SCOTLAND Day 3- 16 July 2019

Sleeping in a hostel isn't a bad night's sleep but it isn't a good nights sleep. I constantly toss and turn from other people getting up and being noisy.

I went to breakfast and yet again stole a nutella roll and a piece of fruit. Then walked down the royal mile to the tour place.

Honestly I would be really happy if I lived here forever. The only thing I’d want to change is switching to a room full people I know and trust so that I don’t have to be paranoid about my stuff being stolen. But I really love this hostel. Everyone here is open to chatting and meeting people and everyone has cool things like playing music or getting people to play games and everyone travels. I love it. It’s such a nice atmosphere.

I also really like Edinburgh. It’s city but still small and walking it is a workout which is fun (unless you’re carrying things). The parks they have are nice and also have that London quality of being able to somehow escape the noise of the city completely. It’s also super old and has beautiful architecture and a tonnn of shops and restaurants.

The tour was great. The tour guide's name was Kylie and she was a cute little Scottish lady with a thick accent and was 100% a hufflepuff in everyway. She would get embarassed from mistakes she made and then do a little giggle it was fun. She never went to the locations with us but would give us background while we were on the bus and was very chatty and would play music. We went to 4 filming locations of Outlander.

First she told us about Edinburgh as we left. There’s vaults and a tunnel from the castle to Holyrood underneath the royal mile. Apparently they sent a piper down there at one point to see how long it was and he died in the tunnel so now it’s haunted! The royal mile also used to have 14 floored buildings cause everyone wanted to live inside the city making it the first skyscrapers. The top floors were all made of wood and would have the poorest people in and would sway in the wind.

I also finally learned what the weird statues of a laughing kid are. They are a Scottish kid that is famous for being the youngest kid who emptied the toilet bucket. Buckets would be emptied at 10am everyday and you’d shout guardiloo and throw it out the window. The term sh*tfaced comes from this because the pubs also closed at 10am so people would be stumbling home and getting showered with poop if they weren't paying attention.

There was a Scottish man who invented the idea of streets going two ways. Apparently Scottish people invented a lot that's why they started putting greek stuff in their architecture and built (half of) the Parthenon to show how similar they are to greek renaissance with their monumental inventions.

Another great idea a guy had was to drain the nor loch(the big lake next to Edinburgh castle) to make room for more stuff. When they drained the nor loch they found 800+ bodies. These are the bodies of witches-or rather not witches. Ways to tell a witch: they're beautiful, red hair, green eyes, talk back to their husband, red head facial appearance. The witch was then taken and had her hands nailed to her knees and thrown into the nor loch. If they sunk they were pure of heart and died and went to heaven. If they floated-which they often did since they're wearing huge gowns that gather a lot of area from being thrown off a cliff-they were a witch and were dragged out and then marched up the hill and burned at the stake. So not only were their hands nailed to their knees, they were thrown into fecal matter, they then had to die a painful death by fire.

Our first stop was Linlithgow Palace which is where Mary Queen of Scots was born but for Outlander purposes it was Wentworth Prison. Wentworth Prison is the one at the end of the 1st book where Jamie is taken and raped by Black Jack Randall and Claire goes in a rescues him. I was nervous cause we only had a half hour there but it was perfect amount of time. I was so excited to be there and I got in for "free" because of my Explorer Pass! It was so cool! It was mostly all there still and you just had free range of the whole castle as it was. There was a big fountainy thing in the middle coutryard and then it was about 5 stories. There was a huge great hall and huge kitchen and then the other wings were all bedrooms but weren't there anymore. Only a few areas were blocked off for reconstruction. There was a large spiral staircase in each corner and in the one you could climb all the way to the top and go out and there was a little tiny gazebo like thing to sit in. The views were amazing. On one side was a large ?river? and rolling hills everywhere and the little town on one side. It was so cute and Scottish. I'm glad I did this trip cause I get to see little Scottish towns like this.

