"Kein Stern leuchtet schöner als die Lichter der Straßen von Edinburgh.”

 

“There are no stars so lovely as Edinburgh street-lamps.”

 

 

Peter and I met each other in Bremen and joined some events before we reached our celebration maximum in a Karaoke bar. But we had a Karaoke disaster. Before we could become famous and show our sing talents another guy performed our chosen song . But stars never give up. We performed it without a microphone. We performed it well. We performed it superlicious. I do not overestimate if I proclaim: it was legend….dary.

But nobody could hear it.

 

The same procedure. As like a week ago I slept at the airport of Bremen. The seats are kind of comfortable and we just had to spend a few hours in the concourse before our departure.

As usual I traveled without a plan. Even the destination Edinburgh was a suprise. I searched for somebody to join me to somewhere I did not know by this time. My fortune was with me. In Peter I found a very easy going companion. Maybe to easy going because he also did not care about the destination so much. 

After doing some research I found a cheap flight. Scotland always interested me. Influenced by the movie "Bravehearrt" and all the pictures of old castles in the heart of nature. Woods, gren grass, rain. All this coinstructed a nice image about this country. Moreover the plane tickets where pretty cheap and we booked immediately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neither a map nor a plan accompany us on our city trip. I already was fascinated by the old houses around me but as I entered Old Town I was astonished about the medieval gorgeousness. 

Starting as a hillfort it grow under Celtic and Germanic influence. Afterbecaming the Scotish capital city it never lost its importance for the citizens and fight for independence. "Old Town" became to small and it seemed to be easier to live more south-west. Therefore they founded "New Town" in 1770 and the the professional and business classes gradually deserted. Edinburgh grow but did not change its face. The Scotland Act of 1998 established a devolved Scottish Government. They are responsible for governing Scotland. London still  governs and has the responsibility over issues such as defence, taxation and foreign affairs.

Without an impact of the european wars the medieval look conserved. New town is spectacular enough but if you walk up the hill and enter the oldest parts of Edinburgh you will be amazed. The huge stone bricks everywhere give a feeling of walking in a castle city and anytime an enemy will attack with catapult and cavalry. As a highlight I saw a guy with a bagpipe and he played the song which would be the Scottish national hymne if they would have their independence.

 

As a member of Couchsurfing I organized company and a place to sleep for the first night. We did not sleep a lot and stayed longer than one night. The girls where fun to have around. We searched for some wine and food and ended up in the last-opening party of a bar in the Meadows. The Meadows are a gorgeous expanse of common greenspace in the center of old Edinburgh. I always enjoyed to walk through it. A great mix of vast open spaces lined with lush trees. Another night we joined the girls to the celebration of the Guy Fawkes Night. Guy Fawke was one member of a group of provincial Catholics who tied to assasinate the Protestant King James I of England and VI of Scotland  to replace him by a catholic head of state. His name became importance cause he was the person resposible of lighting the fuse to explosives to blow up the House of Lords on 5 November 1605. James's Council allowed the public to celebrate the king's survival with bonfires. We climbed up the nearby mountain to have a great view of the whole event. We had a lot fun but I saw no firework this day. It happened on the other side of the mountain. The peope explained me what they were celebrating. "A guy wanted to blow up the House of Lords. He missed and the English cewlebrate the Kings survival. We celebrate that at least one tried to blow up that crap." Guy Fawkes is sometimes toasted as "the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions."

 

Everybody should visit Edinburgh in Autumn or Spring. I guess it’ll be a bit overcrowded in summer. We were more than lucky with the weather conditions. Sunbathing in November and that in Scotland. We walked a lot and experienced Edinburgh without having a plan where to go. As you walk in Edinburgh this is what you need:

 

• comfortable shoes

• hard-drinking ability - Bar, bar, bar/club, bar. Oh another bar.

• Rainsuit if normal Scottish weather appears. Apparently we had luck in November

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Edinburgh has some nice University buildings. The best is the Teviot Row House, a student place to hang around and eat cheap and good. It consist a restaurant, pool table, games etc. The highlight is the pub area in the basement with a huge screen to show football. 

 

They sell fried Snikers bars. I was told just tourists eat this torture to the human body but it is still a Edinburgh thing and bewildering.

 

The Meadows are a gorgeous place to hang around, relax, lay sports or join an event.

 

I never read a book of Harry Potters adventures but for fans: In Edinburgh is the cafe in which the first book were written. I was told that a lot of the places in the book base on the surroundings of Old Town.

 

Geerk architecture? I do not know if this fits in a medieval environment. The National Monument of Scotland, on Calton Hill, is Scotland's national memorial to the Scottish soldiers and sailorswho died fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. It should be as impressive as the Parthenon in Athens but the construction ended unfinished due to the lack of funds. This circumstance gave rise to various nicknames such as "Scotland's Disgrace", "Edinburgh's Disgrace", "the Pride and Poverty of Scotland" and "Edinburgh's Folly". Maybe not the best way to honor dead soldiers.

 

The Royal mile leads through Old Town like a straight line from the Edinburgh Castle to the Scottish Parliament.

 

The Heart of Midlothian is a large heart shaped picked out in the stones of the Royal Mile outside of Saint Giles Cathedral. You might be surprised by the apparent lack of respect shown by passing locals. While you are looking at the Cathedral and Duke of Buccleuch statue, someone probably spits on the heart shaped stones as they pass by. Because of the building's unpleasant associations of old times as a tax house and unhuman prison it naturally became a very unpopular place. To show their contempt for authority, taxes, prisons and the gallows the people of Edinburgh started to spit on the ground outside the there places Tollbooth whenever they passed. Not just locals do it. Tourists join the spitting, so did I.

 

Bars. Edinburgh is supposed to have the most amount of bars in Europe. As I wanted to enter one named "lulu" I was rejected the first time in my life. Peter and I looked to casual. We went to another bar, there are enough of them.

 

Where are the Scottish. In all these days I met 2 Scots! 

 

Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier who spend 14 years guarding the grave of his owner until he died himself in loyalty and devotion. His statue is close to the cafe there the first book of Harry Potter was partly written.