Edinburgh, United Kingdom

November 2024

First Thoughts

Me and a couple of friends from university had been discussing a joint holiday for a while. While the other two had gone on holiday together before, and the three of us had had a few meet ups in London over the years, nothing like this had happened. We banded about a few ideas, including Dublin, Belfast, and the Scottish Highlands, before deciding on Edinburgh.

I’d not been to Edinburgh for a decade, and I hadn’t even been to Scotland at all for six years before this trip. We made a list of things we’d like to see, some of them mainstream Edinburgh attractions, and some of them less conventional to suit our specific wants. We decided to travel during the October half-term of 2024, over Halloween and going home just before Bonfire Night.

Day One

On our first day, we all made our individual ways to Edinburgh, with one friend flying from her local city, Plymouth, to Edinburgh Airport, therefore overtaking us and arriving first. The three of us convened at Edinburgh Waverley train station, which was to become a bit of a hub for us over the course of the week. We had a drink together at The Booking Office, the large Wetherspoons just outside the station, and I found Scottish spoons to be rather like English spoons, with one key difference: they were full of Scottish people.

Rather than head to our Airbnb, we dropped my suitcase off at a local shop and made plans to go to our first booking, The Holyrood Distillery, one of Edinburgh’s many brewery tours. The Holyrood Distillery focused on making whiskey, and whilst that Whiskey was brewing over a long period of time, Gin as well. During the age of development and the Industrial Revolution, brewing had become Edinburgh’s main export, turning it into the affluent and impressive city you can see today. During the tour, we were given several shots as tasters, and it turns out that one of my friends didn’t like whiskey or gin straight, so I had all of her tasters as well as my own. By the end of the tour, I was feeling quite merry.

From the Holyrood Distillery tour, we headed back into the city centre on foot, where we ate at Makars MASH bar, a place my friend knew from Instagram, where we were treated to a menu where all the food involved some form of mashed potato (traditional or sweet). I paired my sweet, mashed potato with some Haggis, a Scottish delicacy made from Sheep’s heart, liver and lungs. The MASH bar was an affordable, unique experience, which was a nice introduction to Edinburgh’s restaurant scene.

After eating out, the three of us headed back to the Newsagents and picked up my suitcase. We then took an Uber to our Airbnb, a small flat on the western edge of the city centre, a little too far from the city centre to walk, but in a fairly safe, quiet location.

Images
- Top left: My friend at The Booking Office pub
- Top right: The Balmoral Hotel, with Edinburgh Waverley Train Station in the foreground

- Bottom left:, Entrance way to the Holyrood Distillery tour

- Bottom right: Dinner at Makars MASH bar

Day Two

At the start of our first full day, we headed out from the Airbnb on foot, out to the west, towards Edinburgh Zoo. Edinburgh Zoo is one of the largest in the UK after Chester and London, and is home to a range of exotic wildlife. Also, unlike many other large zoos, it is situated on a hill like much of Edinburgh, and we experienced a bit of a workout trying to get from enclosure to enclosure. We were impressed by the large range of Penguins that the zoo had to offer, with one King Penguin, particularly, Sir Nils Olav, having been made Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian Royal Guard. Yes, that’s as weird as it sounds.

I found the collection of great apes and Edinburgh Zoo’s concerted efforts to build up a large family of Chimpanzees in captivity to be particularly interesting. In the Zoo shop after we’d finished, I found myself a new Bear-themed Christmas jumper, as well as a book about Wojtek, a bear which had served the Polish army during World War Two and afterwards had retired to Edinburgh Zoo, becoming something of a local celebrity. We walked back to the Airbnb and then got changed, getting ready for a night out in the city centre for Halloween.

We headed into the city centre and had dinner at The Vegan Sora, a pasta-based vegan restaurant my friend had found through Instagram. I had Penne with a glass of wine and followed this up with a Vegan cheesecake. After the food, we headed out into the city, stopping at Supercube, a Japanese-style Karaoke Bar, where we raised the roof. We then headed to a studenty bar, where we all collectively decided that we were all a bit too old to be there.

At the end of the night, at around 2 am, we decided to head back by Uber to the Airbnb, having been tipped out of the bar at closing time. We’d ensured that day three was going to be quite a long day, no matter what we got up to.

Images
- Top left: Entrance to Edinburgh Zoo
- Top right: Penguin at Edinburgh Zoo

- Bottom left: My friend and I at Edinburgh Zoo

- Bottom right: Dinner at the Vegan Sora restuarant.

Day Three

One of my two friends had left the club early the night before, she woke up early and informed us that she was going to head out to climb Arthur’s Seat, the Mountain Peak just to the East of the city centre. After a considerable amount of time, my other friend and I got up and slowly got ready for the day. Dressing down and feeling considerably sorry for ourselves, we cured our hangovers by visiting the McDonald’s at the end of the road next to the Airbnb. We then got on the bus and headed into the city centre.

On our way into the city centre, I got very excited as an Edinburgh local and Game of Thrones actor, Iain Glen walked out in front of our bus on a pedestrian crossing. When I shouted out his name, my friend, who has never seen an episode of Game of Thrones, simply said ‘Who?’. We arrived in the city centre and reconnected with our other friend at the top of Edinburgh’s main shopping street, The Royal Mile. We contemplated visiting Edinburgh Castle, although it was expensive and only about an hour from closing. Instead, we went into the Tartan Weaving Mill, a huge shop with rare wools and all the types of Scottish-oriented tat that you could imagine.

