What a day! I woke up somewhat early today because I knew I had so much more to do before leaving on Friday. I started with a trip to a local vintage shop – it was absolutely crazy full of all sorts of things. I ended up buying myself a cashmere sweater for a quarter of what it would have cost on the Royal Mile and a pair of denim leggings – I really needed another pair of jeans. My next stop was actually the Royal Mile to buy some souvenirs for the family and I learned all about how to get the tax I spent back. Yay! Stopped back at the hostel for some lunch and it was no longer rainy and even looked like it might get sunny later so I took that 3 hour walking tour. It was loads of fun and I learned a ton! Like how when thieves were caught stealing in the market they were nailed to the central announcement thing by their ear. Then they had the choice of being stuck there by the ear for a full day while people threw things like rotten food and chamber pot contents at them or they could rip their ear off. It they did that though, they’d leave an awful scar and employers wouldn’t hire them because not only were they thieves but also cowards. This is where the expression “ripping someone off” comes from. The expression ‘poop’-faced also comes from Edinburgh from the time when there was no indoor plumbing. The city had thousands of inhabitants that would empty their chamber pots onto the street. They were only allowed to dump, however, at 7am and 10pm so that people knew not to be on the streets at this time. Unfortunately for the drunks in the town, the bars also closed at 10pm. So they would stumble home and hear the cries of the people about to dump the pots ‘guard ey loo’ (garbled French for ‘Regardez-l'eau’) and drunk, wondering why they were hearing French in their city they would look up, and well, you get the idea. I also heard the story of the “Stone of Destiny” but I have a book on it and if you want to read more about it and the group of students that stole it back from the English in 1950, you can borrow it sometime. Our guide also explained the history of the statue next to St. Giles Cathedral.
Apparently, Charles the IIV of Scotland and the II of England wanted to be more well liked than his father (who was in fact beheaded), commissioned a statue to be placed in front of Edinburgh’s House of Parliament. When the lead statue was revealed however, the Scots started laughing. The King was dressed in the costume of the Roman gladiators (who had never made it this far north) and riding a disproportionately small horse. The Scots thought it looked like their king was going to a fancy dress party riding a donkey. To promote better feeling among the people, the Parliament decided to hold a parade once a year and let the boys from a local school ‘crown the king’ with an iron crown. Every year one boy would get to clamber up the statue and crown the king. Sadly, the iron crown, wielded by an enthusiastic little boy, set on a lead statue, eventually put holes in the top of the King’s head and the statue started to fill with water. The soft, thin, lead legs of the horse couldn’t support all of this weight and the horse started to tip, which only made people laugh harder because now it looked like their King was going to a fancy dress party, riding a donkey, who was drunk.
Parliament was pulling its hair out by this point, watching from the windows as people laughed at the King. So they hired an engineer to fix the problem. The engineer figured the easiest way to get the water out and keep it draining out was to put a hole in the bottom. The spot he chose to place the hole was most unfortunately located in the back of the horse. You can guess what happened. Every time it rained people would come from miles and miles away to see the statue of their King going to a fancy dress party, riding a donkey, who happened to be drunk, and relieving itself. At this point, Parliament had had enough. They put up privacy boards all around the statue so that you could only see the head of the king and people could no longer laugh. Since this time the statue has been repaired and no longer leans or pees.
After the tour I walked for a bit around the Prince’s Street Gardens and saw the floral clock (the oldest floral clock and it actually does work and tells the time). I then popped back into the hostel to grab my dinner before walking to the post office to make sure I could find it the next day. I ran into that same bus security officer and he walked me down the hill and pointed me in the right direction of Arthur’s Seat. I figured that because it was the first time I had seen sun here, I should take advantage and climb the hill. The first thing I saw that I thought was Arthur’s Seat was in fact, only Salisbury Craig. Arthur’s Seat was taller and behind it. And my, was it taller. It took me a bit to climb it and it was so windy I was occasionally concerned that I would be knocked over the side. It was very very cold and windy up at the top, but such stunning views! Coming back down was just as much an adventure, as it was so very steep that you couldn’t see much more than 3 feet in front of you at points. This made it very difficult to find the path and you often had to start down a path and if it was wrong, go back and start a different way. I went down a different direction than I came up and made it all the way down to the almost completely flat part before I didn’t see a little gopher (or whatever little burrowing animal they have here) hole and promptly fell and rolled my ankle. It wasn’t too bad a sprain and I made it back to the hostel around 9:30.
I poured myself a bit of hot chocolate and was about to come upstairs when I saw an older guy (probably mid-forties or so) working on a model plane. I learned his name was Paul and he actually lives at the hostel. The hostel has about 150 beds and about 60 of them are for full time residents. Paul’s friend Scott came over and it was strange because he was another blue-eyed ginger from the States – he lives in Texas. He’s finishing his post-grad work here in film studies and for the next hour and a half or so the three of us had a lovely chat. I have to admit, I have met some really nice people during my stays at the hostels. I have also learned that if there is a free tour available, take it as close to the first day as you can as the tour guides will often point out all the free stuff there is to do in town. Also, make good use of the people at the hostels. The lovely folks at the front desk have told me which tours are good, hooked me up with reservations for extended tours (even though they say they’re full up online – always check by phone), told me where to find the best shopping and cheapest food, and told me where to find things like the local grocery, laundry, and post. Make friends with the reception staff! Also, if you happen to be traveling, look for places with 24-hour reception. They are super convenient.
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