Man, it has been an amazing few days. I had a fantastic
night out with Aunty Jen and Hayley. We were booked into a hotel in Durham,
courtesy of Jen and we had been upgraded to business class which meant in our
rooms was a bottle of champagne and chocolates and a movie AND both dinner and
breakfast were included. We drank both bottles quick-smart then headed down to
dinner. Me and Hayley stayed up to watch a movie and it was only about 10.30
when it ended but both of us were tired so crashed out.... only to wake two
hours later thinking it was morning. We ended up ordering drinks up to the room
and sat up talking for another hour or so.
The next morning after dinner, we headed over to Jen’s house
in Corbridge where I got a chance to meet Jack, the new dog, and to do my
washing. Aunty Jen even stopped off at the Angel of the North on the way for me
to have a look. It is absolutely stunning. It was colossal in size and utterly
beautiful.... on a side note, while I am writing this in the hostel in
Edinburgh, there are two Frenchies, singing a horrid rendition of Hallelujah
imitating what I can only suspect is the strangling of a cat or two... sigh...
I headed up to Scotland on Monday, arriving into Edinburgh
just past 2pm. I put my stuff in my room and headed out for a walk up to the
castle to see what time it would open the next day. It was freezing cold
outside, so on the way up I had to have a time out in St Giles Cathedral and
ended up staying there for an hour. When I eventually got up to the castle it
had begun to snow – so it was cold for a reason. I walked back down and by the
time I got back to the hostel I had a room mate. His name is Richard and he is
a 50 something artist and landscape artist – he is a fascinating man in that he
is such a child of the 60s and it is clear that he spent a good deal of time
getting to know LSD and cocaine and any other drugs in the 70s and 80s. This
was confirmed when he told me that his fiancé from 25 years ago had died of an
overdose on cocaine. He showed me his art. He is very talented with a pen which
is his primary medium. The images that he creates are simply stunning and all
he is using is a black ballpoint. He is in Edinburgh for work and is about to
put on an exhibition so he showed me all of his work. He is a bit of a funny
one though and kept dropping all sorts of comments about his age, fishing for
mine and the like when I first met him, trying to get close. I made it VERY
clear in a conversation that my parents were younger than him.After that he backed off. The other other
room mate turned up later that evening. He apparently lives in Dun-something
and staying in the hostel during the week as his job is here. Quite surprised
by that and the fact that he was been doing it for the last two years.
They say that Edinburgh is haunted and the hostel has its
own ghost and last night freaked me out considerably. I was asleep and I woke
to the feel of the bed by my head dipping like someone was leaning there had
onto it and then I felt a hand clamp down over my mouth. I was so freaked out,
my eyes shot open and I could hardly breath and then the feeling was gone. For
the rest of the night I kept feeling something was there. It was a horrible
sensation.
Today, after a restless nights sleep, I did three very
touristy things. I went out to Edinburgh castle and spent the morning climbing
the battlements and looking around inside and out – mostly out. It was bitterly
cold and snowing this morning again and windy as anything. I could barely feel
my hands, but that didn’t stop me from taking photos. My historic card is
paying off. I showed it to them and although it wasn’t supposed to work, they
gave me half price admission into the grounds. Woohoo!There were some amazing sights from the top of the hill and even a cemetary inside to the dogs who had served the soldiers and lords of the castle. There were also cannons everywhere, including on that goes off every day at 1pm that is used for timekeeping. It is said that it goes off at 1pm and not 12 noon because the Scots are so cheap. They figure, why waste 12 cannon-balls when they could wait an hour and use only one.Makes sense.
In the middle of the day, after lunch I did the Mary King’s
Close guided tour. It was fascinating. They had completely covered over an
entire length of street and housing right after the plague. It is all still
there underground now. It runs right under the Council Chambers. It was so well
preserved and I wanted to go exploring on my own. We went to a ‘haunted’ room
where apparently a psychic was filming some ten or so years ago and just as she
was leaving saw the image of a little girl with matted hair, weeping and
crying, the room shrouded in pain and fear. Her name was Annie. When she asked
the girl why she was crying, she had said that her family had left her and she
had lost her dolly too. Apparently the psychic sent one of her crew up to buy
one. In the room is the doll, a little Barbie with tartan dress, but also there
is a massive mound of soft toys that people have left over the year to the
little girl.
It was a little bit unnerving to be in rooms of people who
had suffered so much, to have died of the black death.
I went back to the hostel to cook dinner then made the
decision to go on one of the night walking tours. We headed to the graveyard
and along the way the guide, a very energetic and talented storyteller told all
sorts of tales, including lots of crazy facts like the fact that there are over
200,000 bodies buried in the cemetery and about the disgusting habits those in
Edinburgh had, throwing their chamber pots out onto the streets, shouting out ‘gardeyloo’
(I think that’s what the word was). Apparently the age old saying was that when
travelling to Edinburgh, you would smell it before you saw it. She took us all
the way to the Vaults. I was fine up until that point and then I felt sick,
like someone was pressing on my windpipe. It was horrible. It was where they
would take poor souls to be tortured duing the 1400s and 1500s when witchtrails
were rife. The things they did to men, women and children was horrific and we
were all standing in the near dark vault where it all happened while she spoke.
I was glad when it was over and we could get out of there.
So, that was my day. It was super full but fun and I am
trying to decide if I am brave enough to do another night ghost tour. Not sure
I need any more details on torture of the middle ages, I have had my fill, but
I would like to hear more about the history and the people. I’ll see how I go
tonight. Fingers crossed for an uneventful night’s sleep.
