Scotland: Take me to Edinburgh

Staying in Edinburgh was like a dream.

We took a ferry and three trains to Edinburgh, and it turned out our final destination was right in the heart of town. It also turned out that the hostel we wanted to say in was opposite that station. And it turned out we had picked our best hostel yet.

Perfection.

The St Christopher’s hostel in Edinburgh was fabulous. We paid £60 each for three nights staying in a 10 person female dorm with a private ensuite.

Divine.

Austin Powers was here

Everything in the room was pink and orange – the walls, doonas and pillows, and the lighting. There was a cute teddy bear in the room and it had a homely shower. And there was a full length mirror.

Hallelujah.

Cute bunks

I am watching you

Not a jail shower

The hostel also has a restaurant and bar below, with guest enjoying 10% off meals and even more off drinks.

Every Thursday night a band plays in the hostel bar, so we had a drink, shouted out a few requests, sang along to Bon Jovi, and had a few more drinks.

Shots were £2, bombs were £2 and mixed drinks were £2.50. It was a good night.

Cheers big ears, not suss at all

Get it down, it doesn't taste like petrol!

haaaaaaaaahhhhhhh it burns!

The bass player and his comedian roommate took us up a few scary looking staircases, up the Royal Mile, to the nightclub Opium. This turned out to be an alternative/ heavy metal club – not really our scene if you hadn’t picked that up.

But when in Edinburgh, why the hell not?!

"Do you have a girlfriend?" "No, but I'm really close with my mum"

The city is beautiful, even from out hostel window we could see some incredible architecture, with a castle smack bang in the centre of town, opposite shopping centres. It was so easy to navigate our way around, and everything was so close.

We took part in a free walking tour of the city lasting three hours where we learnt about Edinburgh Castle, The Stone of Destiny, and plenty of old stories from our gorgeous tour guide, Brendan.

So when he asked for a volunteer, I happily obliged.

Brendan the Babe

You spit on my heart? I spit on you

Pretty Edinburgh

We visited the coffee shop where J K Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, a graveyard with headstones naming Harry Potter characters, and the school inspiring Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Cafe above the Oz bar, fantastic

The birthplace of Harry Potter

The real Tom Riddell's tombstone  

Sneaky pic of fake Hogwarts

In the same grave yard, we learnt that Edinburgh is the most haunted city in Europe, and this site is famous for many poltergeist attacks.

Apparently in recent years a homeless man crawled into a crypt to escape the elements. However he was too heavy and he fell through the floor of the old crypt and onto the coffin below, scattering the bones onto the ground. These bones once belonged to George Mackenzie, a Lord Advocate of Scotland.

Shocked and covered in human remains the man tried to clamber out of the depths of the tomb.

When he emerged covered in dirt and body parts he terrified all who passed by. Apparently since this accident there have been over 600 reported incidence of people being touched, pushed, pulled and walked through by a poltergeist in the area.

A reverend was sent down into the Crypt to check it out and perform any necessary rituals. He emerged after 15 minutes claiming if he spent any longer down there the Mackenzie Poltergeist would kill him.

He died two weeks later.

Spooky shit.

The Black Mausoleum has since been closed, and when we went past it there was definitely blood smeared on the entrance.

Edinburgh felt very much like home, and I too would have loved to sit in a coffee shop each night writing something that would make me richer than the Queen.

N L Labourne