Wee Edinburgh

i'm in edinburgh! caught the train up yesterday. I'm staying in Budget Hostel. painted all bright colours on teh interior - and along the walls there are cartoons about sydney, new zealand, hawaii... not quite appropriate but anyway!

one of the guys who works here (from Barcelona, coincidently!) organised a pub crawl last night, so i thought i should go to meet some people. It was fun! mainly girls from the hostel came out and i met an Australian girl (from Albury) called Jess, as well as a few spanish girls, a swedish girl, a girl from teh states.... and a few others.

Jess and me

this morning i went on a walking tour - Saints and Sinners. I was the only person who went!!!!!! so i had a private tour. hehe. i saw the school that they THINK (and she hasn't denied it) J K Rowling was inspired by. It was established in the 17th century and is still a public school today (and by public, they mean private). I saw the grave of the first guy to teach anatomy, and was told the stories about grave robbers - and scotlands first and only serial killers! bodies were bought by the med school for £7.50/male and £10/female - average earnings for the year was about £30 so these geniuses decided that instead of digging up people, they'd just kill them themselves!!

and of course i saw the greyfriars bobby monument. A little skye terrier that visited his owner's grave everyday for 14 years after his death.

today was open doors day. one day a year places that are normally closed to the public open their doors. i was all excited abotu seeing the anatomy museum at the medical school , but for unforseen circumstances they had to keep it closed today. very disappointing! they did have 2 elephant skeletons on display, and the pelvises from 7 women who had some of the first caesarian sections performed on them. they had VERY distorted pelvic canals and were physically unable to give birth. none of the women survived... but a couple of the babies did.

after that i went to Edinburgh castle. no visit to Edinburgh is complete without visiting the castle! It is situated on top of an extinct volcano. it was interesting as well. saw the scottish crown jewels, a cemetry for soldier's dogs, the royal apartment, the war memorial and the vaults which were converted into a prison in times of war.