Edinburgh

Next stop on my fall break: Edinburgh, Scotland!

This is one of the most unique places I have ever been. In a way it kind of reminds me of Salt Lake because it has a lot of natural beauty, and it's fairly small, but has everything you need. I feel like that's a horrible description, but it's the best I can do! There are two main parts of the city: old town, and new town. Old town is situated around Edinburgh Castle (pictured above), and the newer side is more commercial with lots of shops and restaurants. We got to our hostel and had this awesome view:

(we stayed at Castle Rock Hostel- which I highly recommend, the staff there is awesome)

The first day we headed up to Edinburgh Castle- it's a lot of smaller buildings instead of one massive one and the Scottish Honors (or crown jewels) are here with a really interesting story behind them. It was a chilly, rainy day - perfect for visiting a castle, am I right?

 The view of old town from the castle.
Afterwards we went and walked around the town and saw one of the cafes that J.K. Rowling frequented when she was writing Harry Potter. Behind it is a cemetery and on the gravestones are some of the names of the characters in the books. I'm not one to walk around cemeteries often, if at all, because I think it's kind of weird and creepy but the tombstones in the cemeteries here are impressive! (If you're a Harry Potter fan they resemble the gravestones in the movies as well).

This is my "Another Selfie??" face. 

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city and ended at a pub eating mashed potatoes and beer. 

Our last day we hiked Arthurs Seat and had to climb up the stairs from hell 

What kind of sick joke is this?^ Those are not stairs

But the view was worth it!

We rewarded ourselves with some haggis, neeps and tatties at the World's End. It actually wasn't bad! It just tasted like peppered beef really. Luckily they don't use the same casings they used to. It came with a whiskey cream sauce too!

We finished walking the Royal Mile, rested a bit and then headed out to eat again (that's all I truly do). Sheamanti and I always joke now that we travel to eat. We don't like to lie to ourselves.
We found this amazing place in Edinburgh that we went to 2/3 days that we were there. They lured us in with their fresh scones and homemade jam and we ended up coming back for more! It's called the Crafters Barn and the owner is such a nice guy. Sheamanti and I shared this GIANT pizza with lamb and mint sauce on our last night-so good! I discovered my new favorite drink ever: Bellevue Kriek. It's a cherry beer with just the right amount of sweetness and it's amazing - I even bought some in Belgium and brought it home with me.

That's it for Scotland! I cannot wait to go back!