Days 84 and 85: Two Days in Edinburgh

I did most of my exploration in Edinburgh yesterday.

First, I walked on Prince Street until I saw the National Galleries of Scotland. And more importantly, the banner that said it’s free admission, so I had to go in and browse. There were many great paintings and I couldn’t choose my favorite. I prefer paintings that are not religious and have their own style.

Just outside the Galleries is the Scott Monument. It’s the largest monument that’s dedicated to a writer. In this case, it’s Sir Walter Scott. I’ve never heard of him, maybe I should read one of his books.

I saw many tourists in this area since this is one of the main sections of Edinburgh. I ended up walking up some steps to Calton Hill where the Nelson Monument, the Dugald Stewart Monument, and the National Monument of Scotland are located. Bonus is the view of downtown Edinburgh from the top of the hill.

On my walk down to the street, there was a group of protesters with signs opposing Trump’s visit to Scotland. And here I thought I had escaped from Trump.

On my way back to the hostel, I stopped by the Scottish Parliament Building. The Debating Chamber is where the members of the Scottish Parliament meet to debate and make decisions. It’s the most humble room I’ve seen in any of the national buildings I’ve been to. The room feels like it’s built for the people and not for government officials. An interesting fact I learned is that the voting age in Scotland starts at 16, unlike the US where the voting age is 18.

After visiting the Parliament Building, I walked on probably the busiest street in all of Edinburgh, High Street, also known as the Royal Mile. At the west end of the Royal Mile is the famous Edinburgh Castle. Unfortunately, they require a ticket to go in. I tried to purchase a ticket on my phone, but the calendar on their website won’t load. It was only later that I found out all the tickets were sold out, even for the next couple of days.

Around 3 PM I came back to the hostel. I decided to see if I can fix my rear brakes. After some inspection, I just had to give the cable less slack and it fixed the issue. This saved me a trip to a bike shop.

In the late afternoon, I walked to Haymarket again and bought some road snacks from Lidl.

Last night, I had trouble going to sleep. I thought about how lucky I am to be cycling around the world while a third of people in Gaza have been starving for days. And the fact that Trump came to Scotland to play golf. For some reason, I started to cry. I think it’s because the world can be so unfair.

To ease my mind, I came down to the common room in the hostel and chatted with a guy named Steve, whose goal is to visit every soccer stadium. Later, I met a guy from Liverpool named Kevin. We had a good time talking until midnight.

This morning, I woke up at 8:30 then I took a two hour nap only to get up around 11. Maybe I’m still adjusting to the jet lag.

I didn’t have the energy to do extensive exploration, but I did taking a stroll to Dean Village on the Water of Leith Walkway before coming back to the hostel.

I chatted with Kevin and another fellow named Chris, who is 19 years old and is also from the US. It turned out that Chris voted for Trump because he thought Trump is entertaining. A bad reason in my opinion.

Kevin is an interesting guy though. He’s more of an entrepreneur and a business man, having worked in retail management then bought some real estate to rent out. He’s also closer to age to me than Chris so we had a lot to talk about.

I spent the rest of the day mainly in the hostel researching about cycling routes in the UK and sending more host requests on Warmshowers and Couchsurfing.

Tomorrow, I’ll start my ride in the UK following EuroVelo route 12 down south along the east coast.

Sculpture at Coates Cres