The Mons Meg and Other Scottish Phenomenon

Our destination this past weekend was Edinburgh, Scotland's capital. We took a four-hour train ride from King's Cross, home of Harry Potter's Platform 9 and 3/4, with several other Ithacans and Maggie and Bill. After checking into our hostel, the group of us followed Bill blindly, as we always do, for a quick walking tour of the city on which we learned much more information about Edinburgh than my head can remember.

Around dinnertime, we were left on our own to explore and do whatever we liked, and that turned out to be eating dinner. The lot of us, Meg, Jessie, Paddy, the girls from downstairs - Brittany, Megan, Jennie, and Amy, Francia, Amy Cohen, and I, attempted to find food in a city that apparently stops serving food just when you need it. After a few failed possibilities (too expensive, too crowded) and walking past all the humourously-named pubs (Dirty Dick's, Filthy McNasty's, and The Bad Ass) which no longer served meals only drink, we settled on a pub whose name escapes me. This is primarily because it was hard to say. We ordered an abundance of food including several servings of the delicious dessert, Apple Cookie Dough Pie. And, of course, a few of us brave ones sampled the traditional Scottish favorite, Haggis, Neeps & Tatties. (Look here for a description as I don't really like to think about what I've eaten.) Surprisingly, it was good and, vehemently pushing its definition out of my mind, I would definitely eat it again. We spent a great deal of time in the pub before heading back to the hostel for circus tricks galore. I suppose it would help if I explain here that Amy C. is involved in ICircus at school and is interning The Circus Space here in London. She taught handstands and relaxed us all with some circus-y bends in the air - she even got Maggie to try, which Bill took pictures of, of course.

The morning started with a brisk walk up to Edinburgh Castle which, in my opinion, was just another castle. Except that they had a cannon named after me, the Mons Meg!! (And, shh, I know it came first.) I listened to 3 or 4 tales about her on the audio guide and took my fair share of pictures and basically just got very excited about her. I found the prisoners of war exhibit to be interesting, the men wearing kilts entertaining, and the Crown Jewels to be gaudy, but honestly, the Mons Meg was the highlight for me. They had a book on her in the gift shop which I scooped up immediately and read on the train ride home to London. I'll tell you, she was a pretty intimidating piece of artillery.

We walked along The Royal Mile down to Scottish Parliament, our next stop. I was all prepared for boredom because government, Scottish or otherwise, isn't really my thing. I underestimated it, though, because I am in love with it now. Our tour guide was fabulous, and everything she said about the building just made me like it more and more. After the tour, I ate some vegetable soup and bread in the cafe - so cheap! and so so good! - in hopes of gaining some stamina for the hike up to the top of Arthur's Seat soon thereafter.

The group left without us, so we had to do a little speed-walking to catch up, and the climb to the top of yet another super-tall hill was starting again. Arthur's Seat stands 822 feet over Edinburgh, but it felt quite easy compared to the Glastonbury Tor (518 feet). Perhaps it was the sun. At the top, there are all kinds of panoramic views of the city to be had and lots of pictures to be taken. Music from a parade carried up to the Seat so we were able to listen to the bagpipes and watch the procession. We stayed up above Edinburgh until the wind decided it wanted to join us and it got cold, leaving in favor of souvenir shopping and dinner. (Dinner, by the way, was the best jacket potatoes ever.)

Dinner was followed by a quick trip back to the hostel and then back out again to go on a haunted tour called Ghosts and Terror. Our tour guide was a bit cocky and picked on us ("playfully") for being Americans, something that's gotten a little old having already been abroad for two months, and may have had a fake accent. Aside from all of that, the tour wasn't the waste of money is seemed to be in the beginning. We spent 45 minutes above ground, learning about witch-burning and torture devices and such, and we spent another 45 minutes below ground in the underground streets and rooms below Edinburgh. That was the scary part. I clung to Jessie's side for the entirety of the underground section as we went through a series of rooms with increasing paranormal activity from Levels 1 up to 3. At the end, they played a cheap trick and had some stupid man in a dark cape run by and scare us, which made the whole thing a bit easier to deal with but, at the same time, knocked off a load of credibility. A mixed bag, really, that tour.

Sunday was pretty much a free day, with the exception of hostel checkout and a trip to the Palace of Holyrood. The Palace is the Queen's residence in Scotland, which she visits about once a year in July to a whole host of celebrations, parades, and parties, and was once home to Mary Queen of Scots. I most enjoyed the roomful of pictures of the Queen and the Royal Family they had on display to commemorate her 80th birthday. The Queen is fabulous, and Jessie and I are now on a quest to see her before we leave. The gift shop was full of things that I wanted but didn't really need, so I settled on a tin of God Save the Queen mints. We ate a very cheap yet filling lunch at The Castle Arms thanks to our hostel connection and spent the remainder of the day hunting down fried Mars bars and souvenirs. I didn't find the Mars bars, but I did purchase a lovely lambswool tartan blanket made in Scotland and some delightful Scottish shortbread to remember my trip by.