From there, we headed down the hill, past Edinburgh Waverley and to UNIQLO, where we met my friend’s cousin. The four us then headed into St James Quarter shopping area, where we went for dinner at a place called Pho. I also had a contact in the local area – my brother’s best friend had moved to Edinburgh after graduating, so he and I had agreed to meet for a drink. He took me to a place called The Conan Doyle, an old-fashioned, busy pub where Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, had often come drinking whilst living in Edinburgh city centre. Afterwards, I headed back to the Airbnb, resting again after what had ended up being a busy day of the trip.

Images
- Top left: The Scott Monument
- Top right: Edinburgh Castle

- Bottom left: My friend and I at the top of The Royal Mile

- Bottom right: The Balmoral Hotel at night

Day Four

Day Four began with another trip out, this time taking an Uber out of the city centre, to Europe’s largest indoor climbing centre, the European International Climbing Arena. This centre was huge, boasting an enormous indoor wall, several cafes, and training area and a bouldering area. Despite the size of this centre, I found the bouldering area to be quite limited, smaller than that of Awesome Walls or some of the other walls near me. To my friends’ amusement, I spent the next few hours trying to master the same few bouldering problems whilst they led each other on roped climbs in the next room.

After the climbing wall, we took an Uber back to our Airbnb, where I quickly got changed and headed back to the city centre by bus to meet some members and leaders from my Explorer Scout Unit, who were visiting the city to watch Edinburgh Gang Show. Meeting the other leaders in a tearoom called The Milkman, where we took up the majority of the room in the quaint shop, being a group of about ten adults. From there, we walked down into the Waverley Market, a small shopping area next to the train station, where we enjoyed some classic British McDonald’s.

When the Explorers and Explorer Leaders left, I was on my own again, and found my friends had gone back to Makars MASH bar for a second dinner there. I decided to head up onto The Royal Mile again, taking the opportunity to have another Scottish delicacy: A deep-fried Mars Bar. I had had one of these before, as the Fish and Chip shop in Pickering, North Yorkshire, a town close to where I had grown up, used to serve them. I must admit, though, they did taste better on Scottish soil. I walked up and down the Royal Mile after this, and was staggered to find all the shops were still open late into the evening.

As I headed onto the bar in the St James Shopping Corner and left the Royal Mile, was noticed considerable emergency services, and later found out that a man had been decapitated by a bus, and the beheaded body had briefly been believed to be a Halloween fake. This accident left me feeling quite disturbed as I discussed it with my friends. We had a couple of drinks at the bar before heading back to the Airbnb for the final night.

Images
- Top left: The European Indoor Climbing Arena main room
- Top right: A deep-fried Mars bar

- Bottom left: The David Hume statue donning a traffic cone

- Bottom right: My friends at a bar inside St James Shopping Corner

Day Five

In our final morning, we packed up and checked out of the Airbnb, taking a bus through the city centre and out to an area of the city called Portobello. Portobello is a seaside town, located where the city of Edinburgh borders the Firth of Forth, a large river estuary which empties out into the North Sea. We had booked a session at a place called Soul Water Sauna, which, it turns out, was a van that had been converted into a sauna and was parked on the promenade next to the beach. The idea was that we would get changed into our swimming kit, go into the sauna for a few minutes, and then run into the sea. Then we would repeat this process until our time slot was over, or we got hypothermia.

After finishing up at the Sauna, we got changed back into our normal clothes and headed on to The Beach House restaurant, where we enjoyed our final meal out of the trip; I chose to have a fantastic Eggs Benedict. We played in the arcades for a little while before heading back to the Portobello bus station and taking a bus back to the centre of Edinburgh. One of my friends had to head off immediately (to catch her flight home), and the remaining two of us had an hour’s shopping before heading back on our respective trains.

In that final hour, I took a walk along the central park which runs through the city centre, away from Edinburgh Waverley train station, Princes Street Garden. It was there that I came across statues of various Scottish heroes, including one of Wotjeck, the Polish Army bear, and took in the sight of the impressive Scott Monument one last time. My friend and I had one last coffee in the Waverley Market area before heading our separate ways on the train, the sun setting as we departed.

Images
- Top left: My friend on the Portobello promenade
- Top right: Eggs Benedict at the Beaches House restaurant

- Bottom left: Woyzeck the Soldier Bear Memorial

- Bottom right: My friend and I in the Waverley Market Costa

Final Thoughts

Edinburgh offers an exciting and memorable alternative to a trip to London, and certainly provides atmosphere in spades. Whilst I think it would be nice all year round, going in autumn did seem to be a very good time to go. It is also a very busy and touristy place, so be prepared for that, and it does not feel perhaps as ‘Scottish’ as Glasgow or Inverness, as a considerable amount of Edinburgh seems to serve the tourists, rather than the locals.

As well as the attractions such Edinburgh Castle, Arthur’s Seat and The Royal Mile, that are all well known, it is a big city within the UK, and therefore can offer things that you might not necessarily expect, such as a varied night life, city parks, a beach town with attractions, an international climbing scene and a large variety of shops, bars and restaurants. I look forward to my next trip there.

Useful Links

https://www.visitscotland.com/ - Visit Scotland official tourism website

https://edinburghtourist.co.uk/ - Edinburgh Tourist tourism website
https://www.introducingedinburgh.com/ - Introducing Edinburgh tourism website
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ - Official website for UK National Rail travel

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/ - Airbnb Official booking website