Edinburgh and unicorns
I luuuurve it with all my heart. I loved it so much that for the whole two next month while visiting 12 european cities I was still painting it in my watercolour book. And maybe a bit of Florence. After seeing it I didn’t really want to see anything else.
Text in Russian is here.
Decision to go there was very spontaneous. I was visiting a girlfriend in London, and I was basically told that the best place to see when you come to London is Edinburgh. And from the first sight I knew it was true. When the medieval Old Town was growing, its territory was restricted from four sides, so they had to expand upwards and build tall buildings, up to 11 floors, on a mountain. Looks incredible.
Edinburhg was built on top of the volcano remnants, most famous are Arthur’s Seat and the Castle Rock. First thing i did was hiking up to Arthur’s Seat and seeing the view over the city and the North Sea from there. I actually didn’t know it was a mountain before I got there, on my map the green area is called Hollyrood park, and I wanted to go for a walk in a park.
From there you inevitably come down to Holyrood Palace and walk up the Royal Mile. On the mile there are several small cozy museums: Edinburgh Museum, Writers Museum, all free. There you can warm up and read up on the history. Definitely worth a visit. While you’re walking up the mile, don’t forget to turn into small lanes.
Along the mile you’ll run into guys from Free Walking tours. Don’t pass by, ask when Alasdair Grierson is guiding the tour and come walk with him. Usually such tours in big cities are guided by students who came there from other countries, people of various professions and are not really qualified. Alasdair is scottish, he talks with an incredible accent and (tadam!) is a historian. He studied literature and history and can tell an endless amount of stories and answer your questions with great detail. He’s a great storyteller. So after 3 hours of walking I was absolutely in love and was the last to leave. If you see him, tell him he has a big fan :-D
The Royal Mile leads up to the Castle. It’s a good idea to take a tour there too, as entrance is expensive anyway. Fun episode: while I was in town I watched a movie Filth one evening, and in one of the first scenes the main hero is walking out of the Edinbugh Castle, where I walked an hour ago. That was a coinsidence, I didn’t know the story was taking place in this town :-D
A couple of places where you can eat tasty and on budget: Standing Order in New Town (local food), and Forest Cafe (vegetarian, full of hippies, nice place to sit and write notes). I lived on Leith Walk — a wide street that leads to the sea. There are several Polish shops there (like Zabka Sklep), so you won’t starve — you can always buy buckwheat and sauerkraut and cook a cheap meal at home. I was couchsurfing there, met wonderful polish guys and girls, had a great time with them.
There are also several bigger museums and galleries off the Royal Mile, which are also free. But don’t expect to spend a lot of time in them, they are much smaller than museums in London.
After seeing a bit of Edinburgh you must go to Highlands. But don’t take a one-day tour, you’ll spend most of the time on the bus. Take at least a three-days tour, or if you want more flexibility, go by yourself. If you can rent a car, do that. By bus you might have to go to Inverness, and from there to some places. For example (but the list is much longer)
- Loch Lomond
- Isle of Skye
- Great Glen
- Glencoe
- Trossachs
- and if you want to go really far away from the crowds — Wick.
I went to Isle of Skye, hitchhiked up North from Perth. I only spent two nights there because later a storm started, and the wind and rain was crazy strong. 3–4 nights would be way better. Some places to see on the Isle:
- Old Man of Storr (2–3 hike up)
- Neist Point
- Talisker
- Quiraing
And near the Isle there’s Eilean Donan castle. Absolutely must see.
I was staying in a small settlement called Broadford in Hostel Skye Basecamp. It was very cozy with small rooms for 3–4 people, close to the bus stop. Kitchen is wonderful and there’s a supermarket nearby. Most of the tourists try to stay closer to the middle of the Isle — in Portree. But if you want to stay there, book accomodation several days in advance, it’s very crowded.
I couldn’t drive so was hitchhiking aroud the island. People are wonderful there, it was always a great experience.
After I left Scotland, I visited 12 more towns around Europe but nowhere I was in such a great mood. For a while I was looking for flights back to Edinburgh (Ryanair from anywere to Dublin, from Dublin to Edinbugh for 14euro.) But winter was coming, and I flew to Rome to warm up.
Fun facts for Aussies and Kiwis
- Fringe Festival that runs in Melbourne, was born in Edinbugh.
- Lots of locations, e.g. suburbs, streets, whatever in AU and NZ were named after places or people in Scotland. Original St Kilda is an island in Scotland, not a dirty suburb in Melbourne, Rob Roy was Stottish falk hero, Glen Orchy is a glen containing the river Orchy in Scottish highlands, and so on and so forth.