On our way there she told us about Mary Queen of Scots whole life. She was born here and her dad, the king, died when she was only 6 days old which made her Queen. When she was 6 year old her mother sent her to France for schooling. She learned along side Francois the Prince of France. This allowed her to learn "male" subjects as well such as battle strategy and war stuff that a King would need to know but a Queen would not. At 16 she married Francois. However, Francois dies at 18 and they didn’t have any kids yet. She returns to Scotland to be Queen because she doesn't feel right ruling France. Since she is still young and the council won't take her seriously without being married she marries Lord Darnley, her first cousin. He voices unpopular opinions and is a bad boy and she likes that. She also feels that he will happily just sit besides her and not interfere in her Queen duties. However Lord Darnley was only nice and kind to her because he wanted power and constantly bothers Mary for more power. He wants to be crowned so he will be her equal in power. She can obviously not let this happen. He is abusive regularly and a drunkard and she realizes that if she gets pregnant he will stop beating her and not be able to demand the crown anymore since her child will get it. She avoids him for a while which angers him. He murders her best friend, an italian named Rizzio, in her apartment expecting her to loose the baby in shock but she does not. She has a baby boy and then is almost immediately pushed from the throne. She is now in love with the Earl of Baudville and probably having an affair. Lord Darnley's house has an explosion but he some how escapes but is found dead strangled in his front yard. Mary and Earl of Baudville go on the run and her throne is abdicated to her son, James the 6th, when he's only a toddler. They get captured but she says he did not murder Lord Darnley so he is released and she gets locked up in Fife in a castle on an island in a lake. She’s there for a year but escapes by seducing the boat keeper. She then visits Queen Elizabeth but is captured when she gets to England because they see her as a threat to the crown. She is then locked in Tower of London for 18 years until she is beheaded. They behead her for treason after finding a letter from her to an english supporter saying that she would love to be on the English throne. For her beheading she is allowed to choose the weapon and she is dramatic and chooses a fancy big ceremonial sword instead of an axe. Her executioner was nervous and she told him that she forgives him and to please make quick work of it. He misses on the first try and it hits her shoulder. She repositions herself and he swings again but it scalps her this time. His third swing finally hits her neck killing her. When he goes to pick up her head he only has hold of her scalp and her head rolls into the crowd. It is said that her head was actually stolen by the crowd and the head in her tomb is not actually hers. Mary had an awfully terrible life.

She also told us about the Jacobite risings and how it's not Scotland vs England as Outlander makes it out to be but it's more of two groups who want someone different on the throne. It was never a matter of separating from England and Scotland and England had already been united under one ruler for years now. The fighting was more about which religion to have in rule but even that wasn't fully it. Not all Protestants were Jacobites and not all Catholics were against the Jacobites. Also the Jacobites were often fighting other Scotsmen not British soldiers because the crown would threaten locals to fight for them and there were a good handful of clans that actually supported the crown not the Jacboites. Either way the Jacobite rising with Bonnie Prince Charlie was the 4th and many Scotsmen died.

Prince Charlie was a spoiled child told that he was destined to rule. His father had been king but ran when there was a threat and never abdicated. So he had a claim to the throne. He apparently was successful in his battles all the way until right outside of London when he was told that London was still far off. SO they packed up and returned north. However they probably could’ve won because the king was ready to abandon London. Instead they all returned to the north and then were met at Culloden by the crowns troops Where they were all murdered. 15,000+ Scotsmen dead. The women were not allowed to collect their dead and some were even killed as well. Then they were put into mass graves.

In between talking shed play scottish songs(mostly bag pipes and the proclaimers). She started the trip by playing the outlander theme which was cute. She told us about how scots culture was completly demolished because of the uprisings and that kilts and tartan were banned and if you were of fighting when and in a group of 4 or more you were considered conspiring and murdered. She told us a story of two brothers who we’re found late at night and considered conspiring but hen British troops were feeling kind so they decided to only kill one and let the brothers choose who (I don’t think that’s very kind).

They argued all day. The older brother said he should die cause he’d lived a full life already and already fell in love got married and had children and the younger hadn’t. The younger argued that he should die since the older had someone to return to and take care of. They decided to sleep on it and when the younger brother awoke the older was dead because he had offered himself already. He had left a poem that is now a song that is very famous here. It’s the one that goes “You'll take the high road and I'll take the low road

And I'll be in Scotland afore ye

Where me and my true love will never meet again

On the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond”. It was sad and I miss lu.

