Thursday, September 16, 2010

Post #3: Scotland-Edinburgh (Monday, Sept 6-Wednesday, Sept 8)

Monday, September 6, 2010

The train ride was quite a bit more enjoyable than the train I took from Manchester to Liverpool only days earlier.  This time, I actually had a seat and was able to stretch out my legs and embrace the scenery as I left England and entered Scotland.  I arrived in Edinburgh at 4:48pm Monday, September 6th.  Upon arriving, I headed directly for the hostel “Budget Backpackers”.  While checking in, I noticed a distinctive accent among the desk clerk.  As it turned out, one of the guys was from Watrous, Saskatcheawn—small world.  He had been working up here for just over a year on a two year working visa which I definitely took a mental note of—if you catch my drift. After checking in, I headed for some supper at a nearby restaurant called “Monster Mash”.  My European guidebook suggested this place for its quality food and low price—this was not the case.  The food was cold when it arrived and relatively expensive.  Nevertheless, I was hungry and didn’t care seeing as I hadn’t eaten anything the entire day. 

After finishing my meal I headed back to the hostel. I went up to my room, cruised the internet for a bit and settled in for what was supposed to be an early night to catch up on some sleep.  The internet signal wasn’t working so I headed down to the lobby to get a stronger connection.  Down in the lobby I met a girl named Mariee—with two e’s—who was from Australia and also traveling around on her own.  I talked to her for awhile and she mentioned that she was thinking about doing a five day bus tour of northern Scotland and suggested that I consider it.   Once I consulted the brochure, I could feel my intuition suggest that this trip would be an experience. I then proceeded to book my ticket—at a cost of one hundred and sixty nine pounds--for the five day excursion leaving Wednesday, September 8th.  I was heading to what are known as the Orkney Islands of northern Scotland—a remote and rarely travelled area.  At this point, I never really knew what the islands were or what I was to expect.  I had no idea of the history that went with the islands or the glorious scenery that would ultimately ensue. 

Tuesday September 7, 2010
Tuesday morning I woke up feeling energized and was beginning to break the jetlag that had consumed my nights the last couple of days.  I woke to rain drops hammering on the open windowsill and decided to throw on my rain jacket and go explore the city for a couple of hours.  I had to be back at the hostel by 11:00am to attend a tour of the city that the hostel was putting on.  This would be a great way to learn the city layout and meet some of the people that were staying in the hostel with me.   But first, I felt I needed to explore on my own and get a taste for the city with no other subjective statements to influence my impression of Edinburgh. 

Me with my, much appreciated, rain coat
Cowgate street--right down from my hostel
There are alleys like this all over Edinburgh--very narrow with tall buildings on either side
Some sort of fortress by the looks of it

After getting acquainted with Edinburgh for a couple hours, it was time to head back to the hostel to meet up with the morning tour.  Along the way, I stopped at a little cafe to pick up some breakfast.  As it turned out, the place was small and full; therefore, I had to share a table with an individual who was sitting by himself.  I sat down and he introduced himself as Blake.  Coincidently, he was staying at the same hostel as me, going on the same 11:00am tour as me and going on the same tour of the Orkneys in northern Scotland that was leaving Wednesday morning; perfect, I had met the first person of the five day journey that was soon to transpire. 

There were about fifteen people from the hostel that showed up for the morning tour.  Our first destination would be an old cemetery behind the hostel where we were staying.

The first stop in the cemetery was a tombstone that belonged to a dog named Bobby.  Some of you may be wondering, "why is there a dog buried in a human cemetery?"  Well, the reason behind this is in fact very interesting.  Right to the left of Bobby's burial is the resting place of Bobby's owner who tragically passed away before Bobby's time. Bobby, missing his owner, would visit the tombstone every morning and lay in the grass that now grew in place of the deceased body.  People were amazed by the dog's loyalty and when the dog passed away, they buried him alongside his owner.   

First stop in the cemetery--Bobby's grave 

 Here is what Bobby's grave read:

Greyfriars Bobby died 14th January 1862 aged 16 years--let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all


The next stop was a wall that played an important role in the history of the Scottish people.  The wall shown below previously--hundreds of years ago-- enclosed the entire city of Edinburgh.  The wall's purpose was to keep the English out and to keep the Scottish people in.  If you wanted to leave Edinburgh, you had to pay a toll to get through the gates;  therefore, not many people left because they basically couldn't afford it.
Gateway to Edinburgh
If you look closely at the picture above you can see that there are gravestones right up against the edge of the wall.  These gravestones are of people who were contributing members of society and got to be buried within the confines of the wall.  However, if you walk through the gateway there are people buried on the otherside of the wall--outside the city. These people were the murderers, rapists, thieves and basically anyone who possessed an ominous spirit. 


In this shunned community of the deceased, we came across a rather interesting grave of someone who was known as Voldemort. For those of us who aren't familiar with the Harry Potter series, he was the main antagonist.  It is believed, that Voldemort is based off of the man that was buried there.  The reason this is believed to be true is because J.K. Rowling--author of the Harry Potter series--is from Edinburgh.  She use to write in a coffee shop that actually overlooked this specific graveyard.  Once we were told this, the guide continued on to point out another tidbit that ties into the history behind the Harry Potter novels.  Apparently, the school of magic that the students attend in the book is based off a school in Edinburgh which is shown below.

