Backpacking the UK: A Guide to Edinburgh, Scotland

After being semi-unwillingly sidetracked in Stratford-upon-Avon, I boarded a bus for Edinburgh. It was a long trip. I had been planning to travel up to Orkney, but after the long trip to Edinburgh and having only a few days left, I decided against spending more of my precious vacation time on a bus. I decided to spend the remainder of my time in Edinburgh until I had to go back to London.

When I arrived at the bus station in Edinburgh it was very late in the day and I was exhausted and ready to hit a bed at the hostel. I walked down to Princes Street first and ate at the Burger King there. By the way, eating at fast food establishments can save you a lot of money. I know it's not as cool as eating at pubs, but if you're on a limited budget it can save you money and then you can use the money that you save for souvenirs or tours.

It was a long walk to the hostel which was far from the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is the heart of the city of Edinburgh. I thought about staying at a hostel near the city center, but my sister who was with me for a portion of the trip talked me into staying at the Belford hostel because she had stayed there previously. It was about two miles from the city center. I'm sure she'll say I'm still complaining about it. I really did like the hostel in and of itself, but it was too far away for my liking. I saw two other hostels while I was there, one on Princes Street and the other right on the Royal Mile. I think the one on the Royal Mile would be best because it's in the center of everything.

The Belford is an old church that was converted into a hostel. The rooms are divided by walls, but there are no ceilings, instead they open up to the church's high cathedral-like ceiling. Downstairs is a kitchen, a television room and another room that has a bar and a pool table. They ask that you be quiet at all hours in the main portion of the church where all the sleeping areas are, because you can hear people in other rooms and it echoes terribly.

I went to bed early and got up early. That far north in the summer the sun doesn't set until really late, about ten or so, and rises really early, at about four in the morning. It looked as if it might rain as my sister and I set off for the Royal Mile. About half way there, it started raining steadily. Up to this point I had gotten along fine with a rain coat, because in southern England it just mists and so you never get really wet, just damp. However, I was drenched from where the coat met my legs, down to my shoes, in a matter of ten minutes. I stopped at the tourist information station and bought an umbrella with a Scottish plaid pattern on it for only £4. I was glad I waited because a plain black umbrella in Boots Pharmacy was £11, which is about $22! Of course, right after I bought the umbrella it stopped raining.

The first thing we did was walk up the Royal Mile to the medieval castle that overlooks the city of Edinburgh. It's perched on the side of a cliff and it has a fantastic view. We took each other's pictures on the battlements while posing next to the cannons. There is quite a bit to see at the castle. In addition to the castle itself, there is a chapel and you can watch the guards march back and forth. There is also a gift shop of course.

On our way out of the castle gates, we came across a guy raising money to help leukemia victims. He was dressed like Braveheart and had a fake bloody head in a bucket. My sister got her picture taken with him and we dropped some money in his collection tin. We then walked down to the bottom of the Royal Mile to the house, and I use that term loosely, where the Queen stays when she's in Edinburgh. As you can imagine, it was quite a house, I suppose a better term would be mansion, but even that doesn't quite capture the size of it. From here we could see Arthur's Seat, which my sister referred to as a hill, but is practically a mountain where there are supposedly ruins. My sister said she wanted to climb it but I declined. She decided to do it after I left for London, since she was staying in Edinburgh longer than I was.

That night we went to Deacon Brodie's tavern. The tavern was the inspiration for the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. My sister also tried to talk me into eating haggis, which for those of you who don't know is sheep's gut. I said that I would until I saw what it looked like. If it had looked like regular meat, I might have gone for it, but it looked more like brains than anything else. I just couldn't bring myself to eat it.

After we had eaten we caught a tour of underground Edinburgh. It's a ghost tour. They take you under the city into some chambers. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it didn't really live up to my expectations. I suppose I was imagining the catacombs of Rome or something, but these were just like a really old brick cellar. However, I'd do it again if I went back though, because the overall tour was really good. The girl who was leading the tour was great and came to lead the tour dressed in a black cloak. After we left the underground chambers, we walked down the Royal Mile to a cemetery where the guide told us more ghost stories.

