Edinburgh

The day after the cold and rainy walking tour proved to be much nicer. The sun was shining and it was a perfect day to go see the castle. It was the first real castle that I had ever seen and it was in really good shape because it still functions as a military base. It was really easy to imagine what it would have been like to live there and fight there. The Australians and I even talked about what it would be like if cannon balls were flying at the rocky face of the castle. Although this is probably because we saw the one o'clock gun. This is a cannon that they fire every day at one o'clock. Back in the day, they used to fire this gun at 1 to let the sailors know what time it was and when they should set sail. The reason it is at 1 and not at 12 noon is because the Scottish people wanted to save 11 bullets :). If they fired at 12 they'd have to fire 12 shots, not 1.

After the castle we went to the underground city. Apparently Edinburgh is built right on top of the old city. We saw old houses and streets that were buried under ground.

We ended the night by going on a Ghost Tour. Edinburgh is a particularly haunted place because the people were very superstitious during the Black Plague. There are also stories of cannibalism and a long history of suicide... Because of all of these things, the guides are able to put together a very spooky tour. My favorite part of the tour was the grave yard. There was a tombstone with a very scary face pictured. This is particularly weird when one considers that it is the natural coloration of the stone, not man made. We were then brought to the most haunted place in Edinburgh, the corner of the graveyard under the old prison. We snapped some photos and my friend caught some unexplainable glowing lights. I still don't believe in ghosts, but that didn't stop me from going back after the tour with the Australians to spook ourselves out. We went at about 2 in the morning... Very scary haha. One of the guys had a good camera which we used to create our own ghostly figures by leaving the exposure lens open for many seconds and walking in and then out of the frame.

The following day I spent a few hours in St. Andrews, which was unfortunately not enough time, but it was really beautiful along the coast! I visited the Mecca of golf and am pretty happy about that.

Today I am off to The Netherlands and then Berlin a few days later :)