Edinburgh!

I made it!

An attempt to arrive at the airport very tired to adjust my body clock was proven successful as I headbobbed for a few hours waiting for my delayed flight to Scotland. I was sleep deprived enough to sleep almost all of my flight with my mouth hanging wide open, to the jealousy of the large English woman seated next to me. Arriving in Glasgow at 7:30am local time, 12:30am Calgary time I convinced myself it was indeed morning and caught a shuttle to the bus station. After getting off at the wrong stop (Buchanan Galleries is not the Buchanan Bus Station.. but said by an automated Scottish woman they do sound the same) I wandered around until finally stumbling upon the bus station.

Clock Statue outside the Buchanan Bus Station in Glasgow

I tried to stay awake and take in the views of the Scottish countryside on the bus, but being tired combined with my tendencies to fall asleep on any moving vehicle resulted in my passing out for the entirety of the ride. Getting off the bus in Edinburgh I followed Gillian's specific instructions to find St. Andrews Square where I could get a taxi to her flat, but somehow I ended up exiting the bus station from a different door, which allowed me to get completely lost and I got to walk around looking like a typical confused tourist. I was in awe of the architecture and the never ending tenements on each street and my photo snapping did nothing to help my poor tourist look. However, Edinburgh in August is full of tourists here for the Fringe Festival so I didn't feel completely out of place.

York Place

After dropping my stuff in Gillian's flat, we hopped ourselves up on coffee and did a walking tour of the city. Since the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is on, the city is pretty busy and we were given pamphlets for different shows every few steps, there's all these painted people standing around and lots of traditionally dressed Scottish men playing bagpipes. 

The Royal Mile

Bagpipe Player

We then visited the Edinburgh Castle, which is somewhat less attractive due to the stadium set up for the Scottish Tattoo, but still a wicked castle nonetheless.

Edinburgh Castle

A walk up to Calton Hill left me feeling out of shape and lazy, but the views were amazing, and the statues were equally awesome. The National Monument, constructed as a memorial for those who died in the Napoleonic War was my favourite of the bunch. It is meant to be a replica of the Parthenon, but funding never came through, and the monument was never finished.

The National Monument

The views of the city from up here were pretty sweet.. I couldn't get over how many nice buildings there are in this city.

North Bridge

After being touristy we hit up Pound Land, which is much less gangsta than I would have hoped, and bought cheap food and household goods. We made our way back to the flat and I met Gillian's 'flatmates' James and Rory.

Overall, first day in Edinburgh was absolutely fantastic. I love Scottish accents, cool buildings, statues and double decker buses. It is just as I imagined it would be.

Typical Edinburgh