One of Those Days

Even days that are on a whole good can be 'one of those days'.

Chris-Anne and I decided to go back into Edinburgh today for a proper visit, since when we wandered around she was coming off of 24 hours of transatlantic travel and it was rainy. Today was supposed to be gorgeous, and that made it the perfect day to wander around.

That perfect day started off with both of us ignoring the alarm clock for an hour. Which put us on the later bus than we'd intended.

No worries, so we're an hour behind. It's all good.

It's all good until the kid behind us makes the comment that he's 'not keen on transport'. Okay, sure, not everyone likes being on a bus for an hour and a half. Apparently he missed the memo that if you get motion sick, you should take a pill, sit in the front, and have a plastic bag with you as a courtesy to other passengers. Because no one likes it when you vomit on a bus. Especially when it goes between the seats and gets on my arm. Win.

After that 'but at least it makes a great story' start to the day, we make it to Edinburgh Castle, which was one of two things that Chris-Anne just had to do. Which, I love the castle, so I'm always up for exploring it.


Chris-Anne looking fashionably nonchalant beside one of the cannons.


Since it's Mother's Day here in the UK, they had costumed actors all through the buildings, which was pretty cool. Here in the Great Hall, there was Queen Mary and that Protestant rabblerouser John Knox having words.


And with a beautiful day, we climbed to one of the high points to get a shot overlooking New Town. It was ridiculously windy and cold at that point, though.


Which meant that we decided to take pictures of each other taking pictures and being cold. Artistic, no?


With all of that walking around, Chris-Anne's next statement was 'we need a pub'. A good seat and a good drink sounds like a plan to me, especially with the second thing that she wanted to do coming up.


Ah, this one will do.


The delightful mix of exhaustion and excitement.


With our whistles whetted, we move on to the next thing she requested -- Chris-Anne wanted a ghost tour. Apparently Edinburgh is one of the most haunted cities in Europe, and that's too much to pass up for her. Me? Never a huge fan of something to intentionally scare me. But Chris-Anne wants to go down in the vaults, so why not?


Why not? Vaults are small, and stone, and underground, and dank, and dark, and did I mention small? Oh... did I not mention I'm slightly claustrophobic?

The tour was slightly cheesy, but the feeling of being in a small space was enough to make me uncomfortable and give me the heebijeebies. Fresh air for the win, after that.

But at least we still had plenty of time to catch the last bus back to St Andrews.

Oh, wait, here's the other part of that 'it makes a good story' time. Apparently they've changed the Sunday schedule without changing the time tables in the bus stations, or indicating the new start date on the web. So what nine of us thought was the bus to Glenrothes to connect to get into St Andrews turned out to just end in Glenrothes. With the nine of us standing outside in the cold and realizing there's something wrong when no bus comes and a look on the web on what is indicated as the unchanged normal schedule (last updated Dec 2009, my ass) now indicates that this was the last bus to Glenrothes and the last connection to St Andrews left an hour previously.

It cost £35 between me and Chris-Anne to get a taxi from Glenrothes to St Andrews. Color me unamused. I'm sure that someday it will be a funny story, this trip to Edinburgh, however, tonight I want nothing more than a sandwich and to curl up in bed.

Tomorrow we're going to Glasgow... surely the travel gods have to smile on me more this time...

Edinburgh Castle

Friday a couple of us decided that we wanted to get out of Dodge, so tossing a dart at the stack of bus schedules gives us the wonderful destination of Edinburgh. (Which would've been even better had we picked the right bus and hadn't had to stop at every. single. corner and old folks home on our way there -- what should've been 2 hrs took over 3).

We ended up at the Scottish National Gallery (yay, art) before heading back into the cold and realizing that I was the only one of us who'd dressed for the wind and the chill and the drizzle. It's cold, windy, and rainy in Scotlad? Gadzooks! Who'd have thought it?

But after searching for a Boots and finally finding my travel companion something warm, we make our way to my main point of the trip -- Edinburgh Castle. Because lord knows I love me a castle.




You can see the castle looming over the city from most anywhere, which I think is lovely. And I think I frustrated my friend because I refused to pull out a map -- you can see the bloody thing from anywhere. To get there, just walk up the hill and you'll get there. There's only so many places that it can be.

Which, of course, I was right. Walk up the hill and you get to the Royal Mile and then to the castle.



Inside the castle, in the square between the Great Hall and facing the tower housing the Crown Jewels and the Stone of Scone.

We ended up jumping into one of the little 20 minute guided tours to introduce us to the castle before being set off to explore ourselves. The tour guide was fantastic and funny -- he gave tours like I used to when I gave them, which means facts interspersed with jokes and exaggerations. Loved it. And he had a fantastic accent to boot, which just made it all the better. I'm assuming Glasgow since a good handful of his jokes involved Rangers and Celtic.

And once we left him, it was time to explore. I'm a sucker for pretty things, so of course I want to check out jewels. I kept trying to take a picture in the 'no pictures allowed' area but the docent wouldn't turn her back. Ever. Which... yeah, way to do your job, but still. It's not like I was planning on using flash!




And the view overlooking Edinburgh was breathtaking. Especially the hill in the distance, known as Arthur's Seat. Some people say it's in reference to King Arthur, but it's more than likely just a bastardization of the Gaelic name. Either way, on a pretty day I want to walk to the top of it.

Which would be the point where I say what's next and my friend goes 'um, I know I didn't tell you before, but I need to head back into town early...'

Thanks, man.

At least on the way back we got the correct bus.

Regardless, I can't wait to go back. Next on the list for Edinburgh, the Christmas Market and more roaming around.