Falling in love with Edinburgh- August 4

Wow what a day in Edinburgh!!! At first I thought this place was so creepy and dark and I wasn’t really a fan but after today I love it!

So we started our day with a tour of Edinburgh castle. The whole city is built around it and it sits up on top of a hill so it is really prominent and I have been looking forward to touring it. Fun fact- the hill itself is actually a volcano! You can still see part of the volcanic rock throughout the grounds and they often use it as part of memorials and stuff. So we had a little guided tour that took us through the grounds and showed us to different buildings that make up the castle. It was funny because this place really is super intimidating from below but once you get up inside the walls it’s not very impressive at all. But one thing that was interesting was this big modern gun they fire every day at 1 o’clock so that incoming ships can set their clocks to british time. I thought that was interesting.

After that we had free time to explore the buildings. First I went in and saw the crown jewels. Not nearly as cool as the ones in the London tower but still neat. They have a big crown, a scepter, a sword, and the scoon stone which is really important to the monarchy because it’s been present at every coronation for a really really really long time. So yeah, saw that. It was cool. Then I went and did the war memorial which was amazing. It was a very moving place. Here in Scotland I feel like they take military stuff really seriously. To this day they add names to that memorial, but most of the ones that are in there are from the ‘great war’ or world war 1. It was very elaborate. It was also really Christian. I like how here they can be really upfront about their faith in god. They don’t have to worry about being politically correct which I feel like happens a lot in America and often detracts from the meaning. After that I went into the royal apartments which were cool. Its funny because it’s so obvious that Scotland is extremely proud of one moment in time: the time when queen Elizabeth I died and left no heir, so James, son of Mary Queen of Scots took the English crown and united Scotland and England. It’s so funny. I love how they kind of hate the English. I will talk a little more about that later. Lets see, after that I went down into the dungeon area which has a really funny story. During world war two all of Britain was really scared of a german invasion sooo they hid the crown jewels! They actually hid them in a midevil toilet in this dungeon area. Isn’t that funny? I loved that story. And finally after that I went into another military museum. It houses the only flag ever taken from napoleon. It was taken by a Scotsman so they were very proud of that.

After that I was part of a small group that got to tour Scottish parliament! So you are probably wondering why the heck Scotland has parliament because it is technically part of the UK. Soo in the late 1990s the ‘devolution’ started which means England basically said that wales and Scotland and northern Ireland could kind of start doing their own thing. I think all of them now have their own parliament with pretty limited power, but Scotland really took it to heart. They have a very strong sense of nationalism. So they have this amazing building built. They brought in this catalan architect from Barcelona and constructed the most expensive building in Europe. It was around 750 million dollars. So it’s a pretty cool building but it looks terribly out of place. It definitely belongs in Barcelona (I have been there so I think I can say that) and it just doesn’t seem very functional. But enough with boring buildings. Our tour was lead by the son of the only LDS guy that is in Scottish parliament. Cool right? He showed us the offices and the debate room and all the good stuff. It was so weird to be in a government building that was brand new and didn’t have a historical background like parliament in London or the capitol in DC. One thing that was really fun to discuss was the Scottish independence referendum coming up in 2014. So basically in 2014 all the voters in Scotland are going to decide if Scotland is going to exceed the uk and become a separate state! This would make them the same as a place like Australia or Canada. Separate government, but still look to the queen as supreme ruler. It was cool stuff!

After that it was shopping time! I did the entire royal mile. Yay me. I found a sweater! Yayyy! It smells like sheep poop and I LOVE it! It is so legit. Mom i also found a thistle charm for my bracelet! So that’s exciting. For lunch we found this place that was like subway but for baguettes so I was in heaven. Then we took a quick break at the hostel and I changed cause it was bloody hot! Then we went over to the new part of town and grassmarket. Grassmarket is where everyone used to get hanged, now it’s a fun shopping/pub district and all the pubs are named after people who were hung. Kind of funny. so yeah I was actually trying to go to this awesome china shop I saw on the coach a few days ago but I got there and it turns out it’s only open Saturdays from 11-1? So I was out of luck. Luckily the Scottish museum was right next door and it was free. This place was LEGIT. Seriously the best museum I have probably seen the whole trip. They had awesome exhibits on Scotland, space, natural history, science, and more I didn’t have time to look at because it was about to close. Basically I would definitely recommend it. So we came out of that and headed to the new part of town. I wish I would’ve found this earlier because it had so many cute shops! But we got there as everything was closing L we did however find an arts and crafts market that is in town for the fringe festival. I got an awesome picture of the city at sunset. We talked to the photographer for a long time and he told us how its always been his dream to come to the states and photograph Yosemite and Bryce canyon. It was so cool! It made me feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

So we came out of this market and the weather had changed dramatically, it was so cool! All of the sudden this mist rolled in and you could hardly see the castle anymore. It was all mysterious and Scottish and it was sweet!! So anyways then we found dinner at this random café that wasn’t that good. Then we trekked back up to the royal mile/castle area and to the hostel! We went down into the bar and a ton of our group was watching the Olympics. We watched Michael phelp’s last race! He is such a cutie! I love him. I also went to tesco and got some yogurt and fruit. I’m sure yall really wanted to know that.

After that it was time for the best part of the day… TATTOO. No I didn’t get inked. Tattoo is an annual festival of military that takes places right in front of the castle. Probably one of the most picturesque things I have ever seen. It is SO COOL. It made me feel proud to be Scottish and I’m pretty sure I’m not Scottish. It’s kind of like glorified marching band, but so much cooler. They have military units come from south Africa, Norway, Australia, and the states! It was funny the Americans little solo number was a bunch of superhero theme songs. But my absolute favorite part was when the Scottish regiments did music from the new Pixar movie Brave. I think the Scottish people are pretty proud of that so it was awesome. Tonight the composer editor and producer were there at tattoo to see it performed! It was awesome!! I seriously teared up it was so beautiful. So Disney. So cool.

So the show was about two hours long and their finale was the Scottish tune that the church borrowed for praise to the man. It was so cool. All us BYU students were sitting together and we were freaking stoked on life. A bunch of us lost our voices! I had so much fun. If you are planning on travelling to Scotland anytime soon, come in august so you can go to tattoo!! It is so incredibly worth it! Seriously the coolest thing of the whole north trip and definitely of my study abroad! I didn’t explain it very well but even if I did it wouldn’t do it justice.

I am so tired so I’m sorry that was a terrible post. Tomorrow we head back to London for our final week! See ya there! 


PS-keep reading! i also just uploaded my entry from august 3. enjoy!