Edinburgh - by Jonathan Slywka

Hi guys! Guess who this is? Yes, I, Jonathan Slywka, am about to enter the bloggosphere. Ssscchhheeewwwww!!!!!!! There I go. How's it goin'? So, anyways, I'm gonna tell you about our weekend in Edinburgh. Edinburgh is just 200 miles up the road from York, just 2 1/2 hours by train, or 4 hours by bus and train. We left York on Friday morning with our good friend Katherine. We arrived in Edinburgh at 11, and hung around the station until our other friend, "Dudders", arrived at 12. From there we went to our hostel - an old, converted church building. It was pretty cool, I guess. Typical hostel accomodation in an atypical location. Our first real taste of the city was a walk up Princess Street. This is the main "new" thoroughfare of the city, as opposed to the "old" royal mile, which I'll describe later. It is lined with the same old shops - Zara, Gap, H&M - but also a plethora of junky Scottish theme shops, where one could find anything from Kilts of every colour, to a very smart looking 1970's wig and mustache emsemble (I'm not sure why that one). Anyways, along that street can be found the Scottish National gallery, which, we were happy to discover, was showing an exhibition of Andy Warhol. For those who don't know the guy, think Campbell's soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. It is always nice to get to see the works of some great artist, even if you aren't a fan of the person, or art in general. (Brittany would like to remind me that I am speaking for myself. She loved it.) Upon leaving the gallery we took a stroll through the lovely Princess Street Gardens. These sunken gardens at the base of the castle hill were created when the old north loch was drained. It all makes for quite an extraordinary setting - monumental architecture, beautiful gardens lying beneath a towering hill with imposing castle set on top - something unlike I've ever seen before. We next set out for the older areas of Edinburgh, those running down from the castle, along the royal mile. We climbed up to the castle, but finding it closed for the day, instead went for a whisky tour nearby. We had heard that a whisky tour was one of the must do's in Edinburgh - Scotland is known for there whisky, or Scotch, after all - and it really was quite interesting. We learned all about the finer points of the "Water of Life", how to taste properly, and even got to keep the glass. That was pretty much it for day 1. Day 2 began with a hike back up to the castle. Being a Saturday, the place was crawling, but we found plenty to do, and quite enjoyed it. (Again, my wonderful girlfriend has reminded me to speak for myself.) She did, however, enjoy catching a rare glimps of the honours of the kingdom, Scotland's equivelant of the crown jewels. From the castle, we made a short stop at a wool mill nearby, where I bought a tartan tie (somewhere Alicia is saying "You would") in the official tartan of Edinburgh (I was searching for the family tartan for Slywka but none could be found). We then set out down the royal mile, toward some other castle, which happens to be an official residence of the Queen. We chose not to stay long, however, rather catching a bus out to the sea side. We dipped our toes in the frigid Firth of Forth, and then headed right back to our Hostel. After a quick refreshing in the equally frigid showers, we went out in search of some food, and a spirited location to join the locals in watching Scotland's world cup of rugby encounter. It was pretty fun. Admittedly, I was more concerned with checking the score of the Rider game when we returned to the hostel ("You can take the man out of the province ...). And with that our Saturday ended, and all that was left was to make our way back to the station this morning, and home to York. Funny how, after just 2 weeks, a place that had seemed so foreign could seem somewhat like home. Somewhat, though not completely. I miss you guys, all of you. And I'm getting kicked out of the library. So here's to posting my first blog. Sscchhheeewwwww!!!!!!!