Saturday was an unbelievable day in Edinburgh. We started
off the day by taking a tour of the Edinburgh castle. Surprisingly, this castle
was entirely different from every other castle I have been to on this trip.
This castle is a series of buildings that gradually get higher and higher as
you walk around the dormant volcano. Yes, it is built on a dormant volcano. So,
if you were going to try and invade this castle you would have a lot more
buildings to conquer before you can call it yours. This castle houses
Scotland’s Crown Jewels which are, sadly, no longer worn. This is because England
and Scotland share their monarch and so they use the fancier crown jewels in
London. However, there is a piece of granite called the rock of destiny that
does travel to London for every coronation. This is because it was stolen from
the Scottish as a war prize and when James II, who was already king of
Scotland, became the rightful king of England the stone was used for every
monarch. It actually wasn’t until 1996 when the stone was allowed to return to
Scotland. So that was pretty cool. The castle also houses Scotland’s shrine to
its fallen soldiers. It still an active shrine so the name of every soldier who
dies abroad is added to this shrine. It was quite humbling to walk through.
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| Edinburgh Castle |
After we (Chelsea, Aubry, Kristina, Celeste and I) finished
exploring the Castle we started shopping. Well, sort of. Our first stop was a
woolen mill that was supposed to have an exhibition of how wool is made into
clothe. Basically, it had the different machines set up but with not plaques or
order to view them to get you deep into the shop so you will buy stuff. It was
still fun anyway. We then slowly made our way down the Royal Mile. I say slowly
because the street was packed with a million people and performers. It felt
like a whole new city. We were actually making our way down the mile to head
towards a free fringe show called Austentatious, but more about that in like 2
sentences. So, while we were heading there we stopped at a Tesco for some cheap
lunch. Then we tried to find the venue where this show was showing. We got lost
for a bit, but we found it!
So what is Austentatious? Well, it is an improv comedy
troupe that specializes in Jane Austen. This means that they asked the audience
members to make up names of Austen books and place then in a basket. I made up
the name “Eccentric and Egotistical”.
So the show started off with a single actor picking out a couple names
out of the basket and explaining to us what the plot of the book was about.
Then, she picked a final one for all of them to perform for us. It was basically
called “What your momma gave you”, it had a slightly longer title that I no
longer remember. It was absolutely hilarious! It was a great show, entirely
clean and kid friendly. We laughed so hard at all of the jokes and the
situations. I loved it. As we left the show a guy was handing out fliers for a
stand up show featuring one of the girls from Austentatious. So we went to
Paris and Dowler know what they are doing. It was good, but not nearly as
funny. That’s mostly because we aren’t British. Her partner did impressions and
the only one I knew was Alan Rickman who sang Adele. Which was pretty amusing.
Thankfully though it was dirty comedy, it stayed pretty clean. Then I went and
bought my kilt!!!!! I am so excited for this piece of clothing you have no
idea!
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| The cast of Austentatious sans two characters |
Then I went on a wild goose chase to try and find a Disney
store. I totally found where a Disney store used to be but it has now moved to
a new location that was about 2 hours to walk to, so no Edinburgh Disney mug
for me, but that is ok. I HAVE A KILT!!! After my goose chase we dropped off
our purchased items at the hostel and set out to the Mosque Kitchen to get some
dinner. While we were headed there we were given a flier for a free magic show
that started at 8:30. So we totally planned on going. The food at Mosque
kitchen was really good and cheap which is my favorite. Then we headed off to a
bar to see the magic show. This was the first time I have ever been carded in
Europe. So they carded us all to let us in the bar. The magic show was called
“Totally Ninja” and it was so great! It was done by a ginger and he blew my
mind. At one point he was doing a card trick and Jace was holding the card. It
was one card when he put it up to his chest and entirely different card when he
took it away to look at it again! About halfway through the show he wrote
something on a pad of paper and threw it into the audience. It got passed
around for a bit and mostly forgotten. Then towards the end he asked 4 people
to write down a ten digit number and had then add it up. It was the exact
number he had written on the piece of paper 20 minutes earlier! Not only that
but it was his cell phone number! It was just so cool. We actually pooled together 10 pounds
to give to this guy.
Then we headed off to the Royal Tattoo and it was as amazing
as my mother said It would be. IT was a bunch of different military bands from
Scotland, England, Canada, Australia, US, and Norway. It was so cool! They
would march in formations, and the music they played was beautiful. They had
Scottish dancers and used an incredibly powerful projectors on the Edinburgh
Castle. It was phenomenal. I cannot accurately describe with words what made it
so amazing but trust me, it was amazing. Our military band performed super hero
music; Batman, Spiderman, Superman and they even played Popeye the sailor man.
I know he isn’t a super hero but it was so funny. The Scottish band actually
played music from Brave and the composer was in the audience!!!! I can’t wait
to see that movie! It was a wonderful close to such a great trip! I love you
all and I hope you have had a wonderful weekend! Cheers!
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| Pictures from people in the Royal Tattoo! (Me and Christina) |
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| Edinburgh Castle turned into Gotham City for the U.S. band |
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