We had a massive sleep in today, and by the time we woke up and got ready, we were running late. So we pretty much power-walked our way in to the city, which was not fun, with all those hills! We made it eventually, only 5 minutes late at 1:05pm, and were lucky enough to have not missed the tour! Our group were all there already, and were in a group of the NewEurope free walking tours. The guide, Andy, was giving a little introduction to the tour and we quickly slipped into the group. He took us around the old town of Edinburgh, past churches, parliament buildings, and statues. There are a lot of statues of people around the town, who had never even been to Edinburgh, and had nothing to do with the place! Apparently this is because Edinburgh was so pretentious back in the day, that they just put up statues of people they thought they were similar to.. Like Alexander the Great! We stopped for lunch in the grassmarket, which is a stretch of road with heaps of pubs on it, with a 'sidewalk' about as wide as a 3-lane highway. I got a veggie wrap from a cafe, and most of the others went to a little shop up the road called Oink, which was all pulled pork. Surprise surprise! They had the whole pig in the window too. Gross! After lunch we kept walking with Andy, and went through the Greyfriars graveyard, which was very old! Back when Edinburgh was a walled city, this was the only graveyard in the city, so everyone was buried here, stacked up in graves, especially during the Black Plague. Pretty much the entire graveyard is full of unmarked graves, with only the rich getting gravestones, which were mostly against the wall, and not necessarily marking the burial site of the person they referred to. There were lots of skull and crossbones sculptures around the place, which was to signify that you were walking on or passing unmarked graves. There was also a view from the back of the graveyard of an old school which JK Rowling based the idea for Hogwarts on, and it is said that a lot of her names came from the gravestones in this cemetery. We could see right next to the gate, one for a McGonagall, who was apparently a very well-known poet in Edinburgh. Well known for how bad his poems were... An example of his work: "In the field there was a cow It's not there now" That's it... And he used to apparently go into pubs and scream his poetry about how you shouldn't drink at the faces of the patrons until they left.. Even the poem on his gravestone was pretty bad... "I am your Gracious Majesty Ever faithful to thee William McGonagall, The Poor Poet That lives in Dundee" - 6th Sep 1877 Pretty funny. On the way out of the graveyard there is a gravestone dedicated to a dog, Bobby who used to belong to a minister at the church there, who died and was buried in the graveyard. The dog was only 2 years old when his owner died, and every day until the dog died at 14 years or something, he would go and sit by the place his owner was buried and wait for him to come back. Poor little dog! There was a life size statue of him and a pub dedicated to Greyfriars Bobby out the front of the cemetery too. He was a tiny little dog! About max-size! After the graveyard, we headed over to the new town, which was built at the bottom of the cliff. A mound was made with all the leftover rubble from building the new town and then paved over, so instead of a cliff, it was a steep hill instead, and was much more accessible. We finished the tour in a small courtyard where a lot of famous writers, including JK Rowling have spent time living and writing. After tipping Andy, our crew all followed him to the Royal Mile Tavern where we had a drink and shared some nachos with jalapeños! Yum! After that we said goodbye to the others and set off with Ash to the Festival Theatre, so we could get some tickets for the Edinburgh International Film Festival. After figuring out how to get tickets, we flicked through the brochure to find a screening that we would like to see that was on the next day, and booked one called "Shorts from Sweden: The Hidden Reverse". Then we headed back to the Royal Mile to try to find a ghost tour for that night. We saw a few booths, so we went to talk to one of the guys there who convinced us that his tour was great, and we'd even get a free shot at the end of it. So we booked our tickets for that before saying goodbye to Ash and heading back to the hostel. On the way back we bumped into Bec and Mark who were having a little cuddle on a bench at the Grassmarket, so we stopped for a chat. The others came back from whatever shop they'd been looking in, and we gave them the info for the ghost tour we were doing, then kept on our way. When we got back to the hostel, the boys went inside while I went for another walk to see if I could find a pair of leggings to wear with my shorts so I could wash my jeans! It was getting late, so almost all the shops were shut, but I found a supermarket and got a pair of tights. Better than nothing! Then I headed back to the hostel and we sorted out our washing, and I had a cuppa with Lyle while our phones were charging and Darren was snoozing. When we were all awake and ready to head out, we walked back into the city to the Abanach bar on the Royal Mile. We were the first ones there, so we grabbed a drink and ordered some food, and sat out the front. The rest of the crew met us there and got drinks with us. They had all (except Ash), just been for a walk up to Arthur's Seat, which is at the top of one of the mountains on the outskirts of the city, and while climbing some rocks there, V had ripped a massive ****** hole in his jeans! So he headed back to his hostel to change! Our food came out, and Darren's food was.... SOUP!! Oh no!!!! (For anyone who doesn't know, Darren doesn't eat soup, for some strange reason...) We had a look at the menu, and the item he ordered, Cullen Skink, didn't sound like it was a soup at all, so he went in to get it changed. They weren't very happy about it, but made him up a bruschetta instead. Apparently it's a pretty well known dish in Scotland, but from the menu it sounded like it was fish... Oh well! When it was time we crossed the road to where the ghost tour was starting and Ash was telling everyone how we were going to see a film called "Under The Swedish Pants"! Hilarious. So we were all making fun of her for it, and when the group all introduced ourselves, one of the guys was from Sweden. Which made it even funnier! Out tour guide was all dressed up in an old school corset type dress, with big messy hair and fake blood coming from her eyes. She took us around the streets telling us stories about tortures and murders and all that kind of gory stuff. We went into Greyfriars graveyard just as the sun was setting, and it was an eerie kind of twilight coming through all the trees. She showed up examples of how people would have been tortured for being witches, or committing crimes or anything, and how graves were often dug up by gravediggers to sell to the medical school, and how some of the torture devices would work, which she demonstrated on Ash (who has now lost both ears, an eye and been punched in the face and nailed in a coffin in all the different demonstrations she's volunteered for over the last few days!). After we left the graveyard, where I got a few creepy photos, she led us to the vaults underneath Edinburgh. It was kind of creepy walking down into the vaults under the city, but the atmosphere under there was kind of ruined by the large plastic sheets that lined the ceiling and walls, which apparently stopped people from getting dripped on.. They looked tacky and added a more modern feel to the place, which cancelled out the creepiness... That kinda sucked. But when we walked right up to the end of the vaults, where the plastic finished, it was a bit creepier! We heard all the horror stories of tortures that had happened down there, and a few methods they used to prove if you were a witch or not. Pretty horrible stories! And they were all true! Damn humans! After we left the vaults, we headed up the street to a pub, which she claimed was the most haunted pub in Edinburgh, which seemed a little whatever... But we got our free shot of baileys or something I think it was, then we all headed off. Ash went home, and the rest of us went back to Whistle Binkies. We stayed outside with Victoria and Mary before going in, and they all got a pizza to share. We went into the pub, and sat at the table with the rest of the crew. Most of us were on the waters at this stage, and everyone seemed a little flat, after so many days of partying in a row, so we weren't there long! We said our final goodbyes to everyone, then made the big walk back and went to bed.