So we all arrived at the train station on Queen Street to get the train together as a group, and when we arrived at the Edinburgh Waverley station, the tour guide was already waiting for us. He introduced himself and began explaining how the tour was going to work. Now, before we began the tour, Dr. Carlson said that he was under the impression that we would be taking the historic walking tour of the city and THEN get a tour of the castle, but it turns out that it was totally separate and that we would have to pay 16 pounds just to get inside. But more about that later.
We started the tour talking about the Old Town and the New Town, and then proceeded to hit some of the big landmarks of the city, like the famous statues of Hume and King Charles I, pinpointing the many museums, and even locate some of the places that J. K. Rowling wrote her books (Elephant House, Balmoral Hotel). We learned a lot about how the city came to what it is today, and also how the city is built on a dormant volcano. Also learned how death always comes from the right (traffic). All in all, it was a very cool experience had it not been for the cold and the rain (but it turned into snow!)
After the tour, we were given free reign to go do whatever we wanted. We could stay the night, we could go right back to Glasgow, didn't matter. Amy, Nick, Aggie, and I decided to go grab lunch at the Scotland National Museum cafe and then explore the many floors and exhibits it had to offer. Honestly, if there was something there that you wanted to see, it was probably there. We knew that it got dark around 4, so we decided to try and scope out the castle and get as far into it as we were allowed without having to buy tickets. Turns out you can get through the front gates, but not through the front doors. So we went into the gift shop to look around, and this is where I found out that I lost my student ID somewhere in the city. So this would be the third ID I would have to get, since the first one was inactive when I got it.
We left the castle with about an hour left of daylight, and we stumbled upon an old cemetery, and outside the gate there was a plaque commemorating the many Scottish "celebrities" that were buried there. One of which was the philosopher Hume. Amy bolted inside because she is obsessed with him, so we followed suit, even though I wasn't very reluctant of this. The grave sites were far different than what I had seen before - if you were someone of high stature (which apparently a lot of people seemed to be), you had your own tomb. We found Hume's giant temple, and we also stumbled upon one of the two tombs that Robert Burns had been buried in. It seems that he was first buried there, but was then relocated somewhere else. Not sure why, but it was still really cool.
We finally went back to the train station and made our way back to Glasgow. There is so much to do in Edinburgh that you cannot possibly do it all in one day. I plan on going back there soon so that I can climb up Arthur's Peak, visit more museums, and enjoy the capital of Scotland just a little bit more. And maybe when the weather is nicer.
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