Edinburgh, on my Jack Jones!

Edinburgh Castle!

Mel Gibson was in town

Greyfriars Bobby

Looking over new town from Edinburgh Castle

The Royal Mile

Back from Edinburgh! I loved this city! Just like everyone had told, I had a lot of fun on this trip, even though I went alone! I arrived at the Edinburgh airport in the late afternoon and took the bus to the city center. Super easy! The double decker blue bus #100 runs every 10 minutes. It was about a 30 minute bus ride into the city center and I was in awe by the city itself, mostly by the sight of Edinburgh Castle once it came into view! A huge castle atop a hill right in the middle of the city! So awesome! haha

I made my way to my hostel called Smart City Hostels which was only a block from the Royal Mile, where most of the tourist stuff took place. I decided to pay a little extra and stay in a 4 bed room. My last stay at the 20 bed room in Belfast was pretty rough. This time there were only 2 other people in the room and we all shared our own bathroom and shower. It was a lot cleaner. Anyway, I unpacked what I wanted and headed out.

Soo awesome! Lots of cool architecture throughout the city! Though everything seemed modern I didn't see any new high rise structures like you'd see in other cities. Everything looked as if it were there for 100s of years! I thought it was pretty cool. I ended up walking around the Royal Mile and Princes Street where there was tons of shopping, but I wasn't really there to do that. I was recommended to do a ghost tour, so that evening I joined one. It was quiet interesting and soooorta spooky once we were taken to the city's underground vaults and they turned off the lights. I took a lot of random pics in the dark because of the stories our guide was telling us about. We were all hoping to get something paranormal in our pics, but I got nothing haha! I met an American on the tour that night and we ended up getting a few drinks at a bar called Maggie Dickson's. After we parted I called it a night fairly early. When I went back to my hostel, someone was sleeping in my bed! It was ok though. There were still 2 other beds open, so I just took another. Sorta random though!

The next day I took a 3 hour walking tour recommended by the American I had met. I learned a lot of Scottish history and though the tour itself was mostly Americans (at least from what I heard them speaking), it was still very interesting! After the tour I finally saw Edinburgh Castle! Pretty damn big! Right after I got in though, thunder struck and then it started to pour rain even though the weather up til then had been amazing. I finished up doing all the touristy castle stuff and headed out in the rain. I ran to a couple souvenir shops to get junk and went back to the hostel until the rain subsided a little. Once there was a break in the weather, I got dinner at The Filling Station which reminded me of a Chili's in California. Sorta sucked, but it was okay since I was eating alone. After that the night began!

My last night I just bar hopped, trying to meet people. I walked along Rose Street, near the shopping area on Princes/George Street. The first bar, called The Black Rose, was a sorta hipster crowd. Not my type. I grabbed a beer and left. It started to pour rain, so after walking around George Street I ran into the nearest bar I could find. I don't remember what it was called, but everyone was sitting at tables so it was hard to meet people at the bar. I grabbed a beer and left. Finally I decided to just walk back to the Grassmarket area I was in the night before. I went to a bar called The Last Drop where I met a couple of English guys who were in Edinburgh for a stag party (aka a bachelor's party). They were great guys and started bombarding me with American entertainment that they knew, and I couldn't keep up! The Sopranos, Rocky, Bruce Willis, Lost, Cowboys (NFL), Seinfeld... it was like a ping pong ball in their heads haha! Nonetheless, they were fun and I spent a few more hours with them. They would tell people I was "on my Jack Jones" meaning "on my own." Basically because it rhymed. You can check out the pics from that night on my Google Photos.

I called it quits before it got really late since I had to wake up pretty early to catch my flight. When I returned, I was the only person in the room which was nice! The next day I grabbed the #100 bus to the airport and I was out! So long Edinburgh!