We made it to Edinburgh! We took the night bus (10/10 don’t recommend) and arrived in Edinburgh around 8am. We immediately went to the hotel to grab breakfast and check in early. From there, I showered, took a quick nap, and then headed out to explore! My first mission was to find food. By the time I headed out, it was around 2:30/3pm so I was starving. I found the cutest and homiest cafe, Strumpets, where the lady talks and knows each and every guest! It was crazy - she had a good, personal conversation with everyone. A little girl around 9-10 years old was even behind the counter after coming in to help make her mom’s coffee. So cool!!
From there, I headed to the Main Street and walked around in the park on one side. This city is beautiful - so much gothic architecture and columns and darker buildings. It was so different from any other city I’ve ever seen!
After walking around and eating dinner, I headed back to the hotel for an early night since I had barely slept the night before bc #nightbus life.
The next morning, Mackenzie and I headed out to do a castle tour since it was so nice outside. So. Cool. It’s crazy all the history behind the castle and how many people/families are involved with it.
After the tour, we got lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant and then headed to the Camera Obsecura & World of Illusions museum since it was getting a bit rainy. I was afraid this museum was going to be a little lame/geared more for little kids....but it is NOT. It’s SO cool! There was a light tunnel, weird artwork, games, lots of mind games. And the end performance was super cool - we got to “spy” on the people in the castle through this museum.
After that, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a pub crawl we had signed up for. We went to 5 different bars where we got a shot each, and at the end went to a club. Such a fun night!!
Sunday morning, we took our time to check out. Our flight home wasn’t until later that evening, so we still had almost a full day here too. Mackenzie staked out at a Starbucks, so I went off alone to explore and practice my photography. I checked out the National Museum of Scotland, which has exhibits on everything. Literally. There was animals, cars, the history of Scotland, fashion, electronics, etc. There was something for all ages! And the best part was that it was free!
From there, I went to the national portrait gallery. Also free! Not nearly as exciting as I was expecting, but still cool to check it out. There were some pretty paintings there.
I got a coffee at the Elephant House, which is considered the “birthplace” of Harry Potter. JK Rowling had written a lot of the series in this cafe. After that, I went back to the park and just wandered and took lots of pictures. This city is just too beautiful. I stumbled upon a really cool, and seemingly unknown viewpoint of the city at the Scott Monument. You’re able to go up, get a short little tour of this guy (Sir Walter Scott was an author that wrote about Scotland), and take pictures of an awesome view of the city.
After that, I met back up with Mackenzie and we headed to the airport. I’m so glad we ended up going on this trip!! We almost didn’t because we were exhausted from traveling for almost 23 days straight and because there was concern about getting back in the country with customs/our visas/the UK not being a part of the EU anymore. But we decided to go anyways because everything was already booked, and we ended up having no trouble getting back into Belgium despite our visas. Everything worked out and I couldn’t be happier that we saw 2 new cities!!
Check out all my photos from Edinburgh here.
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