Meals
- Breakfast
- Two Chocolate Croissants
- Lunch (Dynamic Planet)
- Hamburger and Fries
- Dinner (Mario’s Place)
- Chicken Pasta
Weather
- Cloudy in the morning
- Sunny in the afternoon
Climbing Up Arthur’s Seat
I woke up at 6 am to get ready for our trek up Arthur’s Seat, the highest point in Edinburgh. We left at 7:15 am and I bought two chocolate croissants for breakfast for the climb. The croissants were freshly made and they were pretty tasty. Altogether, it took us about 45 minutes to get to the top of Arthur’s Seat. We took the shorter but steeper climb on the way up and the whole hike was stepping up stone stairs. They were at least six inches in height! When we were almost at the top we had to climb up some rocks and it was a bit scary. My left ankle was still a bit weak from the previous hike so I had to go really slow. I also didn’t anticipate Arthur’s Seat being this treacherous so I didn’t bring shoes that had good traction. It wasn’t the best circumstances but slow and steady wins the race – or gets you to the finish line.
The view was very nice but it wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought we would see a beautiful panorama of the city and coming from yesterday’s beautiful sunset on Calton Hill, I had a lot of built up expectations. The sky was gloomy because it was still morning and I think that just made the view look a bit mundane. Nevertheless, it was still very peaceful and calming and I ended up staying at the peak for a good 30 minutes to just take in the view. It was a nice escape from the city and the aerial view of the city was quite nice.
I went down on the other side of the mountain towards Hollyrood Palace and the path was a lot easier to get down. I was more than halfway down the trail when I spotted what looked to be small ruins. A few hundred feet down the path, I saw a road that went off the path that was headed for the ruins. I started running, excited to see what it could be. I felt like an adventurer and wondered if this was how the explorers of the 1600s felt like when they were sailing to “new” lands.
I was not disappointed by what I saw. It was in fact a small ruin and after looking at Google Maps, I found out that it was Saint Anthony’s Chapel Ruins. It was tucked away from the main train and it overlooked a nearby lake. The view wasn’t half bad either but it just made me think about how people used to come to this very spot as part of their daily routine. The ruins stand as a reminder that there were people before us and that their lives were drastically different than ours. But I digress. I stayed a bit longer than I should have. Walking around the ruins and looking at the swans in the lake below fascinated me so much. In my opinion, the ruins were more fun than Arthur’s Seat, and the views were just as good (in a different way).
Enter Holyrood Palace
The next stop for my day was Holyrood Palace, the home of Mary, Queen of Scots and the residence of the royal family when they visit Edinburgh. There were no photos allowed inside, so I only have pictures of the outside but the experience was amazing. Everyone who entered got an audio guide that explained the history of each of the rooms we visited, including an assassination attempt of someone close to the queen.
I got to walk through about half of the rooms in the palace. One of the best rooms was the large dining hall where the queen hosts banquets as well as investitures. All along the walls of the room were portraits of Scotland’s monarchs. There were so many it felt like history was looking upon me. I also walked through chambers that used to be bedrooms. The tour ended with us looking through the ruins of Holyrood Abbey. I got a similar kind of vibe as I did with Saint Anthony’s Chapel. To think that the abbey used to be a church that hundreds of people attended, and now it’s a relic. Such is the way of life I guess.
The royal gardens bordered Holyrood Abbey and it was a very lush and serene stroll. I can only imagine how spectacular the place must be when banquets and meetings are held here.
Exploring the World
My next destination was a nearby museum near Holyrood Palace called Dynamic Earth. It tells the story of Earth from its beginnings until the present day and it had pretty stellar reviews so I thought it was worth a shot. Unfortunately this museum was not free for students, but I did get a discount £1.50 discount, making my grand total £13.50. It was almost noon and I hadn’t eaten anything except for the two croissants so I decided to get a burger inside their dining court.
The museum was fun to walk through, but it wasn’t as great as I thought it would be. The first area you go into talks about tectonic plates and how a geologist named James Hutton discovered that the rocks around Edinburgh actually date from different years and are actually millions of years old. To access the rest of the museum, I went through their “time machine,” which was actually just a lift. The concept of the museum was cool though, and it built up the history of the earth starting with the big bang. There were some small clips that showed how the earth formed and cooled and how the climate of the earth occurred. Although I knew a lot of what was explained, I think I would have really enjoyed this museum as a child.
