Exploring Edinburgh

Hey Everyone,

More orientation continued today. Some of the things they told us were kind of scary. One guy who's here in the house got randomly punched in the face last night at a pub. They brought this up at our orientation and told us the the Scottish hit people in the face if they're annoyed, you say stupid things, give them a dirty look or even for bumping into them by accident. So basically I'm never going to a pub around here. I refuse to get punched in the face for no reason. They also told us that cops here don't carry guns they only carry batons and pepper spray. And you can't carry pepper spray if you aren't a cop because according to the law here that is considered a fire arm. They also told us about this one pub in Dalkeith to stay away from because from 12-3 a.m. they have 8 cops stand around the premisis because the fights get so bad there. Doesn't sound like a very safe town, I know.

Today Jacob and I went into Edinburgh and toured the Edinburgh Castle. To my surprise it was pretty cool and Jacob really enjoyed it as well. The one cool thing was that they had all of these books of people who died in some wars and they were all listed alphabetically by last name. We looked through every single book and found 32 "Peebles". Obviously Jacob has some heritage here as there is also a town called Peebles about 20 minutes away. I didn't find any "Evrard"s but I can't seem to find Evrard's anywhere, let alone a different country. The above picture is of the country side leaving Dalkeith on our way to Edinburgh via bus. Speaking of the bus, this is a public bus system. They showed us how to get to Edinburgh via the bus and we had a chaperone take us there. But then they gave us a bus ticket and said when you are done in Edinburgh find your way back to the Palace. Well when there's about 50 bus stops and 50 different buses it kind of freaked us out. They told us where to get back on to go home and to take either bus 3, 3A, or 49. Jacob and I got on bus 3 on the way home and thankfully got off at the right stop.

Here's the outside of the Castle. This was as we were walking up to the gate to get in. We spend a good 3.5 hours in the Castle. We purchased the headsets that tell you extra information about certain spots and to my surprise they were very informative. We walked the entire Castle and probably could've spent more time there if we wished.

More of the Castle.

Here's a view of Edinburgh from the top of the Castle. The weather was very misty and foggy so the pictures aren't as "sunny and bright" as I wish they would've been.

This picture is odd. This little patch of grass with the gravestones around it is a dog graveyard. No joke. And yes, this was at the Castle. Supposedly this graveyard was for soldier's dogs who passed away.

Another view of Edinburgh. Can you spot the train station?

Here's a room filled with swords. All of the walls in the room were lined with these and the details on them are very precise making them even cooler to look at.

A handle on one of the swords.

The Queen of Scotland became Queen at 9 months old. That's not exaclty what I think a 9 month old has in mind during that period of their life. I wonder how well she did as Queen?

Picture of the Castle (ignore the construction)

Jacob and I

Jacob and I walked the Royal Mile for a little bit. The Royal Mile is one mile long and has tons of souvenier shops on it.

Jacob in a red telephone booth :)

Me in the red telephone booth :)

St. Giles Cathedral.  It was so gorgeous inside.

A heart in the road. I read about this in one of my guide books, and I can't really remember the significance but I know there's something hahahahaha.

Ceiling in the Cathedral. Took this picture and then realized that you had to pay to take pictures. OOPS!

Anyone watch the show Supernanny? This is definitely a Supernanny car? A lot of the cars are like this. Almost all of the cars are stickshifts, hatchbacks, and itty-bitty.

Another huge shopping street in Edinburgh besides the Royal Mile. Jacob and I will have to return here as we didn't go down this street much. Jacob's ankle started to bother him so we got something to eat and went back to the Palace. But I here the shopping is great on this road! Looks like we're going back tomorrow! :)

A picture of the Castle from afar.

Arthur's Seat. I am going to climb this before I leave. I will I will I will.

It's basically a huge cliff and is pretty famous for hiking.

Saw this SuperBowl sign on a Pub's window......pretty damn cool.

Jacob in the cafe where we had dinner. Many places were closed at 5 pm when we started looking for places to eat. We found this little pasta cafe and we both got baguette paninis that were delicious.

This is Jacob's orange Fanta from dinner. It didn't come out of the can orange like in the United States and it didn't really taste like our Fanta either. But it was still really good.

The sign outside the Dalkeith Palace. We live in a County Park.

St. John's Monument. It is absolutely gorgeous.

St. John's Monument again.

Well I guess that's all for today. It's 8:30 here and I'm ready to pile on the clothes in order to stay warm. I'm glad I brought the turtle necks my mom suggested I pack. :)