These buildings in the above photo are Edinburgh to me. They look like that city feels, old, a little dingy, a bit bleak, but cute, charming and beautiful in their solidly historical, tottering bricks sort of way. Look how narrow these are! And the rich used to live in these. Or at least on the mid to upper floors. An interesting thing about historic Edinburgh is that many classes might inhabit the same building, the poor being on top and bottom and rich being in between. But even the rich spots are tiny with tight, rounding staircases. This is a view of a "close", which is their word for street or alley that goes through or in between building rows to get to the back sides which are usually the housing entrances. Or there might be other small housing spaces in the close. It's a bizarre stone fortress world there.
View of the bridge between old town and new town taken from a bridge going the same way. There are three of these bridges. The area underneath used to be a river but it was drained and the Princes Street Gardens as well as a train station were put in instead in the 19th century. there was an enormous revitalization of Edinburgh at the time which created new town, the Edinburgh expansion with many Georgian style buildings and shops. Princes Street, the one just beyond the pointy Sir. Walter Scott monument on the left, is FULL of shops. All new and flashy like H&M or T-Mobile, or super touristy selling kilts and red phone booth pencil sharpeners. The building with the clock is a government building. Just beyond it, in a similar architectural style is the Edinburgh Microsoft branch I was told. What with this and Starbucks' everywhere it's really like a medieval themed Seattle. Just to the right is the Old town which surrounds the castle.
And here is a better view of old town, which I thought was one massive building when I first arrived. Pretty much all the buildings are connected here, which is why the closes are needed. There are weird little stairs to get around as well. Very much like a fort.
St. Giles' Cathedral, the church of the Royals. There is a room inside that contains several wooden thrones that important church officials come sit in to make important church decisions. It's a creepy, very masonic looking room with lots of carved ornamentation of animals and crests. The stained glass is fantastically detailed. this is really just an amazing church. Surrounding it is the old Parliament building.
Closer look at the front entrance to St. Giles.
The street Ellen lives on that I stayed in. The door to it is just beyond the white store front.
A wonderful hat shop I found in the grassmarket area where all the hats were hand made and there were hundreds of styles! So wanted to buy one! So wish I had an extra £60 to throw around to do so.
Ellen at the Museum of Scotland in the kid's scientific discovery section, attempting to drive around the simulated race car track but only achieving some impressive wall crashes. A 3 year old little boy watching from behind is yelling the very helpful advice, "just drive straight!"
Building at the end of the castle walkway that I believe contains the Whisky Experience that allows tourist to see how whisky is made and get smashed doing it.
The castle on a rare beautiful Scottish day:
View from the castle top:
Look at the way the fireplaces are set up. So clever. They look like legos.
Arthur's seat from a distance.
Entering the Castle gates.
I'm collecting pictures of myself like this as if I were the Amelie/Travelocity gnome. Kim's head in front of Castle. Kim's head in front of beach...
View from Artur's seat, the highest peak in Edinburgh.
Mountain dwarfs man at Arthur's seat.
Ellen's perch /the best place to get wifi in the apartment. Her and Doug are often nestled here completly cocooned in duvees to protect against the drafty apartment chills. One on the wifi couch, the other on the comfy couch, symmetrical. This was actually a majority of the scenery I saw in Edinburgh :)
Ellen and Doug's beautiful fireplace that I uncovered from behind a large print of some dude that they used to block out the draft. How could one cover this? Only in Europe could this be a student apartment's fireplace. WTF guys! I said just stuff it with newspaper and let it shine. And so it was, just in time for Ellen's Shabbot dinner party, which was awesome. We hosted a diverse group of kids from all over the world that attend the University, or "Uni" as they call it and we had a great time eating traditional shabbot food, drinking wine and sharing stories. At the time a group of students were protesting the college's support of Isreal, or at least what they see as support for Isreal, because of the recent bombings in Palestine as well as Isreal's occupation of more territory in the area in the last 30 years, by (ironically) occupying the student library, so that's really a hot button issue with the students now. As a result I'm learning a lot about the subject and I'm grateful for it. It's more difficult than I knew really. So that was discussed for a bit but mostly we just had great fun. I really admire that Ellen has such a strong community and wish we all had such opportunity or outlet for meeting people you have something in common with so easily.
The door to the room I slept in that was decorated for my birthday. After a long day of walking around town I came home to these banners on the door, candles lit everywhere and a traditional Scottish dinner of Haggis with tatties and nips (mashed potatoes and roasted turnips). Delicious! That was a fabulous night spent with the two flat mates and Roxie, a recently befriended German student from Ellen's Shabbot dinner, eating well, laughing and drinking to sleepiness. Thanks again guys! I LOVED it.
The weird condiment packages I found at a cafe. I soon found out brown sauce is this Worcestershire sauce-like paste that is quite good but odd. Apparently they love it in the UK.But how vague right? Brown sauce? Come on, get creative Brits.
Pretty red door with very Scottish ornamentation (or so it seems), which I love.
A building. Don't know which.
John Knox's house, lived in by the Presbyterain/Calvinist reformer long long ago.Longest surving house in Edinburgh with pretty but bizarrly painted ceilings.
His fireplace.
Detail of wall ceiling painting. Creepy yeah?
Prayer room? or something of the sort.
View onto the Royal Mile (main street through old town) from Knox's window..
Greyfriars cemetary. A vast and historically significant one that I was much entranced with
The grave of Greyfriar's Bobby, the beloved dog of folklore and apparently Disney movie semi-fame, in front of the church. Check out the sweet story at http://www.greyfriarsbobby.co.uk/.
The name says it all. Or maybe too much.
The Scottish seem to like to put gravestones in walls. I think it creates a beautiful affect. Here's one wall but there were many.
Edinburgh in the snow.
Doug winding up a fresh one to nail Ellen with.
Scenes from Edinburgh. Randam bits I thought were nice:
So that concludes the Edinburgh chapter. Now onto the London chapter. Just arrived yesterday night and so far it's chaotic but lovely. Have a big day ahead of me tommorow so off to bed. Will report back shortly. But will leave with these quotes to summarize:
“Who indeed that has once seen Edinburgh, but must see it again in dreams waking or sleeping?” Charlotte Bronte, letter 20 July 1850
"There are no stars so lovely as Edinburgh street-lamps"
Robert Louis Stevenson
“My dear Sir, do not think that I blaspheme when I tell you that your great London, as compared to Dun-Edin, 'mine own romantic town', is as prose compared to poetry, or as a great rumbling, rambling, heavy Epic compared to a Lyric, brief, bright, clear, and vital as a flash of lightning.” Charlotte Bronte, letter 1850
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