Special Lady

On our second day in Edinburgh Mariah and I spent our day with Irene.  We had the best time just walking around the city.  We wandered up the the castle and took in the view from the top of the wall, then wandered to the National Museum.  We also had breakfast outside the National Gallery, and a midday snack in the National Library.  She was so nice and fun to be around.  I'm so glad that we got to spend time with her; the day we spent with her was definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

Aberdeen...maybe

This is a story of when travel goes wrong.  Sometimes you go somewhere, only to find that you can't do what you wanted to do.  Such as the case in Skene's House.  It's advertised all over the city as an exhibit of life in the 18th century, complete with a clothing display and a tea house.  I was pretty excited about it.  Then, I found this sign on the front door.  It's closed for the next year.  

The day before I had been wandering Inverness, and the tourist department had sent me to the House of Fraser, to see a kilt making exhibition.  I was terribly excited about that one, too.  However, once I got there I was informed that the exhibit was closed, also for a year.  

Well then.  

Aberdeen

If you can't tell, the day I was in Aberdeen was a very overcast day.  It never actually rained, but it was one of those days when you just want to curl up with some soup and a good book.  I didn't take too many pictures, since I had my bags with me the whole day, and it was difficult to balance those with a camera.  

Overall I liked Aberdeen.  The art gallery was really cool, as was the maritime museum.  There are also a lot of good looking restaurants.  If I hadn't been lugging my things around with me I might have explored more.  It's a college town, so I bet there were fun things to do, if I had known where to look.  

Inverness: Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle

Tuesday morning I hopped on a bus and rode out to the ruins of the Urquhart Castle, to see Loch Ness for myself.  This mini-trip almost didn't happen; I wanted to walk or rent a bike, not take a bus.  The information lady was very enthusiastic about the road not being suited for bikes, and that the bus was really the best way.  I listened to her, and I'm glad I did.  I probably would have died if I'd tried to ride.   Even though the bus was an hour late.  

Then, I almost didn't pay to go in to the castle once I got there.  It's always a little annoying when you have to pay for something that's just...sitting there.  However, I know that the money will go towards upkeep, and after being through it, I can agree that this is worth preserving.  The castle grounds were really cool.  There's a security person, but you can really just wander around and climb on anything you want, within reason.  

I suppose this is obvious, but Loch Ness is gorgeous.  Bordered by high hills on both sides, it stretches as far as you can see in either direction, and the lake and sky almost blend together in a blue haze around the edges.  Beautiful.  And no, I didn't see the monster. 

Inverness: Riverwalk

Since Inverness is split in to two halves by the river, it makes sense that there are bridges connecting the two parts.  However, there's one other way to get across.  The city has marked out a River Walk, where you can follow signs to small foot bridges, to cross the river by hopping across a few tiny islands.  I think that this area is definitely one of the prettiest parks I've ever seen within a city.  It's also very well used; there were tons of locals running, biking, and walking their dogs while I was out.  Of course, I was walking there at 7:30 in the morning, which is prime park-going hour.  

In addition to being marked by signs, the path was marked by a string of overhead lights.  I'm very curious about whether or not they light them at night; I bet they would be very pretty.  Don't worry though, I'm not wandering around in the woods at night by myself in a strange town to find out.

I found Nessie!

Inverness: City+River

These are just a few shots that I snapped up while walking around during my first half-day in Inverness.  It's a pretty small town, and is divided in half by the River Ness.  I found out pretty quickly that there isn't a whole lot to do in Inverness.  Once I ran out of tourist things to do I made some friends in the Village.  It's a vintage shop/craft collective, with a skate shop, record store, and bike shop attached.  There're a few couches, and people just hang out there.  It was really cool, and I think more of them should exist!

All of the Food

Haggis!  I tried it!  It was delicious! 

We ate dinner at Mum's, which was the best decision we could have made.  We had Haggis, an onion pie, sticky pudding and a rhubarb tart with custard.  All the good things.

To make up for all the good decisions we made while in Edinburgh, Tuesday I ate some not-so-stellar food, which somehow was still delicious.  For breakfast and lunch I ate 3 oranges and snacked on a 70 pence package of shortbread.  For dinner I had a sack full of fish and chips, which was wonderful until it started getting cold.  Greasy and delightful.

Edinburgh: National Monument

While in Edinburgh, Mariah and I made our way to the National Monument on Carlton Hill.  The view from the top of the hill was pretty incredible.

I like this message.  Also, hidden poo-ers.  Haha. Ha.

This one.

Two nice Spanish guys were kind enough to take our picture for us.  Actually, if it hadn't been for them we would have never made it up on to the monument.  I'm sure you're technically not supposed to climb it, but it seemed like everyone was doing it.  The problem is that there's a ledge about 6 inches deep, 3 or 4 feet off the ground, and then the next step is another two feet or so up.  Other than that narrow ledge, there aren't really any toe holds.  

The Spanish guys were from Salamanca, which is about two hours west of Segovia.  I got to practice my Spanish with them a little; they said that that area is really good for learning Spanish, since "there's no accent, it's pure Castilian .  That made me laugh.  My teachers say the same thing.  I understand that learning Castilian Spanish while in Castilla means learning Spanish that's as close to the roots as you can get it; but everyone has an accent to someone else.  

Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland

Alright, I can't make up my mind about this museum.  First off, the building itself is gorgeous   And, there are different things everywhere, which means that no matter where you turn, there's something interesting there.  At the same time, I've never been in such a disorganized museum in my life.  There was really no logical progression to anything.  Sure, things were grouped generally with similar things. But for people trying to follow the exhibits in an orderly sequence   Forget it.  

One: kilt loom = cool.  Two: Lady in the blue jacket = cooooolest.  More on that later.

Edinburgh: Cemetaries

What does one do with free time in a strange city? Wander through old cemeteries  of course!  We went to two, and found some pretty places and some famous people.  

Lincoln!?