Our next stop was castle Doune! I’m so glad I got to go here. This castle has been used in outlander as castle Leoch (Jamie’s uncles castle), in game of thrones as winterfell in the pilot episode (the courtyard scenes with arya shooting arrows), and as every single castle in Monty python and the holy grail. It was neat but the castle itself was sorta dumb. It fallen apart on the one side and a lot of it was under construction. All the rooms were empty and then had the standard audio guide telling you about the people that lived there and how rough life was in each room. The coolest part was there was an audio guide done by Sam Heughan about filming outlander there. It didn’t say anything to significant but it was cute. Sam complained about how cold it was filming there in March and wearing a kilt and thin shirt and how Catrina (Claire) had it even worse cause all she was wearing was a shift. He talked about how they had to fill the courtyard with a tarp and then 50 tons of dirt to make it a muddy courtyard and not damage the actual cobblestone floor. They also recreated the entirety of the kitchen in a studio so that they could do whatever they want to it and hang things from the walls and what not. They also used the fields out front for the game of shinty(like field hockey but more aggressive) and set up little huts and shacks there too. The building itself is actually quite small. It has a big courtyard with two cellar rooms off that. Then there’s stairs to the kitchen tower and stairs to the great hall. The great y’all connects to a newer section and also to the kitchen. The kitchen was quite massive and of course I took a picture in the fireplace. There was a bat in the kitchen which freaked me out. There was a staircase in the kitchen that went up to the main bedroom which was apparently a guest room. It was big and had a bathroom closet and another closet. Then there was a staircase from the great hall extension that went up to some little rooms. There was a little bedroom and a little bathroom and then a big hall again that would’ve had a little chapel and was the women’s hall. The rest of it was just a wall I think. I don’t really understand where everybody else stayed maybe there were other rooms? You could also look out onto the one wall which is where the Monty python people stood to do the your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberry bit. But that wall was under construction.

I wandered around the outside a bit too trying to figure out where they stood for the elderberry thing and the Trojan rabbit thing and for outlander riding horses. The gift shop was funny and had an extensive amount of outlander stuff and also sold coconuts for Monty python which I thought was hilarious. They also had outfits you could get dressed up in but I didn’t cause they were all toddler sized or way to big and i was already wearing my nice outlander dress. (I got multiple compliments btw)

I was also nervous we wouldn’t have enough time there (only an hour) which was a recurring theme of the day but I think we had the perfect amount at all the stops. However I didn’t really thoroughly listen to the audio guide at Doune just the outlander ones. I also thought there were Monty python and game of thrones audio guides too so I was panic about time but there was only the extra outlander ones and then the Monty python guy did the intro to the castle. Also only the pilot of got was filmed there and they moved to Ireland and a set cause it’s cheaper.

Next we headed to Culross(coo-russ ) which is a really cute little costal town that outlander was filmed in. They filmed Geillis house there and the scene where the boys ear is nailed to a post. They also filmed a lot inside the Culross palace which is not really a place but is a pretty big yellow house with a nice big vertical garden. They used the garden as Claire’s herb garden and different indoor scene were shot in the palace including some of Geillis house, Leary’s house, some scenes with prince Charlie, and the ?dukes? House (I don’t remember what royal it said). Fun fact they painted all the buildings in the town grey for filming and then painted them back after.

It was a cute little town and I decided to just wander around and see Geillis’s house and then hang out and eat lunch instead of going in the palace. I didn’t want to pay for the palace and I didn’t remember any of the scenes that were shot there so I didn’t see the point. I remembered the boys ear and Geillis house though. I also walked up the stairs to the top of the one area and could see the whole town and the garden and it was pretty. I got tea and a chocolate scone which was literally the largest scone I’ve ever seen and ate that in a bench and had my apple and Nutella roll. Then I went and walked out on the rickety pier while I waited for the bus.

Next she told us about Jamie’s father’s namesake who was a real Jacobite Scotsman. He was found alive still after Culloden and since he owned property and was a clan leader he was brought to the London to be publicly killed. They tried to hang him but the crowd was too excited to see a scotsman “royal” and they stormed the platform which ended up killing 20 people and broke the platform so he was unable to be hung. When they told him this he laughed so hard to the irony of it all. As punishment they decided to behead him instead and that is where the phrase laughing your head off comes from.

