[Throwback] Edinburgh Experiences

While going through my UK photos, I realized that I visited all the Edinburgh tourist attractions I talked about in my previous post on my second full day there (I was technically in Edinburgh for 2 1/2 days since I arrived there with Duncan and Amy in the afternoon of my first day). It seems that I spent my first full day just meandering around the Scottish capital, enjoying the sights and soaking in the atmosphere.

View of the Old Town

To help me try to take in as much of the city I could in a short time, I purchased a ticket for a Hop-On Hop-Off bus (the one I took was run by Mactours which doesn't seem to be in operation anymore unless it changed its name). Edinburgh is a beautiful city and this was a great way to see it.

View of Edinburgh from the Hop-On Hop-Off bus

The Princes Street Gardens separate the New Town and the Old Town. It was during my stroll through  this beautiful park that I discovered that visitors can go up the Scott Monument (which I did the next day). You can also see Edinburgh Castle from the gardens. I took this shot of the Ross Fountain with the Edinburgh Castle as backdrop. Apparently, this fountain has been restored and it now primarily turquoise rather than the gold color it had when I was there.

The Ross Fountain in the Princes Street Gardens

While the whole city is beautiful, I gravitated towards the charm of the Old Town, with its old stone buildings and great architecture. (It was in one of the many souvenir shops there that I bought a beanie with a Scotland flag on it; I still use that whenever I travel to temperate countries during winter).

Great architecture

I learned about this Auld Reekie Witchcraft Tour while walking the streets of the Old Town. I found it quite intriguing especially because the tour would start at 10:30pm so I decided to take it. Participants were taken to a small museum with medieval torture devices and similar to my experience at the London Dungeon, I was quite disturbed (another participant was actually so unsettled that she actually had to leave the room). At midnight, we also got to visit an underground pagan temple which at the time was supposedly used by 14 international covens. It really was a very unique experience going around the Old Town very late at night as part of a tour.

Auld Reekie Witchcraft Tour

While in Edinburgh, I stayed at St. Christopher's Inn. This hostel offered beds in rooms of varying sizes so I booked a slightly more expensive room that would have only 4 people in it. I think it was on my second night there that I got a big surprise: when I entered the room, I saw 2 women, along with another guy (not sure if the two women knew each other but they didn't know the other guy). I didn't realize the room was co-ed. I checked the website and it seems that the rooms for 4 to 6 people are now exclusively for females.

St. Christopher's Inn, the hostel where I stayed while in Edinburgh

I spent two nights in Edinburgh. After my second full day in Edinburgh, I hung out at my hostel lobby - I had already checked out - until the evening before taking the overnight train from Edinburgh to London. I did some research earlier to find out where I could leave my luggage on my last day. That allowed me to squeeze in a visit to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum (which I talked about in an earlier post) before leaving the UK in the early evening flight.

Next post: Final thoughts on my UK Trip