Edinburgh

Arthur's Seat

The Salisbury Crags

The Scottish Parliament

The Streets of Edinburgh

Christina is in love with Edinburgh. From the day we met, she's been gushing about the place, and so when we were mapping out where we were going to travel this Spring, Edinburgh floated to the top of the list. We decided to book our trip over Queen's Day, since that's a total nightmare in this country anyway, and ended up with four nights in Christina's favourite town.

It's hard to describe Edinburgh to someone who's never been there. The town is built on plot of land riddled with old volcanos, and over the centuries, the land has been twisted into a tiny mountain range. Some of the hills, like Arthur's Seat, are taller than the Eiffel Tower, and others, just a few storeys up. Regardless, "flat" is not a word you can safely associate with Edinburgh.

Now there are a lot of cities in the world that have managed to grow in such vertically diverse geography. San Francisco is a fine example, even Vancouver if you stretch the definition. But I've never seen a city adapt to hilly terrain like this place. Like many old cities, Edinburgh has, over the centuries, built on top of itself: hotels built upon hovels, bridges built over alleys. What's really fascinating in this case though is that in Edinburgh, the bridges have become streets. Go in the front door of a building on one street, go down a few flights of stairs, and come out on a totally different street. Edinburgh has become a city nested in amongst the hills. You have to see it to belive it.

We rented a beautiful apartment in a relatively central area, and spent most of our trip walking... everywhere. Criss-crossing the city, soaking up all the touristy stuff we could get our hands on. Christina had lived here for a year back in 2006, so she felt right at home directing us to the next stop on a Very Long List of next stops. We visited the old castle (worth the trip, though pretty pricey), Mary King's Close (so lame, but our tour guide may very well have been high for the duration), the Scottish Parliament (beautiful, and I learnt a lot about their electoral system & internal politics), and of course the Salisbury Crags & Arthur's Seat.

Those last two are the names of the epic hills at the centre of Edinburgh. Volcanic outcroppings created millions of years ago that have become a sort of central parkin Edinburgh... you know, if central park took three hours to climb and two to cross. I took some amazing photos from the summit and got some desperately needed exercise too. That girl is in so much better shape than I am.

We also found some time to see an evening show for a local cultural event, where there was traditional Scottish dancing, choral music, and a Gaelic band as well. Those first two weren't very good, the Gaelic group was really quite impressive. Fluent in both English and Gaelic, they introduced each set in both languages. A fascinating experience to say the least.

And that about rounds out the trip. Given Christina's love for the place, We're bound to return one day, and honestly, I wouldn't mind. It's a pretty town, full of friendly people... who understand what cheddar cheese should taste like. They also have deep fried Mars bars, which are gross by the way. Anyway, I've posted a full compilation of images up on Google+ if you're interested. If you like what you see, you should book a trip sometime.