Edinburgh: 19-21 Feb 2010

As it turned out Edinburgh was the second weekend trip for me and it is for this reason I feel it deserved it's own blog entry.

Day 1: Friday

Our train departed Leeds at around 8 on Friday evening and it took about 3 and half hours to get to Edinburgh. Chris, Mitch, Emma and Anastasia joined me on this trip and we met up with Evan, Josh and Kayt who went up on Thursday, Laura (Emma's friend from Sydney) and Ian, (Chris's Calgarian friend). The first thing I noticed about the hostel was from the Doorstep you looked up and could see Edinburgh castle and at this point I could just tell Edinburgh was going to be amazing. The hostel was called Castle Rock and it has the best character. For starters, as you make your way through the reception they have to let you through what appears to be a castle gate, the walls are all painted with a medieval patterns and such and all the rooms are themed. We dumped our crap and went to Deacon Brodie's Bar.

Day 2: Saturday

Stop number 1 was Edinburgh Castle. After breakfast we walked across the road, up some stairs and we were there. A short tour of the place took us to the Governor's House, St Margaret's Chapel (built in the 13th Century), The Scottish War Memorial (inside which we were shushed), prison's of war, and saw a really expensive hat the queen never seems to wear. We also tried this Scottish whiskey that tasted like honey, mmmm.

After the castle we commenced our free walking tour. Now don't be fooled, when I say 'free' I don't mean it was a Peter Durbin walking tour of the city, we actually had a guide - Ronnie - who told us about some of the history of the places we saw. Places included St Giles Cathedral, Greyfriars Kirk and Greyfriars Bobby. Greyfriars Bobby is this cute story about a dog who sat on his masters grave for 14 years, and for his loyalty was given free reign over the city and was given the right to vote before women were. We were also shown the cafe JK wrote Harry Potter in (and sat at her window earlier that day), grassmarket and the Princes Street Gardens where we were told this amazing story about when four Scottish university students stole the Scottish Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey in the 1950's. They were not charged because the English knew that in a court of law they could not prove ownership (Lawyered!).

I think the highlight of the tour, however, was nothing that Ronnie could have ever provided. There is this heart in the pavement on the site where hundreds of years ago taxes were collected by the English where the Scottish would spit in disgust as they paid their taxes. It is now the only place in Edinburgh (probably Scotland) where it is legal to spit. While Ronnie was telling us this, two 'strangers' walked by and spat in anger on the heart leading Ronnie to say "ah, locals". These strangers of course were Evan and Josh who did the tour the day before. This moment will be hard to top.

That night the same company took us on a pub crawl, showed us a few of the pubs and clubs around the town and went to bed ready to start day 3.

Day 3: Sunday

Sunday was the day I realised I was actually quite sick with a really bad cold: perfect for climbing Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is this big hill (251 metres high) just out of the city centre which gives a panoramic view of downtown Edinburgh. We walked up it with somewhat ease, but the way down proved a little more difficult. Now why would you take the easy way down when there's a perfectly good cliff just begging us to scale it. Now for me, I thought it was quite fun and challenging, for Emma and Anastasia though - who were wearing heeled gumboots and Ugg boots - merely thought it was challenging.

After our little adventure Chris, Ian and I walked to the end of the Royal Mile to see The Palace of Holyroodhouse; where the Queen stays once a year. (Sidebar: I just wikipedia'd this to get the name right. I quote the article: "[The queen] then continues to Balmoral Castle for her annual two-month summer holiday". Summer holiday?? Now correct me if I'm wrong but is the queen's life not just one constant holiday? We then rendezvoused with the others at the Scottish National Museum, but by this stage I was just too wrecked to learn.

By now I could see my little Scottish adventure was nearing it's completion. Before tea I walked the girls to the station as I needed to change over my ticket to Monday morning instead of night (long story). We found a really cheap restaurant for dinner and I hit the sack at about 10:30 while those left over watched the Canada - US Olympic ice hockey match.

Day 4: Monday

I went home.

Welcome to the UK

Stories from the trip that you probably already know. The sole purpose of this post is to write down everything that has been happening for my record.

So I feel like I am very behind in keeping this updated. This post you are (probably not) about to read was actually started before the Copenhagen one, but when I was proofreading it I got bored. So I'm going to cut that down then run through some of the highlights of my first few weeks in Leeds.

We'll start in Sydney...The flight to Seoul was fine. It only went for 10 hours and it flew. Didn't stay in the heart of Seoul but we had a look around anyway and the first place we went to was Chinatown, go figure. Halfway up the street there were a massive bunch of steps which led to 'Jayu Park' which we walked around and gave us a pretty good view of the city. Funniest thing was we found this dodgey little shop and bought a small bottle of 56% alcohol for 2000 won (about $3). We still have no idea what it was and I still haven't been game enough to try it. When we went through security at the airport they took the can of coke out of my bag but not this.

We must have looked so funny in London. It took about 10 mins to walk from Paddington station to our hostel, and my suitcase is huge. It was on the way to the coach station in the morning where it really became a pain though, when we had to go up and down steps at the underground.

Thursday night (21 Jan) I met up with Renee from school and met some of her friends which was fun. That afternoon she showed us around the uni and the town and gave us ALL of her kitchen/cooking stuff (4 massive bags worth) and a bar fridge (yes). Then had to carry it about 2km up the road to our place. We got a few funny looks when we gave up and got on the bus too.

Saturday night went to the Eldon to watch the Leeds United v Tottenham FA Cup match. Met another guy from Brisbane who is at the end of his exchange and Chris and Evan joined us. After that I cooked tea then went to the Library where Chris smashed a pint glass playing quarters, quite hilarious.

So I'm now writing the rest of this about 3 weeks later...

Australia day was amazing. We went to an Australian pub called the Walkabout. The night included Australian music, Australian beers, new Australian friends, the eating of our national emblem, and a really bad AC/DC cover band.

Wed 27 Jan: Mitch and I took a bus to Liverpool for the Everton v Sunderland match. Didn't really see much of Liverpool as we got there at night, pretty much had dinner, went on the ferris wheel and went to the game. Everton got up 2-0. Will have to go back.

Oh Thursday night was the most amazing night. We went to a silent disco (see right), where as I'm sure you've heard by now you slip on a pair of massive headphones and switch between the two DJ's who are playing there. Best part was they actually played good music. Was so funny when you took your headphones off. No music, but lots of people singing at the top of their lungs.

Sat 30th: Seems like this was the week for football as Mitch, Chris, Emma and I went to the Leeds v Colchester match. Leeds got up 2-0 as well. After I believe we came back to mine and watched variousepisodes of tv shows. Am unwilling to divulge which ones though...

So the week that started Feb off was nothing monumental, but this is about when all we did for about 5 days straight was discuss and book trips for the following 2 months. We are fast becoming regulars at the Eldon on Tuesday nights for International Night and generally getting there early to watch whatever football is on and get a table because it packs out! Wednesdays I don't have class at all which is quite awesome, however would be more awesome if it fell on a Friday or a Monday but you know, can't be choosy about these things. Ok that is far long enough for one post. The end.