Edinburgh, Scotland

I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland this weekend! It was my first weekend excursion outside of London, and it was an amazing city to have my first solo travel experience. Outside coming to London, of course.

So here are some of the highlights of Scotland's capital city, all of which I visited!

Edinburgh Castle
This castle is breathtaking. It sits above Princes Street Gardens, giving you amazing views of the city once you reach the top of the hill.

The castle reminded me slightly of Tower of London, except with a reputation more associated with Mary Queen of Scots and less associated with the beheading of Henry VIII's wives [correction because I haven't memorized all of the Kings and Queens of England. Apologies.]

Inside the castle, we saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, also known as the Honours of Scotland. This includes the Stone of Destiny, on which apparently the monarchs of Scotland were crowned and every monarch of the United Kingdom continues to be crowned. The Honours were put in a chest and locked up for slightly more than 100 years after the Acts of Union (unifying the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England into the Parliament of Great Britain). These were also hidden during World War II, and only four people in the world knew where they were.

And now they're on display for tourists.

The Castle also includes an interesting Prisoners of War exhibit, where they even kept a few American revolutionaries. They even pointed out an American flag carved into the original prison doors and an etching denouncing King George III.

We learned a lot about the history of Scotland throughout the castle, so I would definitely recommend it. However much of a Tourist Trap it may be.


Whisky Experience
So the Scottish have a thing about their whisky, which is why we decided to invest in a trip to the Scotch Whisky Experience. We learned all about how whisky is made and then stored and how some of it is "lost to the angels." Aka: evaporates.

Most importantly, we were able to try each of the four main Scottish whiskys, each from a different region of Scotland: Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside and Isla.

The organization also had the largest collection of unopened bottles of Scotch Whisky. The oldest of these was a bottle from the 1890s.

The Whisky experience was also totally worth it. If not just to learn that Scotch whisky is indeed spelled without an 'e.'


Holyrood Park
Another one of the amazingly beautiful parks in Edinburgh was Holyrood Park.

It's also amazingly tall.

Nonetheless, we decided to climb this hill for the infamous panoramic views of the city.

We were told the climb itself would take a half hour at the longest. However, since it was cold, we decided to stop along the way and we weren't the most athletic people on the planet, it took us about 45 minutes.

Still, the views were completely worth it:



In short, I would love to see this city in the summer.

Also, I feel decidedly more in shape than I did before I left London. Pretty sure it was the combination of climbing this hill and the sudden fresh air.





I must also add that the hostel experience was not bad at all. It's a lot like a college dormitory, except not everyone speaks English and it's ridiculously temporary. The staff there also recommended some great restaurants and sights for us to check out, 90% of which were worth the mapping out it took to find them.

Edinburgh also has a rich history associated with Harry Potter. We stopped to have lunch at Spoon, a cafe and the site where J.K. Rowling originally penned the series. The Balmoral Hotel also happens to be where she finished the series. I couldn't help but love the city.

Overall, Edinburgh easily became one of my favorite places I've ever visited. The people were nice and welcoming, the food was delicious (although I got scared and didn't try haggis), and the city itself - even in the cold - was beautiful.