July 29th, 2014 // Edinburgh | Europe Trip Day 3

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Edinburgh Castle // Scotland

I want to start off this blog post by saying this was my favorite city. The day was absolutely perfect and I don't think these photos even come close to the beauty and peace I found there. But I hope with your imagination, and these images, you can at least understand a semblance of what it was like to be there that day.

We started the day by getting up at half five, and heading to King's Cross station. We even made it without trouble or having to rush, it was a first. Despite it being ungodly early when we arrived, I still freaked out because this is where I board the train to Hogwarts. Wendy and I boarded the train and found window seats and just enjoyed the ride. I dozed off for the first hour, then read. Winifred eventually go bored so we played cards. Every time she lost she'd vote for another game. Sore loser ;p
We arrived at Edinburgh at half eleven (we passed New Castle and Berwick which looked straight out of a fairytale and next time I go to Scotland I'm getting off at every fairytale city). We immediately went and bought a map, we're learning. We had a few hours to kill before we could check into our hostel so we wandered around. Edinburgh is unbelievably beautiful. It's so green, it has country just outside the city. The architecture is exquisite. I'm pretty sure it was love at first sight. We made our way to the castle first, which proved to have to many people so we turned back to get lost instead. Wendy and I decided on an overpriced coffee and pastry for lunch and set off to find such a place. We ended up stopping at Nero coffee, a place I'd seen around but never entered. A super nice Scottish woman gave us her crescent and we ordered our unhealthy lunch which consisted of sugar-free lattes and cappuccino cake. It was the first place all summer I'd found with flavors for coffee, let alone sugar-free ones. It tasted awful, though I think that is my new taste buds disliking sweet coffee. The cake was delicious though! We sat and planned our trip in France and our trip to Oban tomorrow. After it was planned and done we figured it was time to drop off our bags. We found the hostel without much of a problem, and we got to walk down a stone, curvy road with ivy on the walls. It was quiet and peaceful, it was kind of amazing how quiet it was since we were so close to the city center. It was absolutely lovely.
Our hostel is in an old church, which was pretty badass. I'm all for churches being re-purposed. All the rooms had been separated in the main hall, so we had large arched ceilings that you saw when you looked up. We dropped off our things and went exploring! We made our way to the station first, taking our time and walking down bridges and roads just to get better shots for images or see where they lead. The station went smoothly, we were able to get our tickets to Oban so we went back to exploring. We found ourselves at a monument that had about 300 steps but was so worth it for the view of the city. Most of the pictures of me looking at the city from above were shot from that monument. The exceptions being the mountain we climbed later. 
We had a few issues getting up and down that monument, you could only fit one person and if people were coming down while you were trying to go up, one of you would have to back-track. And it was so windy you couldn't see if someone was coming and only knew if you heard them speaking. We did make it to the top eventually though, and man do I love heights. We even met a guy who gave us a War Eagle.
After we decided to climb down the tower we headed past the clock tower to what looked like a mini Rome. We could see it from teh monument lookout. We made it up there and there was this beautiful field of high grass surrounding the little buildings. It was super-soft, and perfect, so, naturally, we rolled down the hill like children. We were so damn proud of ourselves and unfortunately no one witnessed it. We wanted to start a trend, because it was 100% worth all the grass in our hair. That simple roll down the hill-- it was one of the best moments of my life.
Wendy and I went to sit on mini Rome and we could see the ocean from the view. We sat there for a while, just enjoying where we were. Finally, though, we grew hungry and went off in search of pizza. We found a joint and split a pizza and onion rings. 10 shillings. Not to bad. We grabbed some apples from a near-by store and decided to conquer this mountain ledge that looked over Edinburgh. The hike up there wasn't bad actually, it was a really nice walk with the sun lower in the sky. Once we made it to the top we stayed there in awe for at least an hour. To have nature that close to a city is a perfect combination. We sat on the ledge and looked at the sun slowly setting over the city and the amount of emotions I felt is indescribable. Happiness, peace, sadness, worry, but all of them didn't matter because when we were on top of the world like we were-- nothing could touch us.
It grew cold up there, thanks to the wind and the setting sun so we finally agreed to make our way to our hostel again. This was my paradise.






This is the monument we climbed










Who wouldn't want to live here?


































Mini Rome


















Day 1   |   Day 2


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