To get us all back on track, this blog is talking about the 16th of April. Which means, despite my best concerted good efforts, I keep lagging behind. I guess just thinking about blogging doesn’t ACTUALLY get the blogging done. Huh.

Anyhoo, on the 16th I woke up and met my roomies, Margaret (fellow Canadian) and Ana (Portugese). We went upstairs and had the cheap breakfast (1.50 pounds) and got ready to go on the free walking tour. On our way out the door, we rounded up Ethan, and shortly after starting the tour, we picked up Kendall. Our tour guide was Ben (a true Scotsman! Not all tour guides were…) and began our 3-hr walking / story / sarcasm tour. Ben rocked it. Although later we learned it was a script, we wouldn’t have guessed it at all from his presentation, ease and tongue-in-cheek wit. I learned all about the greats and the infamous, like David Hume, Adam Smith, Deacon Brodie, Maggie Dickson and obviously, Greyfriars Bobby.

Hume, a philosopher, spent his life trying to prove that superstition was bogus, and was commemorated for his great thoughts through a statue of himself with a gold toe, which brings you luck when rubbed. Oh, the irony. Adam Smith was a colleage but apparently his statue isn’t nearly as lucky. Hard to say if he’d be happy or jealous of that fact, given his shared views with Hume.

Deacon Brodie falls under the infamous category. He was a skilled safe-cabinet maker who developed a gambling problem, and cunningly decided that he would steal from the very people who trusted him, seeing as he had made the locks. It worked for a while, but then….  well, I won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say when the locals figured it out, he wasn’t very popular.

Maggie Dickson earned the nickname Half-Hanged Maggie for surviving a hanging. When they found out she wasn’t dead, they were going to hang her again, but she was saved by a law student claiming double jeopardy. Embracing her infamy after she recovered, she would reportedly hang out her window and yell down to the poor souls who were to be hanged, “Take heart! I went through it and look at me now.”  Hahahaha! A woman after my own sarcastic heart.

Greyfriars Bobby is apparently the most famous Ediburghian, despite not being a human. He was a dog, and he has his own statue and bar, and tourist traps. He’s famous for his dedication to his owner, even after his Policeman owner passed away, staying close to his grave for 13 years.

After the walking tour, we ate some lunch, then Margaret and I decided to walk up to Arthur’s Seat for a great view of the city. Oh, I forgot to mention that it was windy in Edinburgh. And by windy, I don’t mean a lovely gentle  breeze; the wind was strong and made it hard to hear people talk if they were upwind of you. But Marg and I thought, meh, how windy could it be?

Yeah.

So….  it was WINDY. At times, we had to stop and brace ourselves, and sometimes even crouch down, until the wind died down (a bit). We kept walking up, wondering how long it would take, when FINALLY we saw the top. I could lean into the wind and not fall over. Literally. Of course, being the smart people we are, we totally realised that this could be unsafe and we stopped before getting to the top. <pause until you stop giggling> Ok, more likely, we threw caution to the wind (hahaha! see what i did there… I’m so witty) and scrambled up to the monument on Arthur’s Seat, held on for dear life, and got our pics. It was at this point we noticed we had taken the “scenic route” up, and shortened our trek back down.

We stopped at the local grocery store and I bought my first groceries for the trip. I had forgotten how much cheaper it is to buy groceries instead of eating out. My splurge was some apple pork sausages which were delish! The wind had worn us out completely, so we finished the evening by just hanging out with the others at the hostel.

…and now I must hit the sack, so I will continue to fall behind on blogging…