SCOTLAND Day 2-15 July 2019

I slept alright. I kept waking up to other peoples alarms though and the door and I honestly felt like I was sleeping for years so I kept waking up expecting it to be 8am already. My back hurts but I expected that from carrying the luggage yesterday. Besides that I slept fine.

I got dressed in the room and then went down to breakfast. It was 1.50p and you get one cup of juice, one roll, one bowl of cereal, and one fruit. So I had apple juice, made a roll with Nutella for later, had a bowl of cornflakes, and took a banana for later. The dining room is actually the common area I was in yesterday with the big table. I ate and then I finished getting ready. Doing anything in a hostel is just An Ordeal cause I have to collect all the things I need and then lock everything up but always carry keys with me and it's all such a hassle. One day I will figure out the best way to do it.

I headed out to Holyrood House first. That's the Queen's Scotland residence. I really liked it and it had an interesting audio tour but it only took an hour and I was expecting it to take 3. You couldn't take pictures inside either which was a bummer. It was a generic palace but then it told the history of Mary Queen of Scots and now I finally understand. So she lived there and she married Francis Prince of France but then he died so then she ended up marrying this other guy who she thought was cute and tall but he turned out to be a terrible abusive drunkard who wanted her power. He murdered her Italian friend in her bedchambers because he thought they were cheating on him. Then later Mary had his son and the son got immediately more power than her and she was taken to a different castle and then exiled. Then she was a threat to the English throne so they imprisoned her for 19 years before beheading her. Then her son ended up becoming king of Scotland and England and Ireland because Elizabeth died and had no heirs. So in the end Mary was successful in her goal of ruling all of Britain and her blood line is the one that still rules today. It talked a little bit about the Stuarts history and the whole Bonnie Prince Charlie thing but I'm still confused on the succession of that ?and I think there were two Jacobite risings?.

Anyways it was cool to be in Queen Mary's rooms and see her stuff. She's a pretty cool royal. The gardens were really pretty too and the whole thing overlooks Arthur's Seat since it's at the base of that. In the one corner of the building was the abbey which is in ruins but was still really pretty and gothic and had flying buttresses. The garden wasn't as big as I thought it was. Someone online had said give yourself 2 hours to wander it but maybe it was closed off or maybe they meant Arthur's Seat i dunno. The garden did have sunken ruins though which was interesting cause it was just outlines of where houses once were.

There was also an exhibit on Megan and Harry's wedding which was cool. The exhibit itself was pretty lame cause it had 3 rooms one of which was just some blown up versions of the sketches for the dress. The cool part was that their outfits were there. I took a picture and apparently you weren't supposed to but I got one so ha. The audio tour for that was really cool cause Megan and Harry did it themselves and told all about the different things like flowers, the music, the dress, and the designs. The floral design on the veil is a combination of different representative flowers including a Poppy for her home state California and some other ones that represent British stuff. She had Givency design her dress because ?that's British? but I'm pretty positive it's a French fashion house but whatever. She talked about how they decided on the cut of the dress and making it simple. Then the music they chose was special to them and they had a gospel sing and their favorite cello player. Allison's gonna love all this stuff when I tell her about it.

I got out of there pretty early so then I went straight to Edinburgh castle and had a banana and walked the Royal Mile again. Honestly the Royal Mile gets you everywhere and is the only street that matters here I feel. There were multiple bagpipers and a guy dressed in full highlander regalia like in Braveheart.

Edinburgh castle was hugeeee and at first I was impressed but honestly it was big with out a lot to say. The coolest part was the crown jewels and the prison. The rest was eh. I did spend about 3 hours there though but I probably could've done it faster if I wasn't waiting for the 1 o'clock gun. My Medieval ARTH had told me that when I come to Edinburgh I need to be at the castle at 1pm for the cannon to go off. It was cool but I dunno if it was the coolest. The line to get into the castle was insaneeee and I waited for a bit and then bought the Explorer Pass on my phone and went straight into the castle without a wait. The Explorer Pass gets me into 70+ castles in Scotland for 5 days. I will be going to about 3 but that still more than pays it off. I bought the audioguide which had a lot to say about everything. It basically had a sign on every wall and would be like this is the wall that they built because this. It wasn't very interesting. I did the whole wall with the cannons and the gun and the down part with more guns. The 1 o'clock gun has been done every day for a verryyy long time (only ceased for parts of the World Wars). They do it a 1pm instead of noon cause that's more cost effective. Apparently there are other gun clocks in the world too which I didn't realize.

Then I went to the other lower part which is now the Scotland War Museum and was extremely boring and not air conditioned so I sped through. The view from everywhere is gorgeous honestly it was cool. To the left is rolling hills and front is the sea and to the right is Arthur's Seat meanwhile all the other cool architecture is visible over the buildings.

Then I went to then next building which was a Scottish army museum? and then the next one was also a army museum? honestly I dunno but they were all boring but the one had a cool room with a bunch of medals all lined up.

Then I went over to the prison area. It was interesting. Lots of cells redecorated as they were. Apparently there was a prison reform which limited whipping to ~only~ 200 lashes which is why they needed better prisons or something. But it looked like a basic American prison from the 20s or what not. Then there was this really cool prison across the road that was old and had all the rooms set up like they were and it had noises playing. The rooms were full of hammocks and then wood beds below that and it was cool. Apparently thats where they kept prisoners of war which was mostly French and Spanish and they had to keep the french and Spanish separate cause they fought so much. They also had a bunch of American prisoners from the American Revolution.

