scottish splendor 1

Reached Edinburgh all woozy headed and hunch backed. The reason? A 9 hour overnight Megabus ride from London all the way up to Edinburgh. Looking back, it was amazing how I managed to survive that horrible bus ride in those chicken coop-like conditions. I guess one pound travel made it easier to sit through the ordeal. =P

Luckily I felt much better after some food and a cuppa and so we (Eugene and me) headed out to the Edinburgh Castle after dropping off our bags at our hostel. The day was short and so we had to make the most of it. Walked up the "Royal Mile", nicknamed appropriately so because of the castle, to get to our destination. In my opinion, the Edinburgh castle has to be the nicest castle I've seen so far! Unlike most other castles/palaces which are usually on level ground, the Edinburgh castle is situated on a rocky outcrop. Also, it looks and feels like what a proper castle should, with its moats and tower walls. However it also has to be the priciest castle I've been to also at £10 a pop (no student concessions).

first views of the castle

beautiful view from the top

cannon

British flag flying high

me and ol' grandpa kilt.. =P

down the Royal Mile

carnival at central edinburgh

Went for some dinner and shopping after the castle and rounded off the night in the most suitable way possible - A ghost tour. Apparently Edinburgh is one of the world's (if not UK's) most haunted places and so we took to frolicking around its (supposedly) haunted sites after-hours. In the end, no matter what Eugene would like to say, I still think that the most haunting part of the tour would be the price - £7. Heh! =P

the most haunted part of the tour - the till =P

Day two was reminiscent of my great Stockholm walk, except that this time we trekked for a much further distance. About 12km, to be exact. But the sun finally peeked through the clouds after a rainy day the day before so it was kinda nice to be outdoors. Our initial destination was Leigh, which is a coastal town, but we ended up walking all the way to Portobello beach! Nothing much to blog about the beach since it was just one huge stretch of sand, but here are some nice pictures of the day!

at the boondocks

Leigh

first rays of the sun

Portobello beach

feeling like i was at the end of the world

By the time we headed back to the city, the first signs of dusk had already started to show. We grabbed some dinner, then we went off to watch the Hogmanay celebrations. Apart for its fringe festival, Edinburgh is very famous for its Hogmanay (Gaelic for last day of the year) celebrations. Apparently each part of Scotland has its own Hogmanay celebrations and Edinburgh being the capital has one of the grandest and best celebrations. In total, there were supposed to be 4 days of celebrations, but since I was going to leave that night, I was only able to partake in one - The torchlight procession.

sunset

before the procession

procession begins

Wow it was pretty cool with all the Scottish warriors, bagpipe music and blazing torches. The atmosphere was akin to a Salem which hunt, just that I am sure that there were no menacing thoughts that night. We didn't join in the procession as the torches cost £5 per stick, and we had to catch a bus up to Inverness anyway at 2015 and there wouldn't have been enough time for us to complete the procession and head to the bus station. But that still didn't prevent us from having fun just soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying ourselves! =D