Edinburgh

So, Edinburgh. Just to give you a quick impression before the pictures, I really liked Edinburgh (shock, right?). However, the weather was atrocious which made it hard to have the motivation to do a lot of exploring. We spent the first day wondering the city and then the second day seeing Loch Lomand and a little bit of the Highlands. Edinburgh has this really cool sort of old, hipster vibe. It feels a bit like the setting of some fantasy adventure story or a medieval dungeons and dragons (not like the game) movie. It’s easy to see where the inspiration for Harry Potter came from. I loved the Scottish accents and the little snippets of the strong Scottish culture that I got to experience. I’d love to go back at a warmer date and try to see and learn more about Scottish history and culture.

One of our first glimpses of the famous Castle Rock

Note the windblown look

We wanted to check out the inside of the castle but it was closed due to high winds. I’m not sure what high winds have to do with the inside of the castle, but oh well.

Our city tour bus

This is a mailbox

The idea that specific stitches meant different things was really cool to me.

This is the famous cafe where the Harry Potter was written from.

The Royal Mile between the castle and the palace.

Parlament building

If you look closely, you can see the top of the palace peaking over the trees.

Another view of Castle Rock

We should all be eternally grateful to this man because he was the inventor of anesthesia.

A slightly obstructed view of the palace. I had the worst time getting a picture of this.

Take 2 of trying to get the palace in.

Catherine’s friend recommended a little bakery cafe called Lovecrumbs to us. We sampled their carrot cake and something called hummingbird cake, which you see here. Both were absolutely delicious and if you ever go to Edinburgh, you should pop in.

The green pub is one of the oldest in Edinburgh.

I took this close up of the French “cafe” merely to point out that you would probably never see checkered table cloths in France.

How cool is this architecture?

This is a high school. It looks like a castle from Harry Potter. Whoa.

Here’s the quad outside of my friend’s dorm.

The famous bridge in the Battle of Sterling bridge – very important in William Wallace’s taking of Sterling Castle.

The William Wallace monument.

Sterling Castle out the rainy bus window – apologizes

We took a boat ride on Loch Lomand. Unfortunately, the weather was not superb and we couldn’t see much but it was very cool anyways.

Hey look at…well actually there’s nothing you can see because the window’s fogged up again.

I know these pictures are a little difficult to see, but I wanted to try to record a little bit of Scottish countryside.

Hamish is a famous Scottish Highland cow.

He has a good deal more hair than other breads and he needs it too with the crazy weather there.

Monty Python fans, pay attention! This is the castle used in the filming of the movie. Due to a low budget, this castle was filmed from 3 different angles to be the different castles in the movie, so really they’re all just one.