We've decided we really need to sleep more on this trip. We've been sleeping fine except for the nights before our 6:15 am trains. Invariably, we struggle with this concept. Hopefully we conquer this difficulty before our next journey.
We returned to Edinburgh Tuesday night, and spent the night settling into our hostel. We let some fellow travelers in on the wonders of the Isle of Skye, prompting them to spontaneously rent a car for their next day's travels to Skye. We've met many other travelers who seem to fly by the seat of their pants as much as we do.
We made some delicious food, a great change from going to restaurants and ordering one appetizer or soup for our meal. Our hostel was incredibly nice, and our kind host did our laundry for us, ordered us taxis, and let us eat breakfast before official opening time.
The next day we made an official Harry Potter superfan jaunt across Edinburgh. We planned to take a free walking tour later, but were concerned we might miss the Harry Potter sites, so we made sure to visit them first. We discovered Tom Riddle's tomb in a corner of Greyfriar's Kirk cemetery, gazed upon a suspiciously Hogwarts-esque school, and stopped by the Elephant House cafè.
We joined up with our walking your, which was led by our fantastic tour guide Sabela, a young Spanish woman. She did an excellent job and let us in on many fun stories from the history of Edinburgh, including stool fights, getting s***faced, how to distinguish tourists from locals based on who spit where on the sidewalk, loyal puppies named Bobby, and the Stone of Destiny.
Last night in honor of our location we watched Braveheart. Some friendly Chileans were extremely intrigued by Maria, and attempted to distract her throughout the movie. Luckily, they could not compare to the glory of Mel Gibson's woad-covered freedom fighting.
Edinburgh's Old Town was charming, although quite windy. We hope to visit again in the future.
"Part of the ship, part of the crew"
- Giana