Although we were only in Edinburgh for 3 full days, I felt like it was enough time to see all of the city. It is pretty small and divided into two towns: old town and new town. The castle is on a giant hill and can be seen from many different points in the city. Leading up to the castle is a ridge, in which there is a street with a series of shops called The Royal Mile. To our luck, our hostel was right off of the Royal Mile, and we could see it from our bedroom window. We arrived in the morning on our first day because we had taken an overnight bus from London. After finding our hostel, we took a bus ride of the city. We found the main sites of the city and decided what was worth going back to.
View of New Town Edinburgh
We were pretty tired from not sleeping well on the bus so we decided to take a nap in the afternoon. When we went back out for dinner and our Terror Tour, we explored Old Town which puts the New Town to shame. Here's why:
Part of The Royal Mile
More of The Royal Mile, it's so pretty!
After walking around and getting a good dinner, we met at the meeting spot for our Terror Tour. Now, a lot of old cities in Europe have ghost tours because there are stories that date back for hundreds of years. But Edinburgh, by far, has the most ghost stories, hauntings, and poltergeists than any other city I have been too. I found this out from the tour we were about to take. I was already getting nervous standing outside waiting for our guide to come. Margaux was very excited and Jesse seemed to be as well. When our guide showed up dressed in a black cape, black pants, black eyeliner, with boots and a walking stick, I literally hid behind Jesse. That should have been my first indication this was going to be one of the scariest things I have ever done. But they convinced me to go on the tour and that I would be fine.
We walked around outside first, and went to the old church that is in the center of The Royal Mile. Our guide explained to us the history of witches in Scotland and what used to happen if you were tried as a witch. He needed examples for the group and naturally picked me because he knew I was so scared in the first place. But this didn't even come close to the scariest part of the tour. When he was finished explaining about the witches, he told us where we were about to go: down to the underground city, into the vaults, where criminals, murderers, and thieves lived and where multiple crimes took place. He warned us that this was not Ghost Hunters International or Most Haunted; this was real, and while there are some nice spirits, there are also a lot of mean ones. He warned us to not antagonize them because things could happen. In this past, people have been punched, scratched, felt nauseated or dizzy, even kicked when inside the vaults. This was about when I realized that this wasn't a tour meant to scare us, this was real and if anything did happen, it was not an act.
We first walked into a room where they had instruments of torture. Everything in the room was authentic, minus a few pieces. This was not the most encouraging welcome into the vaults. When we walked past the room, onto what used to be an old street some 400 or 500 years ago, it was completely dark with the exception of a few candles. Off of the street were the vaults which used to be stores when the path was used as an actual street and then storage units after that. We went into about 4 different vaults and they all had a story associated with it. There were some places we were not allowed to go, because of things that have happened to people in the past when they have ventured to certain parts of the underground. In one room, there was a stone circle in the middle. Our guide specifically warned us to not enter the stone circle when he was in the room because of the demonic spirits inside. He said he believed they were there and whether or not we believed it, he did not want to be around us if we tried to go inside. He told the story of a healthy 22 year old boy on one of his tours who didn't believe anything about the tour and wasn't respectful in the vaults. He stepped inside the stone circle and had a heart attack on the spot. That was the only convincing I needed, so no, I did not tempt fate or my life and go inside.
In the last room we went into, he separated the women and the men on two different sides of the room. He said there was lots of poltergeist activity in the room and women often have more experiences on one side of the room, so he put us on the opposite side. This was our last room of the night. The only thing we experienced while being down there were sounds. I didn't see anything but we all definitely heard a few noises and there was not a tour behind us. I don't know what they were, but I didn't really care to find out. I went down there and probably will never try to do anything like that again. I had fun though!
The next day we took a walking tour around the city. We had a great tour guide, Owen, and he gave us more information about the city and places we saw in the city.
Edinburgh Castle
My favorite part of the tour was he nonchalantly said, "See that window up there? That's the window JK Rowling looked out of when she wrote the first two Harry Potters!" All of the history of 500 years probably did not excite me as much as this did! I could not believe it! I knew she had written the first couple in a small cafe, trying to make a living as a writer, but I did not expect to see the actual window she looked out of! I was way too awed by this.
The famous window
Then we walked into the coolest graveyard I have ever seen in my life. I know that it might seem weird calling a graveyard "cool" but honestly, there was so much history there as well as the beauty of the old headstones and the leaves changing that it was pretty awesome to experience. In the graveyard, we could see the school which was the inspiration for Hogwarts. There are even four towers at the school which could be said she used to form the four schools but our tour guide informed us that four is a solid number and many building in Scotland have four towers.
Greyfriars cemetery
One tower at the original Hogwarts
Our tour guide, who had a wealth of information on the Harry Potter Scotland, also told us that JK Rowling had used names in this graveyard for characters in her novels. He told us we could find a Granger, McGonagall, and Moody. Then, he led us to the most famous name she took for her books: Thomas Riddle. For all of you Harry Potter fans, you could imagine how exciting this was!
Tom Riddle's grave
We also learned a lot about the Black Mausoleum on our tour. This is where George MacKenzie is buried and his poltergeist spirit haunts. This is the location of the most reported poltergeist activity in the world. Many people have discovered scratches on their bodies, or bruises after leaving the place. The poltergeist is also said to kick and punch people. In one extreme case, a girl was shoved so hard out of the mausoleum, that she fell and slipped into a coma. George MacKenzie was not a good guy while he was alive and his spirit definitely still haunts the place. They allow specific tours inside, but it is closed to the public.
Scary place, don't get too close
We finished our tour and then spent the next two hours relaxing and using the internet at a Starbucks. We do not have a Starbucks in Caen, so when we first arrived in London and I was seeing them everywhere, I decided that I needed to take advantage of that during my two weeks. I definitely got my fix by getting Starbucks almost everyday. Hopefully I can last until Christmas!
That night we went on a pub crawl to about five different pubs. This was really fun because we did not know where all of the good places were to go out in Edinburgh so it was nice to be with a group that took us to all of the places. We also met some other people from around the world who were staying in our hostel as well.
The next day was our last day in Scotland and we really wanted to go on this hike to a look out point and see the city from up high. The intentions were good and we got some good pictures, but it was not fun walking up a giant hill in jeans and boots. What was even worse was the wind and the cold. But the pictures are awesome so it was worth it!
Beautiful Edinburgh
We then went to get a better picture of Hogwarts:
Standing in front of the original Hogwarts
And then we decided that we could take a couple of hours to hang out at The Elephant Cafe, which is the place where JK Rowling wrote. We managed to grab a table right by the famous window. It was a very relaxing afternoon.
Having some hot chocolate at The Elephant Cafe
View from the window out onto the cemetery
And after that, because we were so close to the cemetery we thought, why not go back and check everything out again? And of course, we wanted Jesse to antagonize the poltergeist to see if anything would happen.
View from inside the cemetery
Beautiful day
After walking around a bit, we went back to the hostel to get our stuff ready to go. There was something special about this city that I can't quite explain but I loved it. The old architecture is everywhere so no matter which was you look, you see these beautiful buildings that not a lot of cities have anymore. We also had some great weather that made for a perfect fall day. I definitely want to return to Scotland in the future to see more of the amazing character and personality of the city. Not to mention, on any given day you can see men in Scottish kilts playing the bagpipes on The Royal Mile. That was pretty cool as well. Until next time, Scotland!
Okay, last part coming up: Ireland!
C'est las bonne vie pour moi! :)
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