Exploring Edinburgh

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!. I'm just really happy because, as of today, I am no longer a teenager! That's right. Today is my 20th birthday! I hope that you all have a fantastic day. I have, and mine has barely even started! But more on that later

I arrived in Edinburgh on Sunday night after a day filled with the stress of finding yourself in a foreign country without any money and with your parents on another continent. On top of that, the bus that we finally managed to secure via telephone and the internet was an hour late, leaving me in the cold for that entire time. I was NOT happy when I first arrived here. However, within a few minutes of arriving, my bad mood disappeared. Edinburgh is the prettiest city that I have ever seen, especially at night. It literally took my breath away (though that may have to do with the fact that all the streets are built on impossibly steep slopes). Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

If you're going to Edinburgh anytime soon, stay at the Edinburgh Backpackers Hostel. It's near the top of one of those impossibly steep inclines I talked about earlier, but it is incredibly close to the Royal Mile, where a lot of the most visited tourist attractions are located, including Edinburgh Castle. Not only that, but the staff are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. When I arrived, the receptionist saw that I was flustered about my financial situation, and gave me a break my letting me stay for the night on just the money in my pocket. Then, when I woke up, the manager let me stay and keep my room until the emergency funds my mom sent me came through. I honestly don't know what I would have done without them, and I will be always grateful to them for cutting me a break when I needed one most. They restored my faith in humanity (for a while at least).

Gates of Edinburgh Castle

Of course, by the time that my money was in my account, it was just after 4:00. I headed up to Edinburgh Castle, which is only a few minutes away from the hostel, but I still made it there at like 4:20 because I stopped in a few souvenier shops along the way, thinking that the castle closed to tourists at 5. Of course, it closed the gates at 4:15. But the day was still young and I had the time to take some pictures before it got too dark. Here's the outside gate. There are more pictures of the inside on my Flickr and Facebook pages. I did get to go inside today, and will talk a little about that later. First, more about my supernatural experience.

First Floor of the Underground Vault

Last night, I took a tour of the haunted Edinburgh Underground Tunnels, which are typically closed to the public. It only lasted an hour and a half, but I will tell you that it was one of the most interesting nights of my life thus far. Before the tour, I believed that ghosts and the supernatural was possible, but now I am almost certainly a believer. I encourage any tourists heading to Edinburgh to take a tour, particularily if you're interested in the darker side of history. Who knows? It may make a believer out of you too. XD The tour guide turned out the lights, so the only thing we could see was her flashlight. Any light in the pictures I took was created by my flash.

Room Where My Pants Were Tugged

It was really cool, and the downstairs was interesting. Upstairs, however was a completely different atmosphere. I was shaking the whole time and my legs kept getting goosebumps. As we were leaving one vault, I felt a tug on my pants at the back of my knee, kinda like a little kid grabbing your leg to get your attention. I thought it was just someone behind me that stepped on my pants, but there was no one else around. Then, as we were standing in another vault, I felt a burning sensation of my leg. I wrote it off and didn't tell anyone about it because I thought I was overreacting. As we were walking out though, I mentioned the pants thing to the guide and she said that a medium told her the room that I was in is supposedly full of the spirits of children who were kidnapped by a pedophile, violated, then sold on the street. When I said something about the burning on my leg, she just brushed it off and said "Oh, more than likely one of the kids saw you as a mother figure and tried to grab ahold of you to get out of there because you were by yourself and not clinging to anyone." I just checked my leg, and it's bright red right in the area I felt burning. I'm really freaking out. So, I may be bringing a kid home with me, and I don't have to wait nine months and deal with labor to get it....but it may have been violated by a man with really long fingernails who prays on young kids. So....it goes without saying that I had a little trouble getting to sleep last night.

War Victim Memorial in the Citadel of Edinburgh Castle

Despite my trouble sleeping last night, I woke up bright and early this morning in order to get the chance to explore Edinburgh Castle. So I hiked my butt back up the Royal Mile (the city limits of Edinburgh) and headed to the castle, only stopping at one or two shops along the way. I got there at around 10:00 and was eagerly set free in the castle courtyards. I chose to forgo the guided tour in order to better experience the castle at my own pace. The highlight of the attraction was probably the opportunity to see the Scottish Crown Jewels, which were hidden underground for a few years to protect them from possible English invaders. I wasn't able to take any pictures, because it may damage them, but it was worth it just to see them. The Stone of Destiny, the stone on which all of the kings and queens of Scotland were crowned, was in the same case as the jewels and was really interesting to see.

Though I couldn't take any pictures of the Crown Jewels, I did take lots of other pictures of the inside of the Castle, all of which are either on my Facebook or my Flickr. Despite a rather lofty entrance fee (14 pounds, or about 22$), it was really worth it just to experience walking around a castle. It is so cool to stand inside a piece of history and imagine the original inhabitants walking its halls. It's not an experience we Americans can replicate very easily without extensive (and expensive) travelling. Plus, there were some truly beautiful views of the city of Edinburgh from the top of the parapet.

Tonight, I'll be headed back to Glasgow on the Megabus to get a flight back to Dublin in the morning. In the meantime, I have to sleep in the airport. You're not truly a hard core traveler until you sleep in the airport. Mostly, I'll be there because my flight leaves at 7 in the morning and buses don't start until like 6. So, I'll find me a nice comfortable corner and daze while I wait for the plane to arrive. I can sleep on the trip back to Dublin. Hopefully I don't die.

Much love and happiness for Valentine's Day!

Brooke <3

A Girl Alone in Glasgow

Well, I've been in Glasgow for about 36 hours now, and I'm really having a great time. The city is absolutely beautiful, and everything is so easy to walk to. I've put about four miles under my belt just today. And very little of that was because I got lost. XD I'm staying at the BlueSky Hostel, which is a cute little place with graffiti all over the walls (intentionally and good graffiti). There is also a house dog that stays during the day. His name is Sheffield and he's absolutely adorable. It makes me miss my Pig...but I'll get over it.

Yesterday, I pretty much just slept all day after waking up at 3 AM to get to my flight. I took a nap and woke up at 5:30, but I still don't think that it was enough. And it was definitely not enough after the night I had last night.  Not only did the guy sleeping in the bed above me snore (have you ever heard someone snore in a Scottish accent before? Hilarious), but I think he was on drugs or something. He fell down the ladder of the bunk bed like three times during the night, both talked and farted in his sleep, and somehow managed to knock his portable DVD player off of the bed, where it bounced off the wall and hit me in the face while I was sleeping. Overall, no one in the room with 10 beds got any real sleep. Well, except for him anyway. It was kinda miserable, and I stopped feeling sorry for him after the DVD player almost broke my nose.

The Bridge of Sighs

Today, I got up bright and early (mostly because I couldn't take the snoring any more) and decided that I would see Glasgow during my last day in the city. I started off walking down Bath Street toward Cathedral Street, where I knew that the Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis were. Overall, its about 2 miles and I covered it in about a half an hour (with stopping to shop for souveniers). Once I got there, I was completely overwhelmed by how beautiful everything is. I walked around the Cathedral for a while until I found the enterance for the Necropolis, or City of the Dead. You start off going across the Bridge of Sighs, which was funded by the Merchant class in Glasgow as a symbol of their wealth and the devotion that they felt for their dearly departed.

Once over the bridge, I wandered around the base of the Necropolis for a while, looking at dates and names of the people who were buried there. Some of the monuments were very plain at the bottom, but became more and more intricate towards the top of the hill. Just to compare, here are a lower tombstone (left) and one at the top (right).

It was so peaceful and such a beautiful view at the top that you can almost forget that you're at a cemetary, where dead people are buried beneath your feet. It was entirely gorgeous, but still kinda creepy. I felt something slap my leg and kinda vibrate. I freaked out and screamed, thinking that I had stepped on a snake or something while I wasn't paying attention. Here, I stepped on a stick and the curved edge made it vibrate against my leg. I heard a couple of people at the bottom of the Necropolis laugh at me. Oh well...I'm used to people laughing at me after I do something stupid. I'll live (though I may not have if it were actually snake).

After the Necropolis, I walked around Glasgow city centre for a while, exploring side streets and trying to find a bus stop that would take me to the National Science Centre. As I wandered, I found a ferris wheel, kinda similar to the Eye of London, except it was the Eye of Glasgow. Of course, I rushed over for a ride. Luckily, I thought to bring my student ID with me, because it saved me two pounds. Yes, I am cheap. Anyway, I rode this thing to the very tippy top, and it held there for about five minutes. It was kinda windy today, which made the carriage I was in swing (kinda terrifying, let me tell you).

View of the Glasgow City Hall from the Eye

I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the Glasgow skyline while I was up there. It gave a really fantastic view of both the city and George Square, where the Eye was assembled. Here's one of the shots that I took while trying not to rock my pod anymore than it was already doing. After the fifth trip around the Eye, at which I was starting to feel slightly sick, I headed back out into the city. While I ended up not going into the Science Centre, I did take a tour of Glasgow on a double decker bus. They gave you a set of earphones, which you plugged into a radio on the bus to set the language you wanted to hear. The bus played a message telling us about all of the various tourist attractions and historical monuments that surrounded us on our two hour tour.

Of course, like my tour in Limerick, I sat outside the enclosed area of the bus to get better pictures, risking frostbite to my extremities. I couldn't feel my legs by the end of the tour, but it was worth it to get to see more of this entirely beautiful city. It is truly amazing to think that the city of Glasgow was first lived in during the 6th century A.D. Considering that's nearly 13 centuries more than our country was even settled, I was hugely impressed. Very little of the original architecture still remains, though there are still some buildings from the Victorian and Georgian Eras that are still in relatively good shape considering their age. However, they are not all being used for their original purpose anymore. For example, the building above was once a Catholic cathedral, but is now used as a restaurant. Kinda cool, if you think about it.

After the tour dropped me off relatively close to my hostel, I popped by a shop to get a slightly larger bag (on wheels!!) to make my life a little easier for the trip back to Dublin. Exhausted and unable to feel my legs, I walked back to the hostel, greeted Sheffield and the guys at the Reception desk, and headed up to my room to write this post. If you guys want to see more photos of my trip into Glasgow, check out my Facebook profile (www.facebook.com/hopelesswanderer). As always, if you have any questions, leave them in a comment below.

Best,
Brooke

Gleek It Out

So, yesterday was my youngest sister's 14th birthday. Not really a big one, but I don't spend a whole lot of time with her, so I decided to do something special for her birthday. She's been aching to go see the Glee 3D Concert Movie since it came out in theaters, and I was just as anxious to go see it, so I thought it would be a good idea for us to spend some quality time together. Glee is one of the only things that we have in common, as she is more of a social butterfly where I am a book-smart nerd.

Despite our differences, Glee has brought us together, if only for an hour sitting in front of the television. The reason that I love Glee is because it teaches you that you have to accept and love who you are, no matter what you look like, who you love, or what you believe. It's one of the few shows out there that will tell you that you're beautiful, no matter how society looks at you. (She watches it for the hot guys, but who doesn't? lol)


So even if you're not a Gleek like me, I think that you should at least give it a chance, because it may change the way that you look at yourself, give you some more self-confidence. That's why I love being a Gleek. What's your reason? Gleek it out, everybody, cuz in the words of Lady Gaga, you were born this way, baby.