For the past week we’ve been in Edinburgh, Scotland, and before that, in London. London was fantastic, the size and history of the city allowed us to wander around for hours and never run out of things to see or do. We played our classic move and went on a free walking tour the first day, this gave us a chance to know the history behind parts of the city we’d normally walk by. We romantically strolled through James park, saw the pelicans that apparently have gone a little crazy through inbreeding and such, then we witnessed the London pride parade as well as many interesting half naked people! Yeeeeah London! I think one of the things I loved about London was how I never got bored. You could go to Hyde park and picnic in a new spot every day for a year and you’d still never see the entire thing.
While we were in London I celebrated my 19th birthday! We toured the Natural History Museum as well as the Portobello Market before going to a comedy show that night. Great way to spend your birthday! The English are so funny! What was cool was that some of the comedians hung around afterward and you had the chance to have a beer with them. Unfortunately, we had to catch the last overground back to our hostel so we couldn’t.
I know my birthday was pretty important, but the second most celebrated birthday in Canada is of course Canada Day!! They actually had a Canada Day in London too, held in Trafalgers Square and involved lots of hockey jerseys, poutine, Canadian beer (£5 for a can though… I’d have to sell my kidneys for a sip), loulou lemon yoga (wtf?), and many ‘keep calm and go to Canada’ inscribed balloons. It was so exciting to be in amongst our kind again!
At 9 pm that same day we flew up North to the Scottish city of Edinburgh. Here we stayed a full week and had some of the most amazing times of our lives. I know I’ve said this before but it’s really the people that make the place. Truly is. Our hostel had an awesome set up- pool tables and cinema room, bar and kitchen, and the beds were well broken-in and very comfy. One of my favourite hostels! (Caledonian Backpackers Hostel for any of you who adventure to Edinburgh).
Harley will probably make a post about Edinburgh so I’ll just mention a couple stories. First off though, the city. The mass of it spreads on for kilometres out and up the hills and along the coast, but the area where we were most was directly downtown. All the buildings in old town are dark and medieval, bursting with history and stories. When you walk down the royal mile (a stretch of highway that runs up to the castle) you can easily visualize the markets and beggars and carriages; everything that made medieval Scotland what it was.
We went on a great free walking tour the first morning and then a night walking tour a few days later. This night tour was cool, the guide told us about the spirits and faeries that roamed about, protecting graves and eating stray children. He told us of the thousands and thousands of people buried under the city and how it’s supposedly the most haunted city in the UK, unfortunately we didn’t see any ghosts roaming about though.. But not all of the craziness ended when the medieval ages did, in the nineties, in one of the flats above the pubs we frequented, there was a man who had his friend over, killed him, drank his blood, ate his insides and then waited for the vampire queen to take him away. Don’t think she ever came to get him though, poor guy. Never fall in love with vampire queens, they’ll screw you over and make you eat your friends.
My favourite part of our Edinburgh trip though was when we hiked up to Arthur’s Seat. It’s this massive Scottish Mountain (Scottish mountain=Canadian hill) in a park in the city and the views from the top are unspeakably amazing. On Sunday night, Harley, Payton, Keith (two American guys we met at our hostel) and I hiked up to the point. Now, it’s a fair climb, very much doable, but still very tiring. Payton is a crazy athletic American who runs every morning (even while travelling… Uhhh what? Who has time for exercise!) and so he didn’t break a sweat the entire way up. Us three in the back however took a break every bluff to ‘look at the view’ and pet every single dog on the trail. By the time we made it to the top, our throats were burning (from the air or whiskey, I don’t know which), the sweat stuck and the panorama was the best I’ve ever seen. After an hour of picnicking and drinking wine, the golden hour broke out over the city below and what we saw was like something out of a postcard. Everything was cast in a yolky-gold colour, the castle, the bridges, the ocean and highlands in the distance, and I felt so at home. If there is a way to do that, to hike and witness outstanding views, for a living, god, I’d be there in a heartbeat. We didn’t actually get to see the sun set behind the hills because it got enveloped by a sea of mist, as did we. So we carefully (remember whiskey and wine) treaded down the gravel trail to the city, proceeded then to fish a soccer ball from a locked graveyard and play some intense pool, then head to bed. Without the company we had on the seat, it wouldn’t have been the same, a) the food would have costed more (haha jk) and b) the more, the merrier- truly. We met some amazing, charismatic, opinionated but passionate, crazy and wild people in Edinburgh, some from our hostel and some from the city itself, and they’ll always be in some of the best memories of our trip. As much as it sucks to say goodbye to everyone we’ve met on our trip so far, it’s like this, sometimes your story with someone is short, but no matter it’s length, it’s still a story, and it’s still another chapter in your own.
We are now back in London at the same hostel we stayed in our first night of the trip. Having some strange déjà vu that’s for sure.
Soon we will be over to Bristol and Cardiff before staying at a farm for 12 days. Finally found a farm! It took so much searching and countless apologetic emails informing us that a farm was full, until finally we found one! It’s not really a farm but more of a house with a large garden, but the lady, Deborah (sounded super nice over the phone), is a professional raw food chef and so Har and I, along with learning all about raw food cooking, will become vegans for two weeks. Goodbye burgers, hello tofu!
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