Edinburgh

So, this past weekend, I finally made the trip to Edinburgh (ie, finally did something worth writing in my blog about). Quite surprising that I haven't been yet considering how close it is and how small the town is that I live in, but for some reason I just never really had the excuse to go. However, this past weekend there was a classics conference there and one of my friends from Victoria who is doing his PhD in Exeter was coming up for it. Since I haven't seen him in over a year, I figured I'd go, and just hang out in Edinburgh, see the city and then hang out with him in the evenings. Two other friends from Classics were heading to the conference as well so we made it a nice fun trip.
However, the organizer of the conference picked one of the worst weekends to host a conference. Not only was there a rugby match on that weekend (Scotland vs. Ireland) meaning that all the hostels were booked, but the trains decided to go on strike the day before (they came back on Friday morning but we didn't want to risk it so we took the bus). We all made it to Edinburgh ok and ended up staying with a friend in the department here who actually lives close to the University in Edinburgh so it worked out that we could stay with him.
So while all my friends were off sitting in a room listening about Roman oration, I got to go on some pretty exciting adventures. On Friday, I just ended up walking up and down the Royal Mile, trying to figure out what I wanted to spend my time doing. We met up for dinner at a pub sort of at the end of the main drag called World's End (beer kind of expensive, but definitely had some great pub food).
Saturday I caught a bus out of town and went and visited Rosslyn Chapel. It was the most amazing building I have ever been in. I've seen a ton of pictures and was aware of all the crazy stuff inside but nothing prepared me for actually being inside. I loved just spending the morning wandering around looking at all the cool iconography and crazy columns and stuff. Absolutely amazing, I can't even express in words what it was like. For those of you who are planning to come to this part of the world any time soon, I can't recommend this enough. The Chapel itself is on the side of this hill overlooking a gorgeous valley, so I hiked around a bit and wandered down to the castle ruins (which you can't get into unless you have an appointment). I then hopped back on the bus and headed back to Edinburgh.
I then spent the afternoon at the Royal Gallery of Scotland (although not too much time because modern (ie. not Roman) paintings are not really my thing) and wandering the castle. Of course, knowing me, I spent a good 3 hours just wandering around into every possible place I could see. Hung out in the Military museum for a bit and even saw scotland's crown jewels. It reminded me a bit of the Tower of London but with way less people about since it is not at all the tourist season right now.
I again met up with everyone after the conference to hear all about what they learned all day. Got to try a new place for beer and food and then we all headed back to our friend's flat for a Mario Kart competition on N64 as well as some GoldenEye.
Sunday consisted of hanging out in the Scotland national museum for the morning and then heading back home. Before leaving though I ended up wandering a bit around the University and found the department of Canadian Studies. Who knew? I love the fact that it shares its space with the department of African Studies (because these two countries are just so similar? Note the French, first place I've seen French in a long time.) (Alright, yes Africa is not a country, so ok, more differences, the study of a country with the study of a continent, well, I guess Canada is really big!)

By the early evening I was so beat, I ended up going to bed at about 10. I spent the whole weekend walking everywhere but it was amazing and a great chance to get out of my town, see some of scotland and take a little break from the PhD. I'm heading to Germany for a conference in less than a week and then will be trying to catch up on some of the PhD stuff I haven't had a chance to do over the last little bit. Never a dull moment (well, unless you think hanging out in libraries is dull)!