Captains log 19/07/13 come at me Edinburgh! It was time to get our tourist on! We woke up so early to start our action pack day of historical Scottish things. Still a little bit upset that we couldn't make it to Loch Ness and glen co I wasn't going to miss out on the castle and Aurthers seat. We get the bus into town, buses in Scotland are super easy once you've got your head around it, they run all day and night mostly one every 15/20 minutes, and are only a £1.50 so it's cheap travel. Bella has been bugging me the whole time to go into this cafe called "milk" in which the interwebs told her it had the best porridge in town. We trekked off and found it, a very small 10 seater arty cafe that likely main focus is take away and there fresh home made sandwiches and salads. We settle in, it feels very Perth-ish to be honest. I ordered a berchal musli and Bella ordered a mushroom and rosemary bruitto and finally a place that sells "flat white" coffees, oh what a relief. The coffee is likely the best one we have had to date and realize that Australia has amazing coffee and we should never complain. The musli was amazing and a good cleanse to my holiday damage body! Bella raved about her bruitto for ages, she was so impressed by it. Trust me for ages I heard about her selection skills. We finished up and got the local bus up to the castle, lucky we got advise to prebook our tickets before hand so there was no wait just walk though. The castle sadly is not the classic looking 4 defensive towers that you see the movies and games but a gigantic would be maze for incoming attackers. It's on the top of a huge flat hill in the center of Edinburgh and has a prefect 360 degree view of everything. It's Also extremely big
And the covered with a scary arsenal of cannons. Ok so we start doing our thing and wondering around the castle, they have quite a few museums and displays in modern rooms of the castle and then a few authentic rooms, and of course the Scottish Crown Jewels. The most interesting thing I found out about the castle was that during world war 2, with the threat of an invasion on British soil becoming a higher chance they buried the Crown Jewels inside a wall in the castle. The sword and septor in the "black dinner" room and the crown underneath a old toilet. Only 4 people new about the location, The king of England, the kings main advisor, the Governor General for Scotland, and the prime minster for Canada. Smartly enough thinking Canada was far enough away, if the first 3 were caught or killed there was still one more person that could bring them back. So the jewels themselves are quite basic, but seeing as they've been under English control for so long I didn't expect anything different. However there still beautiful and still amazing, the sword is a sight for sure. After more wondering though modern and medieval Scottish war history it was edging closer to 1pm, the time they fire the cannon. So we committed and grabbed a ginger beer and a cider and enjoyed the sun. Sure enough 10 to 1 out comes a Scottish military soldier and she preps the cannon. There's a large crowd around however Bella and I are very close to the front. On the dot fires the cannon, a very large bang and a nice puff of smoke. It was quite a site. She stayed around for photos and Bella was lucky enough to get one with her! We then started our journey down the royal mile to try find some good old fashion fish and chips at a pub, and hopefully catch some cricket. Sadly golf is the only sport in Scotland. It sickens me, every pub, every corner store, the big screen in the city. What is wrong with these people. The ashes are on and your watching some s***ty US tournament it broke me. We walked up and down but no where had it on so we settled for a pub near the palace. I'm not sure where I messed up here, but British fish and chips is s***. Like straight up bad. I would rather have fishy fish in Wellard anyday, and it doesn't take a 23 hour plane ride to get it. It's like 500% over cooked batter and s***ty frozen fish. I don't know what all the fuse is about. We had a dirty dark beer, always saying a little phrase I learnt from a local when ordering "I want something cold, something dark, and something f***ing delicious" hehe! We walked down to the queens holiday palace, and the bath house of queen Mary but it was very expensive to go in, so we skipped it. We set our sites for Aurthers seat. The largest hill in Edinburgh over looking the whole city and the river and sea that comes into sight. Ok so it looks high and the walk seems painful but we commit, an it's really worth it. I think after this trip when I hit the gym I'm going to surprise myself! It's long and it's rocky and uneven and you take a snake like path up to the top, in the boiling heat and with no water it took a toll on us. Bella many times wanted to quick but I just put the head down and kept going. When we got to the top the views are amazing, it's so beautiful up there and in Edinburgh in general. I would love to come back here. After lots of selfies and getting our breathe back we started our climb down. It was at that moment when it hit me, I've been out for almost 12 hours in the sun with no sunscreen on. It was like a hot flush came over me, and I just started to hurt all over. I don't know how, but going though Spain, and Italy and the Greek isles I didn't get touched by the sun, but spend 3 days in Scotland and I get cooked. Worst of all we have a 10 hour bus ride tomorrow I need to deal with, hmm sigh. I haven't been that burnt in 5 years and I was hurting. We got home and I had an ice cold shower and changed cloths. I looked like someone played a prank on me and painted my arms, face and neck red in my sleep. Silly. We had a cheap dinner this night because we had such an early start just some dirty packet noodles and a few beers. A few episodes of dragon ball z and we were fast asleep! London tomorrow!