SOLO EUROPE IV: DAYS 16 & 18 [EDINBURGH]

the next morning i left from newcastle to edinburgh. for a saturday, the train was pretty empty. i was not expecting to pass by the the ocean & see small northern english & scottish sea towns in the distance. luckily it was a direct train & my hostel was not far from the station (though as expected with edinburgh, i had to use quite a few stairwells, or closes). i then made my way walking the royal mile. i did not have too much planned today as it was a saturday & i knew the the streets would be quite busy (they were).

 

my first stop was gladstone's land, a 16th century tenement building turned museum. in the us, tenement buildings were also interchangeable for the slums, but in edinburgh, it is actually where wealthier people lived for a few centuries. it was considered desirable. each floor showcases a different time period of what the building was used for & who lived there. in the 1600s, merchants lived there & the first floor was a tavern. by the 18th century, there was a flight from the wealthier folks who moved to the new town area for more space. in the early 1900s it was used as a boarding house & by the 1930s was labelled as condemned, but saved by restorationists. 

gladstone's land

the top floor demonstrates when it was used as a boarding house for single men (unskilled workers) during the early 1900s.

a 1600s kitchen hearth

the ground floor is now a gift shop & coffeehouse. i had a cheese scone & a cortado,

greyfair's kirkyard cemetery 

next was the national museum of scotland. the museum is not chronological, but it is a collection of many, many exhibits. my personal favorites were the exhibits on sacrifices & burials during ancient times, the scottish diaspora when scots left in the mid 1900s for jobs, & "the killing times" (a period of scottish religious conflict). one of the most popular items in the museum is the original dolly the sheep (the OG, not the clone) in the natural history section.

the national museum of scotland - a section is housed in a grand victorian framed building. 

i also stopped at the national gallery 

scott monument (c. 1840 - victorian gothic)

i stopped at the cafeteria at the M&S food hall for lunch. it seemed to be a really british thing i should experience. not only did i get lunch, but i had to have a mini colin the caterpillar. i had learned about these back when the brit crew were popular on youtube a good 15 years ago (especially zoella). 

a mini colin the caterpillar (popular for kids' birthdays).

my next stop was the national portrait gallery. i do like a portraits, but i really wanted to see the building. it is a gothic revival building with murals demonstrating figures from scotland & a zodiac celestial ceiling. hanging from the ceiling were these cool red lanterns. it was very eclectic. very dark academia vibes.

 

the national portrait gallery is housed in a neogothic palace with zodiac constellation ceilings. 

i then walked the mile or so to dean village as i had more time. there is not much to do here. it is just pretty. the area is along the leith & was used for milling grain for more than 800 years. 

dean village along the leith

i then walked back to the hostel & passed the princes street gardens. it is located below the castle & where i think you can get the best picture of the castle. throughout the park are different monuments. my favorite was the one of wojtek, a syrian bear founded by polish soldiers in iran during wwii. the bear was used in italy to carry ammunition & was promoted to corporal. he lived the rest of his life in the edinburgh zoo. 

wojtek & a polish soldier

a memorial from scottish-american honoring the scots who fought in wwi

the view of edinburgh castle from the princes street garden

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the next day i went on a day bus tour, but that will be on the next post. the day after that was my only full day in edinburgh. i walked to the end of the royal mile to visit the castle, but as always got there too early so i lollygagged for a bit.

the royal mile

the witches well, a memorial to those who were executed at the stake

the castle hill was initially used as a residential residence from the 1100s through the 1500s, but was eventually converted into a military base in the 1600s. the official website says the castle is the most besieged place in britain - 26 times. most of the buildings are no older than the 1500s due to the land siege of 1573.

the first thing i had to do was get some coffee and get a snack. inside, there is a cute cafe called the redcoat cafe. i had an espresso & scone while i watched a soldier prepare the one o'clock gun (the daily shooting ceremony).

the view from edinburgh castle

the national war museum is free to visit with entry to the castle

the most interesting part of my visit was the prisons of war exhibit in the vaults. the exhibit is set up to look lived in - you hear whispers of the prisoner, see the disheveled beds, & they even have fake meals displayed. initially privateers (pirates) were imprisoned here, but eventually that expanded to POWs, including sympathizers of the american revolution. the vaults also have some graffiti left by the prisoners.

prisons of war exhibit in the vaults.

the scottish national war memorial

edinburgh castle is probably the most touristy thing you can do in edinburgh, but it was also the most interesting so i wanted to go. i got the first time slot of the day & by the time i left, it was very busy. i probably would have stayed longer but there were way too many people. i had enough.

one of the many closes (staurwells) in edinburgh 

after, i visited some smaller attractions including the writer's museum. i visited not because i am interested in the writers (sorry), but because it is a good example of a royal mile tenement building & free to visut. i then visited giles cathedral, a gothic medieval church on the royal mile. most of the rest of the day was just walking, admiring the architecture, & looking at little points of interest.

the writer's museum - located in a tenement house from the 1600s

st. giles cathedral

tron kirk market - where an old church houses local artist vendors

i knew i wanted to try haggis (sheep meat & oats cooked in sheep's stomach). during my research, i found a place called haggis box (run by the scottish storyteller centre) that makes affordable traditional food. i ended up really enjoying it. haggis was one of my favorite meals from my trip.

tatties & neeps - haggis with a bourbon mustard sauce, & swedes (known as rutabaga is the us).

nearby was bakehouse close - the stairwell used as jamie's edinburgh printshop in outlander.

since i had time, the last thing i wanted to do was walk the 2 miles to the small village of duddingston. there was not much information, but it sounded nice to step away from the city & to an area less busy. it was a nice walk, but unfortunately i could not figure out how to visit an old medicinal garden that was part of the reason for my visit. it started raining heavier, so i decided to head back earlier. because of the rain, i decided to take a bus back. i could not get my bearings straight & had trouble finding the bus stop. i was able to see arthur's seat from the distance (i only knew about this because of the netflix show one day, which i really enjoyed).

during my walk i saw some cows

in duddingston is the only fresh water loch in edinburgh

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i stayed at the high street hostel. this was a very social hostel, but still one of the best from my stay. a little too social for me, (but i am also less social than most). the workers were all so happy. one night, they had a vote of guilty pleasure movies & they played twilight. it was fun to watch with the young folks. when the movie came out, it was taken more seriously & very beloved. now it is a cult classic & has some silly scenes that did not seem as silly then. it was fun to watch their perspective & folks who have never seen it before. it was one of those movies where you had to have been there to understand.

i enjoyed the hostel, but my roommates were a little annoying. most of them were quite young americans travelling for months. sometimes the culture can be quite toxic & it becomes a competition. the young folks want to one up each other on their experiences to show how crazy & wonderful their time has been. it begins to look like a game. oh to be young. i mostly just listened to their stories & kept to myself. one of them ended up being sick, so i gave her all my extra tea & throat drops i was holding onto. it is always nice to have help from others when you traveling solo.