The American Woman who went up a mountain and came down a Hill

It is very nice to get out of the city center when visiting a new city, at least as time and transportation allows. Sometimes it is hard how to do that, but with lovely Edinburgh, it was quite easy.

After I arrived at the Waverly train stop. BTW- Thanks Allan for chatting with me on the second half of the train ride. I hope you and your fiancée had a lovely time at the ball. Had I been brighter, I would have asked if she had any single colleagues who needed a date as angling my way into a Scottish Ball would have made a helluva story.

I digress. After checking into the hotel, I promptly went straight for the City Sightseeing bus. I know bus tours are a bit cheesy, but I have found they are a good way to see a lot of a city quickly, get a sense of geography and direction, and occasionally meet other travelers. This one was bit disappointing, but functional. I jumped off at the Castle.

Aaahhh, the castle. I had been hearing about for ages. It was beautiful. And surprisingly huge inside. Aesthetically, it kicks the Stockholm castles ass. One thing I have been getting from being in places that are centuries old is a sense of humility - kings and queens and religious leaders come and go, and yet they barely scratch the surface of history. It takes some of the pressure of worrying about the day to day stuff away. It appears that I will have to order a beheading or poison my brother (sorry Chris) to make any real legacy.

After the castle and some wandering around the royal mile, I headed back to the hotel to take a quick nap and freshen up. I don't know about other single travelers, but what do you do with yourself at night? I think I'm pretty independent, but I'm a little lost what to do by myself in a new town on a Saturday night. Going to a pub by myself and just sitting there looking for someone to talk to is something I don't like doing. Any other suggestions?

I had seen some signs for a literary pub crawl, so I thought that would be right up my alley. Drinking with Lit geeks? Perfect! Unfortunately, it appears the other geeks couldn't put their books down and be bothered to show up. Not having found the other people for the tour, I moved on to plan B - a ghost tour. You see, Edinburgh has a dark history plagued with lots of crime and, well, plagues. It was jolly good fun hearing about the 9 layers of bodies in some graveyards as well as the fact that it is estimated that 2-5% of them were actually buried alive, and begot both the phrases dead ringer and saved by the bell. Overall, it turned out to be an entertaining way to spend the evening and I met some friendly locals.

Having gotten to bed at a reasonable time, I woke up refreshed and ready take on the day. On the city's edge was a huge hill called Arthur's Seat. On my tour yesterday I had seen people hiking to the top and I thought it seemed like a good idea at the time. I started at what I thought was the base and just started going up. Now, I have run marathons and although I am not in peak training shape, I think I would have no trouble. Hiking is just walking, right? Uhh, no. After ten minutes, my heart was racing and I was having some trouble catching my breath. But I'm prideful and I wouldn't throw in the towel so soon (and then I saw a man and his two-year old coming down the path.) I persevered. It was one of those hikes that you think the top is just around the corner about a dozen times. And then the path started going downhill. WHAT? Where was the peak I saw people on yesterday? Again, I persevered. After I had gone on another ten minutes, I was in a sort of valley between the two peaks.

That's when I saw it, I'll never forget that feeling of defeat. The road that went parallel to the steep ledge I had just spent the last hour traversing. All of those people had just strolled their way around. However, this only brought you to the steps at the bottom of the real ascent. As I have made this entry too long already, I'll just say that I finally made it to the top. As soon as I made it, I was promptly almost blown off by the wind. A few pics, and I headed down the other side where all of the children, families, and pensioners were casually making their way up the easy side.

Advice - if we are ever out hiking together, and I say "this looks like a good way to go" for the love of God, drag me the other way.