Scotland Day 1

Tuesday morning, the 29th of September, I awoke early and packed for the trip. We left Falmer at 9:21 and changed at Brighton to Gatwick. We got to Gatwick about 10:30am and had absolutely nothing to do until our plane left at 2:00pm. We got through security in a grand total of fifteen minutes and we didn't have to check in because we had no luggage to check and we had already checked in on-line before we left (we are so smart!). We walked around Gatwick, had some lunch, just looked around in all the duty-free stores full of a million different kinds of perfume. Talked to a man from Portugal who kept saying we were lucky to be from America, "the land of opportunity".
Every time you mention you are from America, people get all talkative and talk about their uncle or aunt or brother that lives there and how they would like to visit them, but never got an invitation. Or how they visited this state or that state, etc. Most people have heard of Idaho, but a lot of people still ask Apryl if New Mexico is in the U.S.A.
Well, anyway, I tried a duck and Hoisen sauce sandwich. Not being to sure of the duck I warily decided to try it thinking, maybe, duck isn't as bad as I remembered, and I was right. It wasn't bad at all. I think the duck I had four years previous was rather dry, or something. And the Hoisen sauce definitely helped the flavor of the duck. Duck is very dark, though, and oily, but it was still good. They don't like turkey here. You can hardly find turkey anywhere, it's rather depressing sometimes for an American.
Apryl had never had Toblerone, so I bought some and let her try it. She liked it, hooray! I love the stuff and ended up eating most of it... I couldn't help it.
We finally flew out of Gatwick and arrived in Edinburgh around 3:00, about 10 minutes early, which was cool. We walked to our Hostel from the bus stop at Waverley and chilled out for a bit, then we went out and walked around. We walked down High Street and the Royal Mile to the North Bridge. We walked along a street, I cannot remember the name of and came upon a Scottish Episcopalian Church. Being brought up as an Episcopalian, I was curious to see what would be inside, and it said it was open to the public, so we walked into a completely empty church. It always amazes me how quiet churches can be. Well, as luck would have it, there was a piano there, unlocked and open, just inviting someone to play it. There was literally no one there. I checked to make sure I would be bothering no one and began to play. I just played a little improvised song on the spot since I really had no music in my memory that would serve for such a quiet place. The only song I really have memorized is "The Minute Waltz" by Chopin, and that was definitely not the place to play it. The interior of the church was very beautiful and plain and simple. As we found out later, the Scots like to keep it simple and do not agree with elaborate religious showiness. They fight very hard against a lot of adornment that has nothing to do with God. They also believe there is a one-on-one connection with God and fought very hard to resist the imposition of the traditions of the Catholic church, which put a Bishop between the people and God, and made the King the head of the church, at least back in the day. But still, although the building was beautiful like almost all the buildings in Edinburgh, and the architecture was lovely, the adornment was rather plain, even by American church's standards. They had wooden chairs and very little glittering gold, or anything of that sort. It was a very nice church and I was so thrilled to be able to play a piano (it had been three weeks since I stroked the keys!). Even if for only a few minutes. So, we stayed there for about ten minutes and then moved on. We walked back to Waverley and saw a giant steeple/monument looking thing. We wondered what it was, so we crossed the bridge and road to find out. We discovered it was a monument to Sir Walter Scot and is the world's largest monument dedicated to a writer. Sweet. We payed the 3 pounds to climb to it's very top and got a terrific view of the city. Although it was a bit rainy and cloudy, it added to the sort of romantic, dramatic, gothic feeling the city has. The rain fits it. I think it was in that moment that I said, "I love Edinburgh" over and over to which Apryl replied, "No, really? I couldn't tell." Or something of that sarcastic nature. Apryl being very sarcastic. She's really funny, though.
The Scott's Monument is a spectacular piece of artwork. Beautiful in every aspect. With four buttresses arching over a large statue of Sir Walter Scott. The buttresses connect to form the first platform and then the spire with buttresses begins from there to the other levels. There are a total of four levels to the monument. The gargoyles are mostly of dogs, Scott, from what I can gather from the monument, was very fond of dogs. They were everywhere and all kinds. At the very top, there was a statue of Sir Scott again, with his dog looking down over the city of Edinburgh. It was absolutely lovely in every way.
Okay, so the little guy, he was actually an older gentleman, that took the three pounds was a Scotsman from Edinburgh and apparently was a little bitter he had lived there his whole life. But he was nice. And said we were just in time for the last tour, or whatever. We just climbed up and up the steep, spiraling stair case. A couple of times the walls got narrower as we were climbing, and that gave me sort of a sick sensation, but we just kept going up and I thought about the end of the stairs and that helped. I wasn't scared, but my knees were shaking for some reason. In fact, they were shaking going all the way back down the 247 steps we climbed up and all the way up Cockburn street until we got to the Potato Shop, which was a vegetarian/vegan, well, Potato Shop. Baked potatoes with all kinds of toppings. I had Cheese, onion, and Pineapple potato with butter and salt (mmm...) and this orange soda that I had never seen before. The flavor really isn't orange, but the can was, so I tasted it, and Apryl tasted it and said, "Tastes like Cream soda"... I thought it tasted faintly of children's tylenol. But it was still good. It was called Barr's IRN-BRU. At first I thought maybe it was a beer, but the ingredients were not that of an ale, so I bought it. The people in the Potato Shop were very nice, and we sat in their tiny corner booth and enjoyed our potatoes. I think it's funny that Idaho doesn't have a potato shop. I'm sure it would be just as popular as the Bagel Shop, especially in Moscow, especially if it were of the vegetarian/vegan variety. We walked up and down the Royal Mile a little more and then hoofed it back to the Hostel. It was getting dark about that time. I took a shower that night before going to the lounge downstairs for some hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was tasty. Cadbury's Dark...mmmm.... That was some seriously good hot chocolate. The hostel was really nice because it was only 20p for a towels and there was free bedding (where other hostels will charge you 5 pounds for a towel and bedding) and they gave you free use of the kitchen as long as you clean up after yourself (easy). And they provided, for free, the above said delicious hot chocolate (a definite plus). Apryl and I were both really tired, so we retired early. We thought we were going to be in an all female dorm room, but it turns out we were two of three girls in a hostel room with four other European guys that all slept in their underwear... and only their underwear. A little bit of a shock? Just a tad. But they minded their own business and we ours, so nothing came of it. Most of them came in really late and left early, or they were still asleep when we left, so the only thing I said to them was, as I was half-way asleep, "You can turn the light on if you want to, it won't bother me", to which they said, "oh, that's okay". So, that was that. End of day one. It was an awesome day.