One of the Most Haunted Cities in Europe--Edinburgh, Scotland

So, we arrived in Edinburgh and it's definitely unlike any other city I've been to. Not that I've been to a lot of places in Europe, but I don't think many places can actually compare to Edinburgh. Being that it is one of the most haunted cities in Europe, or even maybe the most haunted city in Europe, it's was not surprising that the city itself is very dark. Dark in the sense that, well of course when we were there, it was overcast/rainy, the architecture is dark and gothic, and it just has this feel. Obviously this feel is hard to describe but you'd know it when you felt it. Though Edinburgh was nothing like I was expecting really, I did enjoy the city and all the history it had to offer.

When we arrived we decided to catch this free tour of the city. We're poor college students, so this whole "free" thing sounded pretty good to us. We walked to starbucks, where the tour started and met our guide, Katie. We later learned that Katie loved saying "brilliant" any chance she could get. Man did it get incredibly annoying. She also laughed at her own jokes, which usually I have no problem with, because, hey, I do it all the time, but it really didn't work for her. ALSO, saying "yay" and doing this motion I cannot even describe really took me over the edge.

So I don't remember what this is called (of course) BUT I do remember that in medieval times, this would be the spot where someone would come and announce news. They would get on the top of this structure, and shout the news from England. This was especially popular when there was a new King/Queen, etc. Also, if someone was caught stealing, their ear would be pinned to the door, and onlookers would kick him and pee on him. After a day, his ear would be unpinned and he could go on with his business, but he would always have that hole in his ear as a reminder. Or something like that...

Dark right? See what I mean?

This is a church where famous people have been knighted! Wouldn't it be so much nicer if I remembered some names? Oops... :)

One of the closes in Edinburgh. A close is basically a community--they all have different means

A dark street in Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle: it's SO huge. It's actually built on volcanic rock

So this is the back of a cafe called Elephant House: This is where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter. They call it the "birth place of Harry Potter" but of course...

Greyfriars Cemetery: one of the most haunted cemeteries. One part of this cemetery is actually closed off to public due to the paranormal activity. Also, this is the cemetery where JK Rowling found all of the names for her characters in her novels. Yes, the Harry Potter, was buried here.

Look at that medieval skyline...

Edinburgh at dusk

Palace of Holyroodhouse: sadly, we couldn't take pictures inside the palace but talk about lavish. It was really beautiful and full of history. We even got to see Mary Queen of Scott's bed chamber and rooms as well as the exact spot where David Rizzio was left to bleed to death in Mary's presence. Yikes!

Abbey at Holyroodhouse: the remains of the old abbey. The architecture was beautiful and you could imagine what it looked like in it's entirety.

View from the top of Scott's Monument

Scott's Monument: that gothic rocket-ship looking structure. Very interesting...must say

So that's Edinburgh! When we got to the airport to take our flight back to France, we encountered a tiny issue; tiny as in huge. We just happened to miss our flight. Yep. So we thought, okay, don't panic, we'll just find another flight and hop on that and get home in no time right? WRONG. We went to ask the ryanair desk when the next available flight would be to France and she said, "well we only fly to France once a week so the next flight will be in a week". At this Laur responded, "oh okay great..wait WHAT?!" I actually had to laugh at her response though...it wasn't really funny. We were basically stranded. Every other flight leaving from Edinburgh that night was booked...solid. There was no way we were getting out of Scotland that night. Of course, ryanair and easyjet can't let you of any other flights, only the ones departing that day, so we were stuck. Luckily, there were four computers for us to use, of course costing a pound for every 15 minutes. Yes, that's right. We ended up spending probably around 12 pounds trying to find flights. Finally, we found a flight out of Glasgow into Paris Beauvais. Now came the question: How are we going to get to Glasgow, and where in god's name are we going to stay the night? We ended up finding a bus to Glasgow leaving at 11:30pm. We then booked the only hostel available in Glasgow that night and hoped for the best. We went back into Edinburgh for dinner and relaxation before our next adventure, and then headed to the bus. We arrived in Glasgow around 12:30am, and had no idea how we were going to get to our hostel. The hostel directions said to take a bus, but by the time we arrived, all of the buses had stopped running. We were pretty much out of luck. After walking for quite a while in different directions, and getting different directions from different drunk Scotts, we finally found a taxi cue and waited in line for about half and hour. We finally arrived at our hostel around 2:30am. The next morning we took a bus to the airport and were there four hours early, just to be safe. We made it successfully to Paris Beauvais, only to find out that to get into real Paris, you have to take an hour bus. Great. Laur and I parted ways from Sliz and Jon (since we didn't buy train tickets yet), and hoped the bus would be fast enough so we could catch the last train at 8:20pm. As I saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance and a clock that read 8:10, I knew I was going to be stranded...again. Laur and I arrived at this random spot, found a metro, and were able to book a hostel on her blackberry. We got directions to the hostel from the nice men at the metro station, and finally made it to the hostel around 11:30pm. Another long day... We went to bed around 2:30 (we had some interesting people in our hostel room that night) and got up at 4 to make it to the train station by 5...am. I hopped on the 6:20 train, made it back to Montpellier, ran to Laur's house to pick up these train tickets to cancel, cancelled the tickets, and finally made it home...at 3:30pm. Yikes.

It felt great to be home... in France.