As I was finishing the last exhibit in the museum, a 30 minute show in their planetarium was just about to start about the big bang and the history of the universe. I haven’t been in a planetarium in a very long time so I decided to give it a go and see if it was as cool as I remember it being. Long story short, I sat down, looked up at the ceiling to watch the presentation and fell asleep after five minutes until the show ended. I had done a lot of walking in the past 24 hours and I was pretty exhausted so the power nap gave me a nice energy boost for the rest of the day. I’m a bit disappointed I couldn’t stay awake but I also needed the rest.
As I was walking out of the museum, I passed by this small field and was amazed to see families enjoying the sun. One family was playing something that looked like baseball and other families were having picnics or splashing about in the nearby fountain. It was so foggy and gloomy earlier and now it was all sunshine and fun. The weather really does change fast in Scotland. It was also interesting to see people dip their feet in the fountain, with one mother and son even going in knee deep to have a small water fight. This brought me back to a memory I had when I was in Washington D.C. at the World War II Memorial just two years ago. There were several visiting families who were wading in the memorial’s fountain and one of the chaperones had to tell them to get out of the water because it was disrespectful. Little did I know that it was common in other countries to do that…
To the National Museum
My last official stop for the day was the National Museum of Scotland. It had exhibitions on the history of Scotland from the prehistoric era to the modern day. It also had a fun interactive sciency area with lots of hands on displays as well as an exhibit on foreign cultures. Since it was the National Museum of Scotland, I wanted to look at all of the Scottish history stuff. I only had about 2 hours before the museum closed and I thought the Scottish stuff would be enough until I had to leave. I walked through the first floor and then the second, and then realized that were was just too much for me to see. The floors were massive and they had so many artifacts and panels to read that I just wouldn’t get it done if I looked at everything. I was also getting a little bored and the sciency stuff looked really fun so my new plan was to skim through each floor and take pictures of the cool things and then go have fun with the hands on exhibits.
I had a lot of fun in the interactive part of the museum and that was honestly the best part of the museum. I did go up to look at their foreign culture displays too but it’s hard to beat games that test your reaction speed or cranking a wheel to turn on a light bulb. I still had over half the museum left to explore by the time I left but it was a lot of fun. I would say it was my favorite museum that I visited in Edinburgh and I would go again to look through the rest of it.
A Concert at St. Giles
I finished off the night listening to a choral concert inside St. Giles’ Cathedral. The concert was at 6:00 pm and the singing was very good. It was actually the first professional choral concert I’ve been too. All I could think about during the performance was how smooth the voice leading was (a nod to my music theory teacher). The last song before I left for my bus was a premier and the only way I could describe it is interesting. It sounded like atonal polyphony and made me think of a choral arrangement in the style of Schoenberg. I didn’t dislike it but I also wasn’t a fan of it. However, the concert was exceptional as a whole and it was great to be able to hear a choral music in a large cathedral like St. Giles, where music has probably been sung for hundreds of years.
A Bite Away from Home
Justin and I walked from St. Giles to the bus station and left Edinburgh at 7:15 pm. It was about an hour and ten minute drive back to Glasgow and the bus basically took us on the same path the train took (the train tracks were right next to the road). When we got back to the City Centre, we found out that the subway was closed. We didn’t know the subway closed early on Sundays so we had to order an Uber. We were fairly hungry and I really wanted to try Mario’s Place so we went there and ate. I ordered the chicken pasta and it was a very fulfilling meal after a very long day. The pasta came in a napoli sauce, which is like a creamy tomato sauce, and it was fantastic. The sauce was so good that I practically cleaned the bowl.
After that we walked back home. At long last we were back. The trip was very fun but we maximized a lot of our time and basically spent the whole time walking or seeing something new at the very least so Justin and I spent Monday recovering by sleeping in. Nevertheless, it was a great experience. From the old historic buildings to the Harry Potter stores, Edinburgh was a great city to explore.