The school of magic from the Harry Potter series
Apparently, J.K. Rowling drew inspiration from this school and the tradition that went along with it.  Everyone would always joke and say that the school was a place that taught students magic and how to fly on brooms.  The reason this rumour/tradition started is because the school is a castle and is enclosed by a fence.  No one could see what was going on inside the school yard and thus, this story was created.  Interestingly enough, J.K. Rowling took this story and used it as inspiration and wrote the most popular series of all time.

The picture below is of a gate that leads into another graveyard; we were unable to enter.  The reason behind this was because of the fact that it is very haunted and people were getting hurt within it's quarters and as a result, the city was being sued.  So, they don't let the public enter it anymore unless with a specific tour guide--or ghost busters (lol). I  really think this is something that has been contrived to further drain the tourist's pockets since these specific tours coincidently require a healthy sum.  

Gate that leads into the haunted graveyard
 As the tour was nearing to an end, there was still one more final stop--Bobby's bar.  This bar, shown below, was built to pay tribute to Bobby and to remind the public that loyalty is a great virtue.
Statue of  Bobby outside his bar 
Bobby's bar
At this point the tour had come to an end--but our day adventure had just begun.  The guide strongly suggested that we visit Edinburgh castle--the biggest tour attraction in all of Scotland.  Most of us on the tour obliged and headed for the castle.






Walking up to the entrance of the castle

The Edinburgh Castle in the background--it is a lot bigger than it looks
Once inside the castle, we engaged in a tour that gave us a rundown of all the rooms within and the history that went along with them.  The castle was constructed in the 12th century;  over time, it has been added to constantly and is still in use today by the Scottish army.  It was said, that who ever had control of the castle would basically control all of Scotland.  It was very hard to attack due to being built upon a volcanic rock which explains it high elevation above Edinburgh.  Basically, in times of war, the enemy would try cease the castles food and water supplies, rather than try and take over the castle.
Entrance to the castle
At the very top of the castle--basically like a little town

Inside one of the rooms where we could actually take pictures
Some of the guys from the walking tour who were staying at the same hostel as me
A statue of the original brave-heart. As you can see, the comparison between the statue and Mel Gibson is uncanny (lol)   
The pictures that I have posted really don't provide justice in describing the experience and feel of navigating through a 900 year old piece of infrastructure.  After visiting the castle, we all decided to head to a pub for a beer and some food.

We ended up going to a place called "The Last Drop".  The name is significant in that people would go in to this pub for one last drink before being hung in the streets.  




People from the tour who were also staying at the hostel 

We had to move inside because it was getting cold outside
Going around the table in a clockwise motion we have Fay (the girl) from Brazil, Blake whom is a teacher from Australia, myself, a guy from Holland whose name eludes me, Dale from England and Moe from Brazil--Fay's boyfriend.  The day was full of sightseeing and finishing it up conversing with my new friends over a cold beer was a nice way to end the afternoon.

Having walked around/toured all day does a number on the feet. I was exhausted and decided to head back to the hostel for a nap; my thought that I had beaten jet lag was apparently premature.  I ended up sleeping from about 6pm till 10pm; at which point, I got up and headed for the pub called “The Oz” behind our hostel.  There was a walking pubcrawl that left from our hostel and everyone was already there for their first destination.  I met up with people from the tour here and we headed out to a couple other bars and eventually settled on this club whose name I don’t particularly remember.  It was here where I met some girls from Belgium whom I befriended; I spent the duration of the night becoming acquainted with my new friends.

As time crept up on 4:00am I found myself disconnected from the thought that I had to be up at 7:30 to start my five day journey of the Orkneys.  I eventually find myself climbing into bed and glancing over at my watch to see the time before shutting my eyes--5:30am it reads.  I think to myself, "damn you night guy, morning guy is going to hate you (lol)."  This thought then eventually drifts to, " I wonder what the accent is like on isolated islands in the far north?" To this I was unsure but I was excited to find out--morning couldn't come soon enough.

3 comments:

Janelle said...

Awww I loved the part about Bobby the dog!!! So cute. I can't wait to show my students the part about Harry Potter inspirations tomorrow - they will love it! That is super cool. The castles there look unreal! Your descriptions throughout these blogs are very well written - you would get an A+ in my class - lol. I "definitely" - notice the spelling! - enjoyed the part about how "morning guy" would be hating "night guy"!!
Hope that your tour is amazing - can't wait to hear more! Love ya,
Sincerely,
Your much missed sister :)

Mallory said...

Enjoyed your pics of Edinburgh Scott! We were there in 1978!! Stayed with an Aunt of mine for a few weeks. I too loved the Harry Potter info. That is great you are meeting so many people from around the world!

Anonymous said...

I was wondering...did you take the Haunted Graveyard tour with Gerry?