alleyway. At the end of the alleyway, there was a Writer's Museum. It had exhibits of Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott. It also advertised a walking tour of Edinburgh where it focused on location of where author's lived. The author locations on the tour were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, JK Rowling, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and a couple of others. It started at 13:30
I left and went for lunch. My Airbnb host said I should try haggis to get the Scottish experience. But I read the description on a restaraunt about a block away from teh Writer's museum advertising the best hagis in Scotland. After reading, I'm not eating that. Although there was a vegetarian option which sounded intriguing. There was a Whisky bar about next door. I ordered a rather expensive flight of whiskey from the area (and I took a picture what I sampled). I am not a whiskey person. I liked one of them out of the four, though. I went back to the writing
It was a small group of us and about 2 hours long. He took us all around old town and we saw the University of Edinburgh buildings where Doyle studied, streets the authors lived on, and some other interesting stories.
And with that, I am tired of writing but I have more things to write, so I'll post another tomorrow.
Cheers.