The Royal Mile

My exam was finally over and I guessed I fared badly. Since the results would only be out after 2 weeks hence I embarked on my real adventure today. 

I picked up my old classmate Dr Lim, who travelled all the way from Newcastle, at Waverly Railway Station the night before and we went for a late dinner before crashing in a room he rented via airbnb. 

That morning itself we woke up later than we planned after having chatted till late night, and headed towards the Royal Mile. We started off with a full Scottish breakfast in one of the vintage shops in Princes Street. A Scottish breakfast would consist of sausages, bacon, mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, baked beans and most of all haggis and black pudding! Haggis is a local delicacy made from sheep entrails and herbs as spices and it does really smell sheepish! Black pudding is mainly from sheep's blood. I'm not a particular fan of internal organs but it would be shame to miss these!

After a hearty breakfast for £8.95, our first stop would be Edinburgh Castle, one of the best loved castles in UK and certainly the most adored in Scotland.

There was already a horde of tourist queuing at the ticket booth and it took us almost 30 minutes just to get tickets! The castle was lovely but because of the tourist crowds there weren't that much feel of regency in the air. We waited till the one o clock cannon shot and headed down to the real Mary King Close. 

Edinburgh is an ancient city with lots of dark history buried in it, literally. It started off as a city of a one mile radius surrounded by heavily fortified walls since the English loved to invade Scotland back then. As the city grew larger in population, the only way it could grow was upwards and downwards. Hence as more buildings sprouted taller and taller for the rich, they started digging cellars bad underground abodes for the impoverished. Mary King Close used to be a back alley but was walled off, probably because of the plague? Somehow it was rediscovered and excavated and made into a tourist attraction. 

The tour costed £14 but it was fun! We were welcome by one of the staff dressed in a merchant's outfit as he guided us down deeper into the close where we learnt bout how bad the living conditions back then. Imagine crowding yourself with 10 other people in an underground vault with no windows and living daily on beer and bread because water was unsafe to be drunk back then! How about emptying your bladder and bowel in a shared bucket at the corner of the vault? Most of all the buckets would be emptied to the streets everynight at 10pm sharp! And the human waste would slowly flow towards the old loch which is now Princes Gardens! That explains the beautiful blooming flowers! 

The St. Giles Cathedral is just opposite the street so we stopped by for a look. After that we headed down the royal mile for Arthur's Seat, which is a piece of volcanic rock 331m high! 

The climb was not easy I have got to be honest, but it was rewarding. By the time we reached the summit we were at the tallest point in Edinburgh! 

We made our way down Arthur's Seat and had a scrumptious meal in Jimmy Chung's Chinese buffet restaurant near Waverly railway station. After a week of bland British food, it is nice to try something orientation again!

We joined the Double Dead Scary Tour, which was heavily advertised in travel guidebooks. Our group of 45 was led by Kathy, a storyteller, as she led us down to one of the vaults under Southgate rumored to be haunted, followed by the Greykirk Cemetery to the McKenzie mausoleum where the infamous Mckenzie poltergeist resides. (Un)Fortunately there were no paranormal incidents that happened but we were entertained with Kathy's eerie ghost stories. 

We headed back to our rented room as we walked past numerous scenes of drunken debauchery. It seemed to be that going to a bar to get oneself intoxicated over the weekend is the favorite pastime of Scots! It was a tiring day but we enjoyed it very much!