Wednesday + {Edinburgh: Day Two}

The buses in Edinburgh are so great! Not only are they cheap (£1.50 one-way or £3.50 for all-day), but they run 24 hours a day (midnight-4:30 in the morning is a little more expensive), go everywhere, and they're double-deckers. Needless to say, Gooligan and I like to sit on the top level and soak up the city from up high.

On our first proper day in the city, we walked to the supermarket just across the street and bought a ready-made sandwich and a pair of apples. Then we took the bus to Holyrood Park, where Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags are located. We were going to hike up Arthur's Seat, but after we crested the Salisbury Crags we decided that we didn't quite have it in us to do a second big climb.

But we saw some amazing views from the Crags. They really do provide an incredible view of the city. 

After our hike, we took a break and ate lunch outside, then wandered back up the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Castle. On our way we popped into a few free museums--one had a lot of objects from Edinburgh's history, including Robert Louis Stevenson's golf ball (!) and one was a wax museum of history. By the time we reached the castle, I was nearly asleep on my feet at this point, so we skipped going inside. Next time we're definitely going to spend an entire day inside; one of the employee's descriptions of it made us really disappointed that we hesitated to go see it. But it was an important lesson for us--and a good one to learn early on in the trip: no hesitating if we think we're going to regret it later.

After a brief detour back to our flat, we went out for gelato and dinner. In that order, of course. Affogato closed at eight and the pub we went to dinner at was open until one in the morning, so we decided to mix things up. I'm so glad we did, too. The gelato was delicious. Gooligan and I split a gingerbread/bacio bowl and it was perfect. (Bacio is a light chocolate hazelnut flavor akin to a light nutella in taste.)

We were really hungry by the time we headed off to the pub. We ate at Nobles--a slightly nicer pub about four or five miles from our flat. Gooligan got the Pan Fried Wood Pigeon and I had fish and chips. The food was much better than our first night out and we ate to bursting--which was good because the walk to the bus stop was cold.

Back at our flat, we hung out with Richie for a short while before we both had to call it a night due to early mornings.