september 8th- 11th
So I’m still not exactly sure how to pronounce Edinburgh but my favorite variation is “ed-in-burger” so let’s just stick with that for now. Anyway you say it, the city is unimaginably quaint and beautiful. It’s exactly like you would picture the ideal Scottish town; cobblestone roads, old buildings, castles, bag pipe music floating through the air on every street, and men in kilts everywhere you look. Still don’t get the plaid skirt for men fashion statement but it seems to work for them!
After catching the subway, missing our bus and quickly having to change the itinerary, buying train tickets, getting on the National Rail Service, crying because our tub of PB was confiscated by security, walking straight onto the plane (without our passports checked once), jumping on the bus outside the terminal, we finally arriving at Cockburn Street. Yep, thats the name of the road our hostel was on and we’re still not sure of the Scottish find the name as immaturely funny as we do.
The Edinburgh Backpackers Hostel is a very interesting place. Now I don’t have anything to compare it to because this was my first (and last (JK)) hostel experience. No, it really wasn’t bad. Once you got over the sleeping in a room with 12 strangers, constant loud snoring throughout the night, old screaming Scottish men outside on the street, smell of dirty shoes and BO, and peoples’ alarms going off at al hours of the morning, it was really great!!!! I mean for 14 pounds a night it was a pretty good deal I have to say. We, my four FU roommates (Kathryn, Kristen, Victoria, and Maddie), Tommy and his friend Jon from home, were right in the middle of the city- pretty much in walking distance from all the things we wanted to see and do. Needless to say, we spent very little time in the hostel.
The first full day we walked for miles. Arthur’s Seat is the highest peak of one of the mountain ranges that runs through Edinburgh and it’s a must see when in Scotland. The hike took quite a while but we reached the tippy top and it was one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen. Even the million mile an hour wind couldn’t ruin the walk or the view. After hanging out there for a couple hours we made our way back in to town to get ready for that nights pub crawl. I definitely could have done without this excursion but we got to see a lot of the little pubs and follow two large men around in kilts- I think they had the most fun of all.
Day two was all about the Hairy Coo (hairy cow for us Americans) Bus Tour. Somehow I had come across a free 10 hour tour of the Highlands so we couldn’t pass it up. After getting home from the crawl at around 2:30am the “night” before, we had to be up and on the bus by 8:30am. It was a bit of a rough start for me, Mad, Tommy, and Jon but after some quick naps through the tour guides long speeches and a couple cups of coffee we were ready to go. We went about two hours North (I think) from the center of the city and got to see a bunch of smaller towns, rolling fields, National Parks, lochs (lakes), and hairy coos of course. Although it was a VERY long tour it was super cool to see so much of the country. After the tour, we managed to get our second winds and met up with the girls to go to a place with live Irish music- really channeling my roots.
Day three- we finally got to sleep in! With no real plans, the girls were doing the bus tour that day and tommy and Jon went to do their own thing, me and Maddie wandered to the castle, got a Scottish breakfast and some coffee, walked through the stores, and watched the annual Edinburgh Riding of the Marches. It’s a pretty big parade with tons of bagpipers, horses, and you guessed it, KILTS! I also dragged Maddie to some of the Harry Potter sites- the real Tom Riddle’s grave (aka Voldemort for the fake fans out there), Victoria Street which supposedly inspired Diagon Alley, and The Elephant Cafe where J.K. Rowling first began the magical tale of the boy who lived. My inner Harry Potter nerd thrived in Scotland for sure. After walking around for a while we ended up meeting some other Fordham friends that had arrived earlier in the day. First we caught some of the Giants game- they play it like everywhere which is cool. Then we bounced around place to place and ended up in a private karaoke room with some Irish kids that were feeling themselves that night. It definitely was an adventure and such a perfect fun way to end a great weekend.
So yeah, I almost cried waking up at 4:45am to catch my flight and not just because I was up before the sun. It was one of the best weekends I’ve had and being able to travel to a beautiful city like Edinburgh is such a blessing. Leaving is never easy, especially when the time spent there is full of great experiences, laughs, and new friends.
sara takes london 