No trip to Scotland is complete without seeing the Edinburgh Castle.
A few friends and I woke up early to catch the 9:00 a.m. Megabus to Edinburgh. At £7 per round trip ticket, you can’t go wrong. It only took about an hour to get there.
After taking a good look at the city map in the bus station, we set off to explore the city for the day. My plan when it comes to new cities: look around and head in the direction of A) the coolest architectural monument in sight and/or B) where the most people are. Long story short—we saw a huge gothic sculpture, ended up at the visitors’ center, picked up a real map (who were we kidding, we didn’t know where we were), and set out to find the famous castle. Twenty minutes later, we were there.
I couldn’t believe how crowded it was. I guess on a beautiful Saturday morning, why wouldn’t you hit up the castle first? Luckily, we had saved some money by purchasing an “Explorer Pass” in Stirling that guaranteed entry to three castles within a few days. Yes, we were those savvy travelers who got to skip the queue.
The Edinburgh Castle is gigantic; there are so many different paths to get to various exhibits. It’s pretty much a maze of a museum. We toured the jail, war memorial and grand display with the Scottish royal crown, sword and jewels. We also saw a demonstration of the firing of a cannon.
After taking too many pictures of the gorgeous view, we went to lunch at the famous Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books. The café has a spectacular view of the castle; it’s easy to see why writers and artists go there for inspiration. However, the service was terrible. The waitress got our order mixed up and was unapologetic about serving us 40 minutes late! You also have to purchase something in order to see the view in the back. So much for customer satisfaction…
After lunch, we wandered around the city. There are practically rows of souvenir shops on every block (basically the Scottish equivalent of Times Square) with kilts, tartans and tacky mementos. We also passed several full-blown Scottish weddings, admired the intricate architecture of city buildings and ended up hanging out on the lawn of the Scottish Parliament. Then, we grabbed dinner at a local pub. I finally got to try Sticky Toffee Pudding, a classic dessert here. Yum!
I had a wonderful day in Edinburgh, but I was happy to board the bus back to Glasgow. This weekend, I am taking a train to London and traveling to Italy with a friend from home. Until next time, collegiettes™!