Then I went up through the final gate to the main castle area. It had this HUGE cannon that is called Mons Meg and is literally so big it's ridiculous. Apparently she could only be fired 10 times a day because she'd overheat. Then there was a super small chapel which was not exciting. Then I hung out and waited for 1pm to see the 1 o'clock cannon. It was cool and sorta funny cause we all collectively lined up and waited to see a cannon fired. Humans are dumb. Apparently the cannon fires and the Newton ball on Calton hill drop at 1pm together everyday (except Sundays).

Then I went in the castle which had a little part dedicated to a tower that used to be there but was completely destroyed. Then there was the crown jewels! It was only A sword, a crown, a scepter, and ?a large rock?. I'm still unclear about the whole rock significance but the other stuff was super ornate and interesting and is apparently the oldest crown jewels in Europe. It also has some sorta dramatic history where it was stolen and then miraculously found again.

Then I went to Calton Hill. I was thinking of going to Cragimillar castle since I won't be doing that tomorrow but it's too far away so I decided to just have a chill afternoon. I walked over to the Scots Monument which is a large ornate spire like building thingy that looks like the thing in Hyde Park. It looks burnt ?but I think it's just weathering?. Then I walked up the hill to Calton Hill. It was a ridiculously easy climb and was literally just one steep flight of maybe 100 stairs. My legs still are protesting from yesterday. The view is very nice but not as nice as Arthur's Seat. I'm glad I did Arthur's Seat. Strange thing about Calton Hill-it has Parthenon?. Apparently they started building a Parthenon replica and then gave up so it's only half complete and people just climb all over it. It also had a little squared in part like a Roman temple area. Then there's the Newton tower with the ball. Then there was this cool fire torch thing that reminds me of Lord of the Rings or Mulan. It has a really pretty view of Arthur's Seat.

Then I walked back down and went to the hostel to chill for a bit. I ate my leftover cake which was yummmyyy. Benny wanted to hang out but we missed each other cause he went to the Dungeon museum and didn't return until I had already left for the Harry Potter tour. I will still count him as making a successful British friend so I redeemed myself.

I blogged and chatted with mom and worked on my VCUK blog and then headed out for my Harry Potter walking tour! Mom's car broke down and they don't know whats wrong with it still. I should've charged my phone before I left but I'm dumb.

There's a lot of female statue people here which is interesting. I don't think I've ever seen a female one before this. There was also a hot guy playing guitar. There was also a hot guy doing soccer tricks near where the tour started.

The tour went okay. I was pumped for it but it didn't meet my high expectations. The tour itself was fine but most of the stops were her showing us something and then saying that JK was CLEARLY influenced by it when it was definitely a stretch. First she pointed out the unicorn and sphinx and how those were magical creatures. Then she showed us Rowling's hand prints which was cool cause I didn't even know that was a thing. Then she showed us a statue of a guy who looked like Dumbledore but he was actually a very angry man who pretty much started the witch hunt in Edinburgh. Then she told us how the valley area used to be a huge lake and Edinburgh castle is a castle on a hill next to a lake just like Hogwarts. Then she told us about how the whole testing witchcraft thing worked. Since there was no sewage system everyone would throw their waste in the street and then the waste would wash down into the lake and sit on the top. Then when you were tested for witchcraft you'd have your thumbs tied to your feet and you'd be thrown in. If you sunk you were human but if you floated you're a witch. The problem was most people were malnourished then so they wouldn't be able to sink through the top layer of feces and that's why they'd float. Gross but interesting story that's vaguely relevant. Then we went to the inspiration for Diagon Alley which is the cool street around the corner from me that I walked down yesterday. It has two levels and the bottom street level is all shops. I did think it felt very magical yesterday when I stumbled upon it. Then we went to Greyfriars Kirkyard! This is right behind Elephant House and has the grave of Tom Riddle and some other names from Harry Potter. There's also a McGonagall, Scrimgeour, and Moody. The graveyard was also apparently inspiration for the graveyard near Harry's house where his parents are. Also right next to the graveyard is a private school that has four houses. So it's supposed that Hogwarts is supposed to be that school on top of Edinburgh castle overlooking the lake that was once there. Then she showed us Elephant House cafe and told us about Spoon which is another cafe that JK wrote at.

I went to World's End bar for dinner but then they had a 30min wait so I went to Spoon instead. It was a really cute cafe with curtains dividing areas and plants and cozy seats. I got ramen and it was eh. It was also the smallest portion of food I've ever seen. It was 12p and it didn't even fill half the big ramen bowl. I feel like usually I get ramen and I can never finish it cause it's just so much but I literally ate everything in the entire bowl.

I went back to the hostel and sat in the one guitar room and listened to people play guitar while I worked on my blog. Then I had tea and ate a kit kat since I was still hungry. The concert of Kylie Minogue was again tonight and I found out next weekend is the Proclaimers and I'm so hype for their one song. Kylie sings that one song that goes na na na na you definitely know it. It's from 2001.

I tried sending Bill my blog for about 3 hours and finally was able to send part of it and then gave up and went to bed. The kids I played UNO with were in the lounge again! The guy and Amanda and they invited me to play but I just sat and worked on my blog near by them. The guy gave me his extra yum yum which is a weird Scottish pastry that is in fact yum yum. He also gave me this other donut. I will save it for tomorrow.

Then I went to the Posh lounge and worked more and then played a little piano but I'm no good. A kid came and played for a bit which was neat.