"Away tae Edinburgh Lad"

Edinburgh, Scotland. What a place! Definitely my favorite city so far. I think there is something that literally seeps out of the soil in Scotland that makes it different. The Scots definitely don't refer to themselves as British, they are Scottish first and foremost. I think one of the things that has struck me the most about the UK so far is that it really is more culturally divided than I expected. I actually like it I think, because it's more interesting this way and a little rivalry never hurts.

Anyway as far as Edinburgh goes, awesome, I'll just give a quick rundown of places we saw and what we did and how the weekend played out. Friday: Arrived, free walking tour of the city, 3 hours long, best value of anything we did. I learned the origin of the phrase "shitfaced" as well as the tale of the "Stone of Destiny". Scottish Heritage Whisky Tour, interesting, not real long, but fun and we got to sample whisky and keep the glass! Ate dinner at a chippy and then found a crowded, hole in the wall, dive bar that was really cheap and had some drinks before retiring to the hostel to play some golf before bed.

Saturday: Edinburgh Castle, excellent, great views, very interesting, saw the Scottish Crown Jewels and the "Stone of Destiny". Coolest castle I've seen so far. Found a pub that was showing the "Hibs" vs. "Hearts" football game and had some lunch. Got to hear comments like, "stick a foo' in 'is arse!" After the game we walked around the new town portion of Edinburgh before going to a park and then the Scottish Parliament building which has an interesting architectural design. Bought a couple t-shirts at a souvenir shop which are everywhere and sell the exact same merchandise. You walk into every one and hear bagpipes and then an Indian guy says "Halloo would you like to buy a kilt?". After purchasing our merchandise we played some golf at the hostel and then went our for some deep fried haggis which was delicious, and I chased that with a deep fried Mars bar. Then we went back to our favorite watering hole for some more 2 quid pints.

Sunday: Scottish National Gallery, basically another art gallery except this had some portraits with men in kilts. The Scottish Modern Art Gallery, interesting, but I have to question the validity and skill required for 50% of the exhibits contained therein. I could pull of half that crap. Scottish National Museum, very nice, we only saw a small portion but it was interesting and well put together and the top of the museum had a nice viewing area which was good for pictures.

What I think about Edinburgh: They will fry anything here. Pizza, hamburgers, candy bars, pies, probably the only thing they would object to putting in a fryer is their cherished Scotch whisky. The Royal Mile is really great, tons of little side courtyards and alleyways. The walking tour was good, saw where JK Rowling wrote a lot of Harry P, I have to say she borrowed a lot from the city as far as names of characters go. Even the land around Edinburgh is beautiful, I can only imagine what the Highlands are like. The people are this country's greatest resource. Friendly, outgoing, and hard to understand! Basically a lot of the time when talking to people if you didn't know better you might think they were drunk because they slur their words together and don't enunciate much. And when they have had a few drinks,"fuhgedda about it!" I really like the accent though, you just have to listen hard and concentrate when talking to people. Here's a tase, "Ah wis joost abou' tae gae an' gra' another drin' mae, a yoo want wen tae? Mine da gap der a'fore ya gae an trip yersel' gaein' dane fra' da train" It's a good thing I read the book "Trainspotting" before I came because it sometimes sounds like people are speaking another language here.

On a totally unrelated sidenote, I shaved my tache when I got back tonight. I just decided I felt too old with that stiff bristled broom on my upper lip. I'm going to go without a soup strainer for awhile, at least until I join law enforcement, at which point, it will of course become mandatory to have along with the badge...Anyway I hope this was interesting, if ya don't know, now ya know...