Edinburgh T-1

Upon arriving in Edinburgh on 6/10, Jonathan and I first found our hostel (with impressive ease, I must add). Though my primary source of information for this leg was the very biased Allie M., Edinburgh was at least as beautiful as promised. Between the train station and our hostel by the Edinburgh Castle we were able to walk through the much famed Royal Mile (like measuring distances?). We dumped our bags at the Castle Rock Hostel (A for effort!) and took the bread and cheese purchased in Penrith, England down to Meadow Park for chow time!

We were very hungry boys, but I could not help but notice four semi-inept foreign folks playing soccer on the beautifully kept lawn near us. After devouring the now familiar cheese and bread combo, Jonathan gave me explicit permission to go play with them, so I did.

Adrian + two Brazilians versus two Spanish. I'd like to modify the record of this game to mention that one Brazilian was fat and the other could not play soccer well because he was obsessed with doing these little handstands. Very strange. The game highlight was a nutmeg I pulled off on the Spaniard with the one foot rat-tail haircut. It made him grumpy and me happy.

Jonathan and I then trekked through three of our tourbook's walking tours - the old Edinburgh University campus (now the law school), the Surgeons Museum, the Museum of Scotland (someone didn't feel like playing me in a life-size game of chess!), the Royal Mile, and Parliament. A solid speed tour.

We then returned to the hostel, intending to meet one Juan Lamata. The kid was a no show. We should have known. After a fair bit of conferencing, we decided to forget about him and go for dinner and a drink. At the hostel's recommendation, we went down to The Last Drop, a pub in the square where the last Scottish public execution went down. I had bangers and mash and Jonathan the "minced and tatties". Mediocrity exemplified. More disturbing still, the beer was on the same scale as the English (ABV UK = 1/2 ABV USA). A couple drinks and the sad dinner (you'd think we'd stop eating pub food by now!) and we were off to explore more of town. We navigated to the newer part of the city and ascended Colton Hill where we got a simply marvelous view of the old area of the city across a narrow valley (home of the train station).

Colton Hill is a funny little thing. There are very old looking monuments that have been constructed relatively recently to celebrate Scottish achievements. My favorite is a Parthenon looking structure that is for Scottish soldiers who died fighting Napoleon. You can't argue with the sentiment, but the actual structure is a rather strange choice, no?

As we sat down for a sip of scotch at Deacon Brodie's, we get a call from Juan saying that he made it! Relief all around. Deacon Brodie's leads to a weird rock pub with a drummer who looks like Shaun White. Shockingly, most bars seem to close around midnight. Ummm, whats going on here? I'll tell you what: bed (only after watching Juan jam with some Swede named Anders).

Sleep was less than easy. Our room is for eight, and though we hit the sheets around two, the marching band (or something like it) arrived at 4. Dreadful. There was also a mega-snore person. Fingers crossed for this being a one-time gig!

Conclusion: Edinburgh is awesome. Juan and Jonathan are awesome. Scotch can be awesome.