Two Plain Pies and an Onion One as Well

Oh my gosh! I totally love Edinburgh! I want to be Scottish! And poo to anyone who says that England and Scotland are really one country as they must either:

(a) Be lying; or
(b) They never actually visited England and Scotland.

The cool Scottish folk here make their English brethren seem dreadfully dull and dumpy. (No offence to anyone English) After the long drawn, bleak faces of London it's so incredibly lovely to be greeted by great big Scottish smiles and warm welcomes wherever you go. Oh and yesterday there were people wandering around in kilts! Yes that's right! Even though it's crazily cold here people still worn their traditional get up and wandered around bare legs and all! (I was informed that was actually just because there was a Scottish football match on but it was still so much fun to see!) I sat in a bar till the wee hours of the morning yesterday with Alex (a California roomie of mine in the Edinburgh hostel) and two Scottish guys (and a South African) who were trying to teach us to talk like true Scots. Apparently the phrase to master is 'Two plain pies and an onion one as well'. But I admit defeat because to me it just sounds like 'Ta pley pays anda ling-a-ning-a-long'. However they did give Alex a Scottish scarf and I a Scottish flag for my efforts!

Oh and the topography of the land here is just so unique. Edinburgh is set into really hilly land so the streets here are decidedly bizarre. Some of the streets (called Closes) really look more like private house accesses than public roadway. They are either a claustrophobic gully created by the tall buildings on either side or just a steep and narrow flight of steps. The most amazing thing is that these Closes don't just exist above ground but also underground and (for a small fee) you can descend into the subterranean maze (with a dressed up guide) and have a glimpse at how bleak it must have been to live in this warren in medieval times.

Today I also climbed Arthur's Seat. No, not the one of the Mornington Pennisula but the big 250m peak that would formed by a volcano in the heart of Edinburgh. It was a tough climb, and no I'm not just saying that because I'm fragile. The road up is very steep and the wind is so blustery it feels as if it might sweep you right off the hill. I also took a wrong turn at one point and ended up facing the choice of backtracking a good 10 minutes or trying to scale a 60ºb incline. I chose the incline and had to do the climb on all fours. It made me feel like I was in the Highlands. At this point I thought about the true Scot who would be making the climb in a kilt and decided that the Scottish are truly mad. And then I saw a bunch of young laddies (I think they were Spanish) run up the craggy hill screaming 'WILLIAM WALLACE!' at the top of their lung (undoubtably the only Scot they actually know of) and promptly realised that no, it's all homo sapiens that are crazy.

Oh and it has come to my attention that my blog template is a little funny, so if you can't see a link in the top left hand corner that says PHOTO GALLERY in big letters scroll down the page and you should see it near the bottom. :p