Scotland: Part I... Edinburgh

[ 29th May - 2nd June ]

We left London on Tuesday at 10.30pm, we spent the night in the coache and we arrived in Edinburgh around 7.30am. We went to McDonalds, the only place opened in town early in the morning, which permitted to us to organised our day: we decided to go to our hostel, let our stuffs before walking in the streets of Edinburgh.

On Wednesday morning we went to St Gile's Cathedral:

  

 

Inside, an angel placed at the entrance of the Cathedral welcomes the visitors and moralizing people holding a holy water fount out to them. The stained glass tell us the story of Christianization with heavy colours which brings a lot of brightness in Cathedral's heart, they were installed at the end of the 19th century . St Giles Cathedral was built to edify the memory of St Giles a monk from the south of France, as the patron saint of Edinburgh in the Middle Ages. The Cathedral was built in Edinburgh's Old town.

We continued our visit with the University of Edinburgh, but also the Writer's Museum where we can read on the floor some quotations such as Robert Louis Stevenson "There are no stars so lovely as Edinbugh street-lamps" or also something like "Knowledge is high in the head...but the salmon of wisdom swims deep" and then in the afternoon we went to the Castle!

On our way to the Castle, we saw very weird mirrors and the result is this one...: "Have Fun!"

 

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Here we are: Edinburgh Castle!!!

As we can see on this picture, the castle dominates the whole town, and it was difficult to attack it because it is placed at the top of the volcanic Castle Rock.

This is one of the panorama view that we can have from the Castle: at the back, it is Calton Hill that we climbed the 2nd day in Edinburgh, (I will come back later in the article) at the front? This is Camille... No you can't see her there, because she is came back with me! No, sorry... She is not a statue, she is my friend!!! <3
Inside, it is possible to visit different places such as St Margaret's chapel, the Mons Meg (the most powerful cannon of the castle), the Great Hall, the prison...

   

1. The Mons Meg                      2. Scotland Memorial                       3. Argyle Battery

[ Oh I didn't tell you the anecdote... A group of young chinese people were taking pictures monopolizing the place and the view... As nice as we are, Camille & I began to moan about their attitudes and their poses on the pictures and in particular, a girl who let her handbag anywhere and her plan of Castle blowing away... They spent more than 10min at the same place without apologizing themselves to be so imposing! Anyway, they finally left and we can take some nice pictures... ] ...coming soon: NEXT EPISODE!

 Our 2nd day in Edinburgh (Friday): North Sea, Calton Hill, Arthur's Seat

When we arrived in Edinburgh the first day, we were surprised to see the sea far away from the town. So we took up the challenge to join the North sea by feet. We had no idea how it was far from the center. After a long walk to the north, crossing the streets, tunnels, arriving to an intersection and questioning on which footpaths we should take (Left or Right...) We decided to follow the left one... And....

L'eau m'a appelé pour la toucher,

 Une petite voix me disait "Attention tu vas te mouiller"

Mais enfant je suis restée, et je ne t'ai pas écouté.

Moralité

Je me suis donc fait arroser!!!

After this breath of fresh air, we had lunch to get our strength back to brave the Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat.

Calton Hill is a hill (yes, I'm serious!) where people were executed in the early history. We can see some Neo-classical monuments such as the National monument, the Nelson's monument, City observatory ...

 

 At the back of these pictures, it is Arthur's Seat... 

We went at the top of the hill!

What a walk!

 

 We are the Queens of Edinburgh!

  

It is the main peak of the group of hills Holyrood Park, described by Robert Louis Stevenson as "a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design" in Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes (1879). Arthur's Seat is often mentioned as one of the possible locations for Camelot, the legendary castle and court of the Romano-British warrior-chief, King Arthur.

   

We got a tan with this fabulous sunshine in Edinburgh! It was a hard ascension (not really good shoes and tired) but we did it!!! However, we had to climb back down... At the bottom of the hill, our legs were shaking haha, but now we had to go back to the center of Edinburgh so, a long walk was waiting for us before arriving at the hostel!

What wonderful landscapes we saw at the top of these hills!

 

On the evening, we went to eat in a pub in which they asked us our ID (we seem to be younger than 20-21y.o) it was a very good night, where a band group were playing to music and we laughed a lot... Fits of laughter... The last one was the worst and just before entering in the hostel:
We didn't drink anything at the pub (just a half pint for me and water). Camille stumbled on the steps and we laughed because she said to me "Don't laugh at me, because if it was you I wish that you loss you teeth..." and I said a wonderful onomatopoeia mimicing someone who loss her teeth "Fafafafafa...FAfaffa" and then, FIT OF LAUGHER which continue when Camille flopped down the door of Hostel which accentuated our laughs, and then, the expression on the other young people's face and receptionist's seemed to be "Waouh! They are drunk..." The receptionist seemed to say to the others, "Don't worry it's sometimes happening in the hostel".... BUT! We were NOT drunk! Just happy to be in Scotland, tired, and we are girls hihi!!!

 Good to know if you decided to go to Scotland:

Lexical Point                                   Food & Drinks
aye: yes                                           Arbroath smokie: small haddock that has been salted, then smoked
Auld Reekie: Edinburgh                    breid: bread
dreich: wet (weather)                       dram: a drink of whisky
bairn: child                                       Irn-Bru: popular soft drink
lassie: a young woman                      tattie: potato
messages: shopping

Don't forget the Scottish accent... but I let you to discover it!



See you later,

Love <3

N.B: Merci à Camille qui a pris certaines photos car je n'avais plus de batteries dans mon appareil photo et devinez quoi?! Je n'avais évidemment pas pris le chargeur! Cheers!