Welcome to the Edinburgh family.

Well once again, its been quite a while since my last post. The past 2 weeks were mainly spent in Scotland and were close to the best 2 weeks of my trip so far!

Some girls from the trip had told me that I would love Scotland, but as I never really intended on going there and really had no idea what there was to see or do there, I didnt hold high hopes. After leaving Ireland, I was mainly just glad to be staying in one place for more than one night!! It was also good that we would be seeing a familiar face. Kim from Contiki was there and we would be staying at the same hostel.

After another long 8 hour bus ride from Belfast to Scotland, we arrived in Edinburgh. The trip was quite nice really. Its only a short trip from Belfast to the ferry, then 3 hours on the ferry before the remaining 4 hours or so along the coast and inland to Edinburgh. The ferry this time was quite rough. It was our 4th ferry out of our entire trip and this was the worst. It really got rocky, to the point where I almost fell headfirst into the toilet!!

Pulling into Edinburgh we got an extra little suprise. With Kim waiting for us at the station was Ash (also from Contiki, and the girl we had caught up with in Belfast). I automatically knew that we were going to love it. Ash and Kim ran to the door and gave us a big hug and took us up to our hostel. When we got to the hostel we realised what the girls had meant by 'a few stairs to the top'. It was 4 flights up a tight windy staircase, which is hard enough let alone with a 20kg pack!! Lucky for me, Kim kindly offered to carry mine :)

We dropped our bags and went straight down to the Walkabout bar. Its an Aussie bar chain throughout the UK with cheap meals and even cheaper drinks. Plus they play REAL sports!!! Not just soccer. (Now that im out of the UK I feel safe enough to say that, god forbid I ever said anything like that while over there.)

We stayed there a while and caught up on what we had all been up to since contiki. Kim also filled us in a little on what there is to see and do around Edinburgh. After a few drinks we stopped at the local tesco to buy some more drinks and went back to the hostel. We decided to have a bit of a welcoming party that night and go out. Now, we had had a few big nights over our trip, but our first night out in Edinburgh set a new level!! We had such a good time. The next morning, Ash and I both had really sore necks from all of our wonderful dancing... haha. Rocking out to Metalica really can be quite dangerous!!

The next day was a really quiet one, spent recovering from our night out. We started getting to know everyone in the hostel and making some friends. Jason was a friend of Kims, and also from Australia and we got on really well. There was also Dine from Germany who was lovely as well as quite a few others.

Kim was on duty that night to cook dinner for the hostel residents. We went with her to the supermarket, way too early in the morning... and got all the stuff to make 'slow cooked spaghetti' for around 70 people. There were quite a few bags. That was quite a struggle.

Later that evening after dinner (which was amazing) they had fireworks on at the Edinburgh Castle. We all went out to watch and it was really nice. The buildings around edinburgh were split over the older buildings on the south and the more modern north side. Its such a lovely landscape. Its a big city, but kinda has a country town feel to it. It was quickly winning me over. Plus in most other countries, a lot of the time it didnt actually feel like you were overseas. Whereas here, they play bagpipes 24/7 which remind you where you are and it has this special feel about it.

We got an early night that night ready for some sightseeing the next day. Ash, laura and I had a nice relaxed morning before setting out. We started walking the streets looking for the National Museum. We walked for ages trying to read the map and eventually found it, only to realise that its closed for renovation until November!! Then we decided to go and find the castle. We walked back through the centre of town, down to the park. We found a nice sunny spot on the grass and lied down. We put on some good music and just enjoyed the moment. How many times can you say that you were lying on the grass, overlooking a castle, with good friends, listening to good music without a care in the world... It was such a nice feeling. After that we went into the National Gallery and had a look around. There were paintings by Rembrandt and other famous pieces there which was pretty cool to see.

We had decided to have another big night. So went back to our 'local' tesco to get more supplies before heading up to the hostel. We got the crew together and started 'gettiing in the spirit' for another big night out. Jason and Kim wanted to take us to a nightclub which had cheap drinks and good music, so we couldnt be rude and say no...

This was the first night we experienced 'The Hive'. It wasnt an overly big club, but it had 2 seperate rooms which were seperated by the bar. It reminded me a bit of the bomb shelter bar in Switzerland. They really did have cheap drinks and really good music. One room was playing really old stuff, and the other new. But we mainly stuck to the old stuff. Lots of good dancing songs. The walk home that night was what you would call in contiki 'a Merry One'. We walked over Edinburgh bridge singing and dancing. Laura and Jason had decided to go to the casino so they left, meanwhile me and ash stayed back serenading the night workmen with the neighbours theme song. When we got back to the hostel we stayed up cooking midnight snacks waiting for the others to get home. We found vegemite, and as we were all aussie, we were quite excited. So excited in fact that we made vegemite facials!! We painted our faces with the vegemite and sang the vegemite song. Turns out it is actually quite good for your skin!! It was around 6am before anyone made it to bed. Edinburgh was officially now my favorite.

The next day was a complete write off. No one woke up until around 3pm. Then we met in the dining room and just kicked back the rest of the day. It was nice to not have to go anywhere or do anything. Just all hang out.

As we once again didnt achieve much that day we decided to have another big sightseeing day the next day. We went to the walking tour which takes about 3 hours and covers most of the history of Edinburgh. It was so interesting. A lot of the history took place before Australia was even discovered!! We learnt all about the street merchants, crime and punishment, murders, the graveyards etc. We also learnt about Harry Potter, we saw the cafe where the first 2 books were written, and the school which gave JK Rowling the inspiration for Hogwarts. A few of the characters were also named after people buried in the graveyard also.

When the tour finished we went back to the hostel. Two more contiki friends were coming that night to catch up and stay a while, Tim and Tom. We went to get them from the bus station that night and got them settled in. While catching up we also managed to convince another contiki friend, Liam to come the next morning. We were so excited to have so many of us together again. After dinner and drinks at the hostel we decided to take Tim and Tom to experience The Hive. That night was the snow party. They had snow machines which let out foam over everyone and the whole rooms really did look like it had been snowing. It was awesome.

When the club closed we decided that we werent finished partying yet. And we decided to try to all stay up to pick up Liam from the bus station. He arrived at 7.30am so it would be a bit of a mission...

We left the hive then we decided to go to the graveyard. During our walking tour, they had told us about the ghosts that haunt the graveyard at night so we decided to test it out. Along the way we had a few mini adventures. We had our photos taken with some animals, found some free clothes and pillows... by the time we made it to the graveyard we may have actually looked like we were homeless!! We also made a few friends along the way. Edinburgh really is quite social!!

The graveyard was a bit of a letdown. No ghosts!! But we had a look around anyway and had our picture taken with the Bobby statue. Bobby was a dog owned by the old caretaker of the graveyard. When the caretaker died, bobby used to return to the graveyard every day and sit on his owners grave. It went on for nearly 14 years until bobby died. His statue is now a monument out the front of the graveyard and is a well known part of Edinburgh.

After that we decided to go back to the hostel for a snack. Kim had cooked spaghetti for us again as a midnight snack so we all ate some of that. Then we stayed there for a while singing and messing around. We started to get tired so Jason took me and Laura to Castle Hill for sunrise. It was beautiful. It overlooked all of the royal mile, and you could see almost all of Edinburgh. We got there in time for sunrise and it was amazing.

Then we went to get a coffee from Maccas as it was still an hour until Liam would arrive. Sadly I hit the wall while sitting in Maccas though and had to go home to bed. I figure I did well to make it to at least 7am!! Laura went to get Liam and then met us back at the hostel.

Once again, the next day no one achieved a lot. We caught up with Liam a bit and just chilled out. By this point we really felt like locals in Edinburgh and it honestly felt like home. It was really nice.

The next day we did a little bit of shopping and started planning a road trip. Liam, Tim, Tom, Laura and I were wanting to do a tour of the highlands, but as we had left it so late most of the tours were fully booked. So we decided to hire a car. We started organising that and planning where we would go. We would leave the next day and spend 3 days road tripping.

That night the spanish crew at the hostel had a Sangria night as a farewell to one of the girls who was leaving. We stayed there drinking Sangria for a while, then most people decided to go out, but as I would be driving the hire car the next morning I decided I better not drink much that night!! It was the first night I had stayed home while the others went out, but it was a good thing. There were a few big days ahead!!!