BlOGMAS DAY 4: A NEW POST It is a period of civil blog.

So when we last left our intrepid blogmas story, our mildly psychotic blogger had been getting ready to go to Edinburgh via bus, mainly because it's cheaper. Heck, entirely because it's cheaper.

He also had his handy camera.

So after getting to the station and finding that the railman did not in fact say you've got the wrong location (and also almost forgetting to add a "w" to wrong, which would have been terrible), he sat on a bus. For a veeeery long time. Thankfully he had apportéd some snacks of various sorts- probably a Yorkie bar (NOT FOR GIRLS), and he had La Cage Aux Folles, which was rather disappointingly quickly finished. He also had his handy ability to sleep. After seeing that yes, obesity DOES happen in Europe (specifically Newcastle by the looks of things- sorry to any Newcastlers Newcastlians Newcastlites people from Newcastle that might be reading this), he managed to make it to Edinburgh and go find his hostel. He got his ridiculous self checked in and fed on Lord knows what before trying to get a good night's sleep. Yeah, this is one boring intrepid hero. Can you even be boring and intrepid? I don't even know anymore.

Anyhoo, the next morning started out with a walking through the park by Prince Street and walking up and down the Royal Mile and resisting the mild temptation to buy a kilt or other kitschy souvenirs for people with Scottish heritage. In that regard, I succeeded (though I did get another wonderful souvenir- more on that to come). Around this point, I realized that I had no idea what to do next. Thankfully, I had asked people for ideas and didn't just decide to write a really dry blog post about it, because that would be kinda lame. And by kinda, I mean ridiculously so, especially if I commented about how it was a dry post in the middle of it. I mean, meta can be great and all, but seriously guy?

Hooom let's find some flow again. Is it here now? Let's say that it is. Besides, now I've got enough written to legitimately be able to go onto a new picture without feeling like I'm cheating you out of MY PHENOMENAL WORDS FOR I AM BRIAN BLESSED.

Ahurm.

Yes, so I found that I had very little idea of what to do- I didn't want to hit up the art museums just yet, and was a bit far away to go to the Nelson Monument at that point, so I figured that I'd man up and pay the many pounds to do the whiskey tour. That's right.

You also get to take absurd self-photos in mirrors. Or
maybe that was just me.

Rob went to the Scottish Whiskey Experience. And hopefully isn't misspelling "whiskey" every time he types it. I actually recommend going- the first part is a bit Disney-ish in that it's all "OH HAY GUYS I'M A GHOST AND I'MA TELL YOU HOW THEY MAKE WHISKEY WITH HOLOGRAMS AND A BARREL RIDE AND SMELLS," but after that they actually start to talk about the differences in the whiskey styles, and of course you get to taste one and see an absurd collection. And hey, there's a discount in the whiskey store, which was also tempting, but I didn't want to have to deal with carrying a bottle on the flight back. Plus they were still like 40 pounds. No thank you.

Aaanyhoo, I went to a writing museum that was not really worth the nothing that I had to pay to get in, and then I guess I tooled around Prince Street and New Town for a while before settling on a pub, because goddammit I was going to have me some haggis. Little did I know that I'd also be having neeps and tatties and a Scottish beer. (Well, I probably did know that deep down, but I guess I didn't want to admit it to myself.) It was extremely delicious and I got to talk to a rather drunk Welsh couple that was visiting the city- it was an... interesting experience. Fun conversation, but they were certainly not sober in the least.

Anyhoo, the next day I DID go to that park with the Nelson Monument, and because I hadn't done enough stair and hill work between all the stairs and hills I'd been doing, I decided I'd climb the monument and take some pictures of the city. It was a very pretty park, and I got to watch the ball drop and even got a picture of it (okay fine one before dropping and one after). So yeah, that was fun. Of course, then there were art museums which were okay, but I mean, I'm living in Paris- I can go to any number of museums and see some pretty awesome art. I went to the Orsay today on a freaking whim. It takes some good art to impress me, my fellow Scotsmen. Plus they were doing the whole "guilt you into donating" thing that really turned me off the whole experience.

But! I did get to top that off with a g-g-g-ghost tour. I feel like there was something between the ghost tour and this other stuff. Maybe I picked up something at the store? I don't even know man. I probably walked around for a while. Anyhoo, we went in the catacombs down there, and a poltergeist drained my batteries.

Seriously. So in the last room on the tour, there's supposed to be this poltergeist that is super misogynistic, so they put the guys on one side and the girls on the other. Apparently I was in the worst place to be standing, because I felt what may have been a drip of water on my head, and then the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up something fierce. When I left, my fully charged iPod was no longer fully charged, and my camera and phone had both lost a bar of battery. Maybe I wasn't aware of how well/poorly they were charged, I dunno. But I'll stick to the story of  "Poltergeist drained my battery," in a manner similar to this.

Anyhoo after that I grabbed some proper fish and chips (wherein I also got carded, so groovy). (Not for the fish and chips- for the beer I had with it.) And the next day I had to leave.

BUT FIRST!

I mean come on guys. I was raised Presbyterian. There is no WAY I'm going to Edinburgh without hitting up St. Giles. And hit it up I did. I really liked the church- it did a really good job of having that cathedral feel while also keeping a distinctly Protestant-and-not-Anglican feel to it. There was some extremely modern stained glass, and it was just generally a cool building and a great experience for me to cap off the trip.

Of course, I wasn't quite done yet- I went and picked up some food for the way back (including a pie, which I ate on the train platform at the airport), and at the airport, I needed to work through the rest of my pounds, which resulted in me buying some delicious snack food, including chips and probably another Yorkie Bar (NOT FOR GIRLS)- I do so love Yorkie Bars apparently.

Oh! But I didn't tell you about my awesome purchase which happened between St. Giles and the airport! I finally got a water bottle! See, in Paris nobody uses reusable water bottles it seems, and finding them requires spending like 20 euro for a 0.6 L (like 3 cups) water bottle from a bike store. But on Prince St. there was an outdoor store that was having a sale, and I picked up a 1 L aluminum (in Davidson red, though now it's dented Davidson red with silver bits) water bottle for 2.99 pounds. It has been treating me quite well ever since. We're very happy together and you're just jealous. But it's okay- I'll leave you with a picture of some junk in the trunk that I saw at the airport.

I didn't enter the sweepstakes to win this car. Shipping it to the states would have broken me.