Day Two: Edinburgh
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2008
1
2
Trip End
Aug 26, 2008
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Today was an early start, in view of our planned day trip. Destination: Edinburgh. Breakfast was an uneventful cereal and fruit affair at the youth hostel; after a quick bit of washing-up and packing, we still had time for a wander up to the Castle and surrounding area - something we didn't have enough time for the previous evening. We didn't actually go inside the castle, mainly due to time restrictions, but still got a nice view over parts of Stirling from the grounds.
Next stop: Edinburgh! On arrival, we purchased our Explorer Passes for the upcoming bus trips. They come in different trip values according to the total number of days of travel, and are a much cheaper alternative to buying fares for long-distance travel. Being a pass holder also allows you to reserve seats in advance, which we later found to be imperative!
Cornish pasties were the lunch choice of the day, mainly due to our rapidly decreasing sugar levels (and consequent increasing irritability levels). We were keen on walking up to the New Scottish Parliament, and so after a bit of an explore of the city we made our way out of the centre and in its direction. On the way we went up to Calton Hill, at the foot of which lies the parliament. From there we had lovely views of much of the city, and of the Firth of Forth (the firth of the River Forth. A right mouthful.)
Our next move was then truly towards parliament. The building has adopted some very funky architechture, which found adds a very nice contrast to the historic city. After a bit of a rest in the sun, it was time to take a little hike up the Salisbury Crags - a (very, very large) hill directly behind the parliament. Luckily it didn't rain, although it was certinaly threatening to do so! Just very windy - true to Scotland.
It was drawing close to the evening, and so we made our way back into the city centre to find some dinner before our big event of the day...the Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2008! We settled at the downstairs restaurant/bar of a modern youth hostel, having nachos and some McEwans beer for supper. Ahem, dinner. I was a wee bit excited to find at least two Australians working behind the bar, too. And so we watched a bit of the soccer (sorry, football) game showing on the tv screens, and then made our way to the Tattoo. I had watched this a number of years on our television broadcast, so it was wonderful to finally see the different countries (including Australia) put on their best acts live. Unfortunately though, Sean Connery was nowhere to be found.
