This weekend I travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland. We left Friday and stayed until Sunday morning. Upon our departure on Friday, I had no idea what I was getting into. This city will be one of the places that I return to in the future. What is so great about Edinburgh is the atmosphere. It is a nice sized city but is managable. The traffic isn't as hectic as London so you don't worry about getting run over all the time.
While in Scotland I visited three main historic places. I went to Edinburgh Castle which holds the "Crown Jewels" of Scotland. This castle is so wonderful and the history within its walls is immense. I also visited Si Walter Scotts memorial and I actually climbed up to the top with a friend. I think it stands at about 500 feet or something. It was high enough to get a great view of the city. Although the climb up the stairs was... nothing short of interesting especially if you are 6' 3''.
Friday evening the lot of us did the City of the Dead tour which was a historically based tour of Edinburghs most historically deadly sites. Edinburgh is supposedly one of the worlds most paranormally active cities on the planet. We saw the sights of where they would hang people and where the city put their mass graves. We even went through a graveyard that is actively "haunted" by Mackenzies ghost. The story in a nut shell is that Scotland and England had this epic battle for Scots rights. Well the Scots lost horrifically, so the English marched them back to Edinburgh. Upon the English arrival in the city, the captured Scotish warriors had to round up their entire families and present them to the English military. All who were kin to the warriors were subject to the most horrific punishment I've ever heard. The captured Scots and their families were sentenced to 5 months lying face down during the heart of what happened to be the worse winter on record. During the tour we were stopped on the grounds where the punishment happened. At the end of the punishment, those who survived were let go. But this Mackenzie guy wanted the punishment to continue. Because of his adament desire for the carnage to continue, when he died, they buried him just outside of the punishment area. And it is said because of his angry spirit in life, the Mackenzie poltergeist is still active today. People who have gone on this tour have been subject to shock and seizures and random pains after having been in this graveyard...creepy.
Nevertheless, it as super fun. Right by out hostel on Cockburn St. there was a pub that had a live duet with fiddle and guitar with the two guys singing. They played traditional scotland songs and some pop stuff as well (with a lovely rendition of Come on Ilene). Saturday night I watched the England v South Africa Rugby match and went to this pub. It was truly a Scottish night. I felt totally Scottish... Saturday night, I was a Scot.
Sunday morning, after a late night, I decided to go to Church at St. Andrews Church. St. Andrew is the patron Saint of Scotland and the central church of the Church of Scotland. I took communion and was unofficially welcomed into the body of Christ as a true Scot!
All in all, I'm going back and nothing is stopping me.
O flower of Scotland
When will we see
Your like again
That fought and died for
Your wee bit hill and glen
And stood against him
Proud Edward's army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again
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