In Edinburgh!

 

Edinburgh, as seen from Capitol Hill

Apart from the ground floor with all the shops, this city is really a bright display of the many shades of brown.

I finally got around to having a nice day trip to Edinburgh to see the sights and do some more in-depth exploring. It was really cool to see all the places that I saw last year with my folks – I got to experience the feeling of “hey, I’ve been here before” in a place that wasn’t Vancouver. It was cool. I even recognized some of the little shops we went into when I was on a mission to find a flask last year, and one of the shopkeepers I remember was there too. 

 

Edinburgh has very different architecture than Glasgow; everything has a “castley” flavor to it, and there is even more stone and a variety of different types of brick. The streets are more often cobblestone and you can see either the castle or the capitol hill from most places at street level.

A tunnel in one of the lower areas. I don't know what that building in the middle distance is, but it has a turret 😛

Heh, the name made me laugh.

There were lots of small shops as you got away from the main thoroughfare on Princes Street with its malls and department stores and monoculture. Princes was just packed with a seething horde of people rushing into these places to try to buy a good Christmas. We left there promptly and headed up some smaller, though sometimes equally busy, streets.

We stopped in at one of the many cozy-looking pubs for lunch, and I took a to of photos while we waited for our tasty foodstuffs to arrive.

 

Our lunch spot.

Plaid wall-paint.

My trusty mittens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I passed by the parliament building again, on the way to Capitol Hill. It’s still one of the coolest buildings I’ve been in.

A side entrance to the building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Scottish Parliament Building

Hello!

 

 

Up the hill with us!

One thing you can’t see from the photos is just how cold it was. And windy! Birds were having trouble taking off it was so windy.

 

 

 

Capitol Hill, with Edinburgh behind me.

We made it to the top just in time to watch the long sunset. This was around 3:00pm.

One of the many awesome vantage points of Capitol Hill.

Side entrance again, at 4-ish.

We walked by the Parliament Building again on our way back into the city. They did a good job of lighting it to be impressive at night, too.

 

Edinburgh at night. Well, not "night" exactly, it being only 4 something, but "after dark" at any rate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went into one more bar before heading home. I don’t have a photo of it per se, just the bathroom. Everyone (well, every establishment) makes a big deal out f bathrooms. I find they are often even nicer than the rest of a building.

Clean, shiny pretty bathroom!

 

 

 

 

We made an early day of it because we – everyone in my year, pretty much – were all headed out to this massive once-monthly party that everyone says you absolutely have to go to if you’re in Glasgow. It was called “Death Disco” and was held in some giant abandoned tunnel-place called called The Arches. Oh boy, were there arches. I will do a post on it later and show you photos. Oh yes I shall.

 

 

So, that’s the end of my Edinburgh day. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the parliament building to leave you with for the day: