Scotland, Scotland the Brave

            Yesterday, our first and only full day in Edinburgh, was wonderful and shockingly busy! After not sleeping well the night before, I went with some other members of the group on a walking tour of the city at 10:30, accompanied by Professor Lomas (our Durham professor) and Sally. It was a long walk into the main part of the city from Chancellor's Court where we stayed--about 45 minutes, but we were entertained all the way with Professor Lomas' stories, like how Spittal Street was the site of a medieval hospital, and the battle of Floddard that led to the creation of a massive wall around the medieval city. We walked up the royal mile, stopping in to see the Church of St Giles and its beautiful chapel of the Order of the Garter and the monument to Sir Robert Louis Stevenson.

    

          Edinburgh is crowded right now because of the annual Edinburgh Festival going on, so the Royal Mile was positively packed with street performers and tourists, making it hard to move around the closer we got to the castle. Eventually we veered off to a street where we got an excellent view of the city and Professor Lomas showed us where the National Gallery was, as well as a few other things.

          After the tour, a few of us went to a pub on the royal mile for some fish and chips, which were very good! Then back to the National Gallery, though I've decided to give it a whole post to itself haha. 

         At 7:30 we all got to attend the Edinburgh Military Tattoo which was a real experience! There were performances by a motorcycle performance group, aztecs, mongols, mexicans and koreans! My favorite part was the New Zealand military band which seemed to be having a lot of fun--they gangham styled and the Lord of the Rings theme along with some other famous movie songs. There were high winds but they still got to shoot off the fireworks! It was really wonderful. At the end we all held hands and sung "Auld Lang syne" which was adorable and very patriotic. 

                                                  

        After the Tattoo, Melissa, Noor, Whitney, Alex, Meg and I went to Ramyan's, a really great middle eastern restaurant on the Royal Mile. Meg and I both got the Chicken Kebseh and huge bowls of Naan. We all had a great time eating and visiting :) Then caught a cab back to pack and get ready for the next day's journey to Durham!