So Edinburgh was pretty cool. Lots of fat people, everyone smokes, and everything is deep fried. Luckily Steve's a good cook, so I ate pretty well.
Monday: Took a walk around Edinburgh city and a typical rainy Scottish summer day. The most annoying thing about the rain is that it rains for just long enough to get you soaked, or to make you put on a jacket, and then as quickly as the rain arrived, the sun comes out. I think I took my jacket off and on at least five times today.
So I went to Edinburgh Castle and it was brilliant. Probably one of the best things I've seen since leaving NZ, to be honest. It was built (if I remember correctly) around the 11th or 12 Century but has been added to, rebuilt, blown up/attacked many times, and just had general restoration done to it over the years. Such is the life of a castle - they're built over a long period of years, as opposed to one fixed period.
The end result is really impressive. There are cannons overlooking the city and you can see for miiiiiiiiiles. There's lots of buildings you can walk into, including the Scottish War Memorial (considered one of the best war memorials in the world), the Crown Jewels room, a war museum and some barracks, to name a few. I think there was even the birthplace of King James too.
The war museum was quite good; it had a video playing detailing Scottish military history over the centuries. Quite a lot of fighting going on over that way, no wonder they all get fired up at the drop of a hat! Must be in their blood.
Even the inscription on the crest outside the castle says 'be warned, those who provoke me' (or something to that effect). Quite the feisty bunch, them Scots.
So yeah, the castle was great and the tour guides were pretty knowledgeable as well. I asked if the castle was for sale (I'm quite interested in buying it). Turns out it's not. Damn.
Tuesday: Got up early and went for a drive with Steve, who drives all around Scotland for his job. It was pretty cool. We went to four different (tiny) places a few hours drive north to the centre of Scotland, the first being Ardeonaig. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Ardeonaig
-3.850708&spn=1.917342,5.751343&z=8
,+scotland&sll=56.618843,-3.761444&sspn=0.238389,0.718918&ie=UTF8&ll=56.418459,-3.850708&spn=1.917342,5.751343&z=8
The other places were too tiny to remember, but it was nice to see the Scottish country-side. Very much like New Zealand.
The trip was about 6 or so hours all up and we just chatted and listened to Steve's iPod most of the time. Was a cool day.
Wednesday: Didn't do much. Steve had a long drive up to Aberdeen and I didn't feel like a 9 hour drive, so I just stayed in and worked on my website/portfolio.
Thursday: Another day in, Steve was working from home, so took it pretty easy. In the evening we caught up with Hamish (Steve's brother), James Bingham and Paddy Cribb, all Verdon boys and hit the pubs on Rose st, which has about 37 bars on it. Such a cool place to go, it was really kicking.
We went to a great karaoke bar called "The Black Rose" which had it's fair share of heavy metal listeners. Turns out it had the best karaoke list of any place I've ever been and people get up and perform. There's no shitty Elton John or Cliff Richard here. It's all rocking stuff.
Steve got up and did a tune and then I followed suit with Red Hot Chili Peppers "Give it away" and then Pearl Jam's "Jeremy". Must've done quite a good job because a few random people came up to me and said I kicked ass. Tell me something I don't know...
Anyway, it was a big night and we all hit the bars with some people we met in the Black Rose and got home at the early hours. The Black Rose is the best pub I've been to in ages.
Friday - Steve "worked from home" again and we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie. It was okay, but pretty much nothing happens! Bit of a let down really. I booked my train tickets back to London as Steve wanted a clear house as he has guests for the next 5 or so weeks, so wanted the place to himself and Alisa. Fair enough. Ended up crashing at Paddy Cribb's house while he was away and just watched some shitty tv and taking a stroll around the streets.
Funnily enough, I bumped into another Verdon boy, Nick Ward (a few years younger, played cricket with him) on the streets of Edinburgh. I was sitting in a burger shop and he walked past the window. Small world, eh? He's from Winton, I think.
So Scotland was good. Will definitely head back in the next month or two, or while the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is on. Apparently the place is packed for a good month while the festival is happening, so I wasn't too worried about doing heaps of stuff or seeing Glasgow this time. Will check them out later as it's a pretty easy trip from London.
