Holiday Part II: Edinburgh

Day 7:

Started the day early by getting up at 5am in order to catch the 6:30am bus to Edinburgh.

We had to leave so early in order to arrive in Edinburgh before 11am
to watch their annual "Kilt Walk"!

In case it's still not obvious, we were intriuged more by the "kilts" (ahem, and the people wearing it) and less by the "walk". In fact, we didn't even bother to catch up with the walk. We simply leisurely made our way to the end-point and waited for the "walkers" to arrive.

In the meantime, there was a band playing the bagpipes and traditional scottish music so there we sat listening to their music while waiting...

Personal comment: Seeing large numbers of Scots in their kilts is truly a sight to behold. If your impression of Scots in kilts = men in skirts = some girly connotation, you are so so wrong. They wear it with pride and...

They look as manly as any other guy wearing trousers, maybe even more so.

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After the kilt walk, we made our way to the Edinburgh Castle. The owner of our hostel told us that this was one of two days in each year that visitors were given free admission to the castle. Admission is usually £9.80. Yipee! Lucky us!

Spent practically half the afternoon there walking the castle grounds and visiting the various exhibitions that were impossible to complete viewing in a day...

At the end, we even spent half an hour queuing
to get a glimpse of the Crown Jewels...

Queuing...

A familiar pastime...

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Next stop was a kindda factory - kindda tourist-y shop cum exhibition.

First the tartan must be woven...

Next, select a tartan based on the clan you belong to...

Or, if you're not Scottish, just chose a design you like...

... and you're ready to have your own tartan

socks,

scarf,

kilt,

and tie!

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Julia happened to have friends visiting her from Germany and they were in Edinburgh the same day too! So we arranged to meet up. In a pub. For a couple of drinks.

Actually, we each had only 1 drink...

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End of day and time to go back to the hostel... Speaking of hostels, Cui and I rated our hostels at the end of the whole trip and we both agreed that the hostel in Glasgow was the best (I imagine it's almost impossible to beat that kindda value for money) while our hostel in Edinburgh was the worst...

6 beds haphazardly placed in a small room.

We shared the room with 2 Polish guys,

and a South African couple.

Cui was very disturbed by the underwear

that one of the guys hung in the middle of the room to dry...

The toilets were very cramped...
(even for petite little me!)

and was covered from floor to ceiling (door included)

with horrendous monkey wallpaper!

I would be sitting on the toilet and be

face-to-face with this huge gorilla.

A real pleasure...

The bathroom was not attractive enough to

entice us to take showers so we decided

to hold out till the next day...

Our male South African room-mate deserves a mention... While his girlfriend walked around looking permanently grumpy, he walked around in a perpetual state of cheeriness and was rather sociable throughout (we actually think he is the cause of his gf's grumpiness).

When we entered the room to sleep, we found him concentrating hard blowing into this long metal tube that was mostly straight except for a curve at the bottom. While it was obvious that he was trying to make "music", his "instrument" was a total mystery to us. So we asked. And we were told that the metal tube was a part of a vacuum cleaner. (u know the metal tube you hold while vacuuming?) *speechless*

And he was serious! He would huff and he would puff into the metal tube (I don't even know what the proper name is, if it does have a proper name in the first place), then take a couple of sips from the bottle of wine next to him, then continue huffing and puffing into the metal tube... Apparently he practised every night! It was a real toss up between feeling annoyed - because it was so damn noisy and we couldn't sleep, and wanting to laugh - because the noise he produced was so perculiar. His girlfriend slept with ear plugs, she was evidently used to his eccentricities...

It made me think... WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE I'M SHARING THE ROOM WITH?!!

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Part II of the where-I-come-from game:

After a short conversation about what I'm studying...

Hostel owner: So which part of Glasgow are you from?

Me: I'm not from Glasgow. I'm not even Scottish.

Hostel owner: Really? If I spoke to you on the phone, I would be completely sure you were from Glasgow.

Me: No... I'm Singaporean. Really.

Hostel owner: So why do you sound Glaswegian?

Me: Maybe because I worked in Glasgow for a while... and I've been spending too much time with Glaswegian friends.

Hostel owner: Ah ok... yes, the Glaswegian accent is quite sing-song and easy to pick up...

Current score:
China: 1
Scotland: 1
Singapore: 0