Back to Edinburgh
My train was departing at 10am so it was another early day for me. When I checked out I had to pay, oops! I try to pay everything in advance but you have to remember to ask them to charge your card right away or else they just hold the information and charge you when you check out. I must’ve gotten caught up with something else and completely forgot about it.
The taxi man was nice and I got to the train station without a problem and had a sandwich and some coffee. I did have to pay for wifi on the train again but of course the station and all the trams and buses in Edinburgh offer free wifi so that was great. I was also able to charge my phone on the train.
When I arrived in Edinburgh I wanted to drop my luggage off at my hotel.. I used Edinburgh’s VERY handy public transportation app. It links itself with a ticket app too so it knows what kind of ticket you have and will only give you routes covered under the ticket you’ve bought. I got to the hotel and it was in the middle of nowhere but still a 10£ ride to the airport. This is another reason I recommend staying in the city, even on your last night. I probably wasted at least two hours of time going back and forth when I could’ve just dropped everything off, spent more time in the city, and then taken the tram directly to the airport- no taxi required.
When I left the hotel I forgot my sunglasses and also I had inadvertently turned my dad’s DSLR camera on at some point so the battery was dead :( the taxi was 12£ just to get dropped off at the nearest stop for the tram only four miles or so away. Frustrating! But it’s hard to plan when you don’t know any better.
Either way, I made it to Calton Hill! Unfortunately the Nelson Monument was closed so I wasn’t able to climb it but I was still able to walk around and see the old city observatory, the National Monument, and a few other monuments. Also great views of the city and Arthur’s Seat, the hill that I climbed when I first started my trip. You could also see a cruise ship docked in the firth!
The National Monument is a massive column structure. It was inspired by the Parthenon in Athens but was never finished. There are no stairs to get up and since I’m alone it was looking very rough because of the cast but then two Australians, a Canadian, and a girl from Boston came along and the Aussie let everyone stand on his thigh and shoulder to get up. I love friendly people! So I walked around on the monument for a bit and took some photos, then jumped down and ventured over by the new city hall and then through an old cemetery that gave me the creeps.
I spent a few hours at the hill and I forgot it was Sunday so I went to the shops. I didn’t really buy much for anyone because it’s so expensive there.. The dollar is horrible in comparison to British pounds, everything’s almost double. I had been lamenting about forgetting my earrings though and I found a pair of Scotties I couldn’t refuse.
I was pretty hungry so I took the tram back to Haymarket Station which was where my train had arrived earlier. There was a nice looking restaurant/pub across the street. It says Haymarket but I think it might be called Nicholson’s Freehouse. They had a good selection of beer and offered a veggie burger AND they let me charge my phone!
I took the tram to the Edinburgh Park station and had to wait about 35 minutes for my bus, a different one than I’d taken earlier. The bus driver was very nice and thought I sounded English, which is funny because another of Alex’s friends (from Leeds, I forget her name) said I sound totally Midwestern. He let me off earlier than the last stop because I guess it was closer to my hotel but I had no idea where I was going! A man and his kids who got off in the same spot told me to go left so I did and just kept walking. Eventually I found it but it was scary walking alone at night since we are so used to not doing it. It was only 8:30pm or so but I still felt uncomfortable, a rabbit ran out of a bush and I nearly wet myself.
I got back to the hotel and organized my bags.. I decided to keep the beer steins in my suitcase wrapped in clothes and I put my Oktoberfest maß (maß is an abbreviation for the Maßkrug, which is the glass that holds your litre of Bier at Oktoberfest) in my backpack. Fingers crossed nothing gets broken, I’ll be very sad!
I woke up around 4:15am and everything went smoothly. Had a big vegetarian breakfast at a Wetherspoons at the airport.