First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM. Sorry I can’t spend it with you in person, but know that I’m thinking of you as I visit the land of your people!

Okay. Internet was super iffy in the UK/ Ireland, but we are back in the land of the inter webs (Portugal), so I can finally start writing again. Don´t be surprised if my posts start getting published later and later.

So Edinburgh was wonderful. The weather, unfortunately, was not. The clouds started spitting out rain right when I got off the train. I do love Scottish accents though. The first person I talked to when I stepped off the train was an older man working for the station. I asked where the bathroom was and he responded in such rapid and thickly-accented `English` that I just had to follow his pointing finger because I really had no idea what he was saying!

Walking around the city for the first time was amazing. I swear my eyes were about to pop out of my head. Everything is made of stone with Gothic styling. Tall, dark, and handsome. (;

 

Speaking of tall, (not) dark, and handsome, check out this ol´ chap. He was out there every day! Good thing he was wearing wool because it was not warm outside.

 

This was literally the entrance to my amazing hostel. RIGHT next to the Edinburgh Castle! Crazy! Plus the staff was helpful, the breakfast was free, there were several cool lounges, and there were two fully-stocked kitchens that were all-abuzz during dinner time. Unlike any hostel I´ve ever been to. Highly recommend.

 

On my way to drop off my things at the hostel, I noticed a free walking tour sign and ran back to catch the starting time. The top photo features Max, my adorable, hilarious, British (not Scottish) guide. At the start of the tour, he told us that his main goal in giving free walking tours is to convince at least one person to fly immediately home upon completion of the tour, sell all of their possessions, sell some of their family´s possessions, and then use that money to move permanently back to Edinburgh. (It was tempting, believe me.)

 

He brought us to this graveyard and told several stories of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. Apparently she wrote all seven books in Edinburgh, and much of her story aspects were inspired by her surroundings. For example, there´s a headstone in this graveyard for a…. TOM RIDDLE. Cray.

 

This is a crazy-expensive private school that is believed to be an inspiration for Hogwarts, combined with Edinburgh Castle (up on a big rock!) Can you see the resemblance in all the towers??

 

After the walking tour, I asked for the best tower to climb to catch a view of the city. Max suggested climbing Calton Hill, and not climbing any tower at all, but he didn´t know there was a magnificent and climbable tower on top of said hill! More on that later.

The walk was green and wet, much like the rest of the city surroundings.

 

This is the tower!!! The Nelson Monument, I believe? It was super windy, and I was really regretting ordering soup to go, because I had no chance to eat in and my hand was getting cold carrying it around everywhere. I walked into the tower and the most adorable little (well, okay, he was actually pretty tall) Scottish man offered to keep my soup for me. Then he asked if I was sure I wanted to climb the tower, and I asked if he thought the building was unstable. ´Ah, nooo, I´m not sayin´you´ll blow away lassie, just that I´ve seen better days for the weather!´ (And yes, he really did call me lassie.) I said I wasn´t going to be around for long, so this was my only chance!

 

The view sure was spectacular! This is the National Monument.

And this is a bunch of other monuments/ museums.

AND THIS IS MY FACE WHEN I ALMOST GOT BLOWN OFF THE TOWER. I´m telling you, it was nuts. You see that guy in the background? Before he showed up, I was all alone up there for about ten minutes, and the wind was going positively bonkers. At one point, I was crawling on my hands and knees around the tower to get back to the safety of the door jam!!! The adorable Scottish man lied to me! (But it was super fun, so I stayed out there way longer than necessary.)

When I got back down to ground level, my Scottish friend handed me my soup and said, ´There you go, wee bop.´   …. WEE BOP. I can´t. I just cannot handle the adorability. He asked if anybody else was still on the tower and said he would close it down for the night because the wind had gotten too violent while I was up there. (I´ll say!) Then he sent me off with a, `Goodbye sweetheart, good to meet yew!´  Too stinkin´ cute. One thing I noticed about Scotland and Ireland is that people LOVE to use nicknames: sweetie, sweetheart, honey, wee bop, lassie, dear, you-name-it. Gosh, I love nicknames.

To round off my day, I paid a visit to the Scott Monument, a towering Gothic structure right across the street from an H&M. That´s Europe for you.

 

I´ll continue this Edinburgh talk in a part-two.

Venlig hilsen/ Best regards/ Cheers,

Lizzy-wa