It was dark by the time we were through with the tour and we walked hurriedly back to our hostel. On the way there were a handful of homeless people who were trying to bum money off of us. I felt bad for them, but we didn't' have any money to spare, so we just kept walking. After we turned off Princes Street, there were no more homeless people. Out toward the hostel it's very residential and you would need a map to find it. We made it back and I collapsed into my bed exhausted from having walked at least ten miles that day.

The next morning I woke up with a terrible ear ache, probably from being drenched the day before. I decided to spend the day in the hostel instead of risk getting sick and ruining the rest of my vacation. By this part of the trip I seriously needed a day to rest anyway. I had traveled all the way from London and seen things non-stop for nearly two weeks. My sister went off without me to explore more of Edinburgh and I finally broke down and went to Boots looking for something to ease the pain in my ear.

The pharmacist was absolutely no help. She told me I needed to see a doctor. I guess she completely missed my American accent, as I really couldn't afford to see a doctor nor would I know where to find one. I settled on some Advil and went back to the hostel to watch TV and read from their pile of donated books. They had a sort of exchange system going with the books. You could take one with you if you wanted or leave one. I didn't take one but instead just read while I was there.

After a full day's rest I felt completely better, and was happy to see that I wasn't coming down with a cold or the flu. When I woke up the next morning I was happy that I felt better and as I lay there in the dim light of the dawn, I was trying to figure out what we should do and see that day. After a while, I noticed that one of the other occupants of the room, who was sprawled across the bunk to the left of me, that there was something not quite right about him. I blinked my eyes a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things in the dim light and then I realized that I wasn't seeing things, but rather seeing something all right. He was buck naked! I turned over to face the wall and decided to pretend that I hadn't seen a thing. After a long while I was ready to get up and I peeked to see if he was still uncovered. Luckily he had pulled his blanket over himself. I know it's probably silly, but I didn't want to get up and get dressed as long as he was just lying there like that. What a thing to wake up to! My sister was sleeping heavily in a bunk across the room and I got dressed quickly and left, not wanting to witness the naked guy getting out of bed or throwing the blanket back off of himself again.

I went down stairs and fixed myself some breakfast in the kitchen. This particular hostel had a full kitchen with dishes and utensils so that you could buy your food and keep it in their fridge and cook it with no problem. This is another really good way of saving money. Not far from the hostel, on the way to Princes Street, was a little store that sold fruits and other assorted things. We bought orange juice and bananas from there more than once, and it was cheap.

Later in the morning my sister finally woke up and we decided to go to the National Gallery. The National Gallery is located off of Princes Street and they have works of art by famous people, such as William Hogarth. His six piece series entitled Marriage ala Mode hangs in the museum there.

After we left the museum we went shopping on Princes Street and I bought a small backpack to put my souvenirs in. The lady in the store must have thought we were suspicious because she followed us around and then seemed surprised when I dished out £13 for a backpack. My main pack was completely full by now and it really wasn't that big anyway. We also stopped in the Internet café that is on a street that is on the other side of Princes Street from the Royal Mile. I think it was Rose Street, but I'm not entirely sure. It was actually more of an alley than anything. Internet cafés are a great way of saving money while still being able to contact your family. Pay phones are abhorrently expensive and if you call the States you'll find yourself continuously dropping pound coins into them roughly every minute or so. Internet cafés run about a pound for twenty minutes of internet usage at peak time. However, if you are willing to go late at night you can get up to four hours for a pound.

The next day I said goodbye to my sister and checked out of the hostel. I had to catch a bus to York so that I could work my way back to London. I had three days to get back there and I wanted to spend the last day in London because I realized that I had missed seeing some things there. I decided that I was sick and tired of walking so I called for a cab to come to the hostel and pick me up. Everything they say about cabbies in the UK is completely true. The guy drove like a maniac and I was thrown all over the back of the cab. Luckily it was a short ride, so I was there in no time flat and with no bruises. The cab was also fairly cheap and considering how sore my feet were, it was well worth the cost.