I left for the Alicante airport bright and early for my flight to Edinburgh, Scotland. It seemed really strange to be back at the airport again after such a short period of time! I mean, I only got two full days at home before I left again!
The flight this time was much less turbulant, and I had some pleasant company next to me--even if only 75% of it was intelligible. I was sitting next to a group of Scottish men on some sort of bro-cation (or man-cation? Mid-life crisis?). Whatever you call a group of middle-aged men going on vacation together. They were extremely nice and willing to give this guiri lots of advice.
At least, I think most of it was advice.
For all that the Scottlish people speak English, it´s definitely not like the English we speak in the US. It was a bit of a struggle to understand them at first. And I´m a native speaker of English!
We landed with no problems, and then we had to pass through border control. I´ve heard horror stories of people passing through UK border control. I´ve had friends who have been detained while the border control officers contacted the people they were staying with to verify their address, etc.
I actually ended up passing through border control faster than the Brits! At the Edinburgh Airport, the line is divided into two parts--UK and EU passports and all other passports. As one of only three people with a non-EU passport, I just had to answer a few questions, and I was officially in Scotland!
On the bus into the center of Edinburgh, I met yet another incredibly nice Scottish lady (though technically she wasn´t born Scottish). She gave me a little bit of history about the city--telling me that it´s divided into two parts the New Town and Old Town. These names are a little deceiving. The New Town is only comparatively newer than the Old Town. It was constructed around the Georgian era--making it rather old but not as old as the Old Town which has buildings from the era of the Reformation.
After checking in at my hostel, I decided to spend the rest of the day exploring the city. First, I saw Greyfriars Kirk. It´s an old church--technically a kirk. It's famous for two things--being haunted and it's dog. The graveyard is supposedly haunted by George MacKenzie. Sometimes people pass through the cemetery and leave with unexplained bumps and bruises.
Greyfriars is particularly famous for a dog--known as Greyfriar´s Bobby. Apparently, his owner was a policeman. When the policeman died, the dog loyally stayed by his grave everyday until his own death. Afterwards, a statue was erected to honor the loyalty of the dog.
Upon entering the city, I also got my first look at a blue policebox--which made me squee with joy. For Doctor Who fans, it means that the real TARDIS might be lurking somewhere in Edinburgh!
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