She also told us how Scotland will be 100% green by 2020. (Except there’s one power plant that won’t be closed til 2025). They will run off of completely clean energy. I wonder what qualifies as completely green cause they’re still using plastic packaging and I think that’s one of the worst things.

Other fun fact apparently the UK was the last to see outlander cause its release was banned due to unsettlement in the government at the time and they were worried since it gives such Scotland vs England vibes that citizen would start acting that way.

Also the author of the books had never been to Scotland when she wrote it.

Our next stop was Falkland which is Inverness in Outlander! This one was really cool because it’s very recognizable. The town was super cute and small and at the base of a mountain. There were scenes shot all over here since Inverness is in a lot of season 1 and other seasons. The most iconic spot is the main square with the fountain and the one corner inn. That’s where Claire and her husband stayed and the ghost of Jamie looked up at her through the window. It was neat. We only had 20 minutes here but that was really all that was needed to take a few pictures.

I sat in the square and started regrading outlander (the first one). I thought I’d be reading more since I’m traveling so much but whenever I’m on the trains or buses I just like to sit and take it all in. The rolling hills and farms are so pretty and I wish I could live here a bit. I dunno if farm life is for me probably not honestly but I’d like to do it for a couple months and run through the fields and spend afternoons hiking around and exploring.

She told us in our next ride about Unicorns and how unicorns all have to live in the mountains and forests because they were hunted but the mountains aren’t a good place to raise their young so they put their young in the meadows and whenever you see a fully white horse it’s a young unicorn. Then after the unicorn turns 13 it becomes a full unicorn and returns to the hills. Unicorns are the countries animal because they are apparently the only animal to beat a lion aka England. Also on the crest sometimes the unicorn is on the left and sometimes on the right and that’s how you can tell where the crest or item was made because if it was made in Scotland then the unicorn is first. She also told us about kelpies which are animals that live near water and can shapeshift to anything and you’d go over to it and if you touch it it sucks you’re hand in and drags you into the water and drowns you. However it usually takes the form of a horse and if you are able to grab its bridle without touching it, it will be tame and yours forever. Then she told us about silkies which are seals that shed their skin and are very beautiful and you can tell a silkier from their really nice hair which is their seal pelt.

We passed kelpies which are a ig sculpture over lock.

Our last stop was the best. It was lallybroch! Lallybroch is Jamie’s home in outlander and it’s so pretty and is actually just an abandoned private property in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields and hills. It’s called midhope castle and was free admission! You just have to pay for parking! I think that’s crazy because there’s so many fans of the show they could be making a fortune. I think they should make it a B&B and make it look kilter tv show lallybroch cause right now it’s just empty and falling apart but people are taking pictures on it anyway. People would pay a lot for that. The road leading up to it is super cute too.

Then we left at 5 and headed back to Edinburgh.

When we got in I went to bakehouse close which is where they shot Jamie’s print shop. It’s a very cute little back alley with super old buildings and is very cute. Ugh I love the old architecture in Edinburgh.

I like how whatever stone it is that they use always looks wet for some reason and all the buildings are old and smushy with winding little alleys and stairs.

Then I went to worlds end pub again for dinner but yet again the wait was ridiculous. They ate at worlds end in outlander but it was just a set. It’s still a famous pub and I wanted to eat there but there’s no reservations and the wait is always an hourish and I just don’t have time. Instead I wandered around looked for whiskey and fish and chips and settled in this place on grassmarket which is around the corner down the hill from my hostel. It was a place called biddy and I sat outside. I got the big fish and chips and it was huggeee. It was good but I couldn’t finish it. I tried mushy peas and they were bad. I got a whiskey too and it was eh. The guy talked me in to getting this one called American oak but is Scottish he assured me. He said it had a vanillay taste and was a bit sweet. He was right. I asked for one that tasted like Guinness though lol. I liked it (or rather it was tolerable) for about 10 sips and then I though it tasted rather horrid.

Then I went back to the hostel and took a shower and tried submitting my file to bill yet again. This is literally going awfully. The file is just so massive and I can’t figure out how to make it smaller. I was also super gassy and my tummy was being weird so I went to bed early.