June 2, 2010
Castle on the Hill
Date: October 2000
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Description: For having nearly four months in London, we didn’t actually get much time to travel. We were given a four-day weekend halfway through the semester that was our sole vacation time. Granted I did manage to also make a trip to Wales on one weekend, I knew I only had one shot for a real trip. So I went somewhere I’d wanted to go forever, or at least since I saw Braveheart, Scotland. As soon as I got off the train station, and walked up the steps, I saw two things immediately. The first was an Asian bagpipe player, and the second was Edinburgh Castle, perched high up on a large rock. I knew immediately this was a city I could get used to. While it turned out the actual Edinburgh Castle was in almost all ways inferior to Caernarfon Castle in Wales, I can say with some certainty that the city of Edinburgh is one of my favorite places in the world. Friendly people, amazing shops, enjoyable nightlife, and a humungous rock in the center of town, there is not much to dislike about it. I may seem disappointed with the castle, mainly because I saw better later in my trip, but at the time I was enthralled, most particularly with the war room (featuring what might be the biggest collection of halberd I’d seen in my life.) I bet the flags on the right mean something.