Friday in Scotland

It was Friday in Edinburgh, and I was very excited to explore the city. It was a beautifully sunny day, which seemed pretty lucky to me, and was in a similarly sunny mood. So far, I really liked the city. I got a very tasty scone and then made my way towards the Edinburgh Castle. Since the city is pretty small (geographically), I walked past a lot of nice sights on the way. The first was the Old College of University of Edinburgh, which was right across the street from where I stayed.

That dome in the back is Old College.

One of those was St Giles' Cathedral, the famousest Edinburgh church. It was here that Presbyterianism was essentially created. Solely based on aesthetics, it is right up there on my list of best churches I've seen. It is stunning! The contrast in the stone walls (from the smog of the past? Scotland has definitely not cleaned up their old buildings' exteriors) really makes it seem intimidating. It was free to go inside, where it was also beautiful - no pictures allowed though for the sake of postcard sales. A few feet outside was a big statue of a man dear to my heart as an economics major - Adam Smith. He is standing with a pick axe next to him, which I assume represent division of labor.

Only a few blocks down from St. Giles' is the entrance to Edinburgh Castle, the pinnacle of the city. The castle is actually a compound of several buildings housed within some ramparts that circle the top of the butte. I was really impressed by the vistas looking out on the city from the edge of the castle complex. On a small outcropping outside the main walls was the Dog Cemetery, where the pooches of royalty were buried. I visited the oldest building on the site, St. Margaret's Chapel, which dates from the 12th c. It was just a very small room with an altar and small stained glass windows. It smelled of fresh paint. On the other side of the complex was Crown Square. One side of the square was a war museum commemorating the Scottish involvement in the myriad British wars. The lions outside the entrance were sweet! On the other side of the square was the building housing the Scottish crown jewels. I knew but didn't fully realize it, but Scotland had been its own kingdom for a longer time than England. In the run up to the jewels, there were exhibits about the lineage of the Scottish crown, an subsequently how their James VI incorporated England into his realm and became James I of England.

At 1 o'clock each day at the castle, a single soldier shoots a (blank from a) cannon at the castle. He does the fancy marching and such, and a crowd gathers. I guess Edinburghers (or Edinburghites?) usually hear the shot, check their watches, and criticize its imprecise timing.

There are a few gift shops on the premises, which is to be expected, but there was one that was particularly interesting: A Whiskey and Book Shop. I didn't know those two made such a good pairing, but I guess it makes sense?

I made my way down from Castle Rock through some winding paths in Princes Gardens to Prince's Street, the main shopping street in Edinburgh. I walked up and down it and looked at the shops. I don't know (or care) if I've mentioned it before, but all of these 'main shopping streets' are the same. Champs Elysees, Oxford/Brompton Streets, Grafton St., Buchanan St, Michigan Ave, Madison Ave - they're essentially the same. There will be similar (if not the same) shops, Starbucks, and tourist stores. Unimpressive.

Next, I made my way for Leith - the dockside city. My favorite TV show - No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain - did a show in Edinburgh. They showcased the large amount of unique fried food and soda in Scotland, and they did so at a chip shop in Leith called The Mermaid. I wanted to go. It must be pretty good to be chosen for the show, and on a purely fanatic note, No Reservations went there. I walked over half an hour out of the city centre to get to this shop. I was going to get fried fish, potatoes, king rib (BBQ or Chinese flavoured pork patty deep fried), and IRN BRU (an orange-coloured soda from Scotland that tastes like both the best and the worst cough syrup you've ever had). When I got to the Mermaid, they were closed! 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon! What the shit?!? Disappointed, a took a few pictures and walked back, finding a couple bacon rolls (good, but not the same) from the next open shop I saw. The closed shop was almost made up for me the next weekend in Copenhagen, when the friend I was staying with lent me Kitchen Confidential, the book Bourdain wrote.

With the light waning (it was almost 3:30!), I went back towards Princes Gardens/Street and to the National Gallery. Once again, no pictures. They had a few galleries of renaissance and Italian paintings, pretty typical stuff as far as art museums go at this point - lesser known Rembrandt and Titian. Downstairs they had a collection of Scottish art that was fantastic. There were a lot of landscape and nature scenes that were very bright and eye-catching. There is also a semi-famous painting of the Ice Skating Minister from 1795. It's just a guy named Robert Walker giddily skating around, probably whistling, very cool.

Outside is the Scott Monument, to Sir Walter Scott. It is black as hell from smog and intricate as hell. At night it's lit up and very attractive. Apparently you can climb up it, but not the weekend I was there. The Christmas Market, full with ferris wheel, was being set up around it.

I headed back to my place to stay and hung out for a few hours. My host had a big project due, so was cramming in reading about women in diplomacy and west African genocide. I found some tasty chili at a place down the street called BeanScene. It wasn't Bobby Flay, but it was good. Later that evening, the guy I was staying with invited me to see a psychological thriller film that apparently is the talk to the town in the US, Paranormal Activity. It was a in a nice cinema like the Tivoli in STL or Lagoon in MPLS. The movie was good, although thriller/horror films aren't my thing per se.