I was very lucky in Scotland. In the 6 days that I was there, there was only one day which rained. I flew into Edinburgh at night and when I arrived I was exhausted... I just barely managed to stagger up to my room change into my sleeping gear and poof I was out. Now, night time in Scotland only lasts for about 7 hours approximately. At about 4.30am in the morning, it actually starts to get bright, and every morning that I woke up, I always jumped out of bed because I kept thinking that I overslept, but in reality, it was often only 6am. It only ever starts to get dark at about after 9pm. Anyhow, I had a big breakfast at the hostel and went off for my free tour (in next post), and after that, I went exploring at Edinburgh castle which is conveniently located just opposite my hostel. From afar, it is one sight to see, perched on a cliff of volcanic rock. It has never been invaded by the enemy, but ownership of the castle has changed through natural surrender not through invasion of the fortress. Edinburgh reminded a lot of auckland, lots of hilly areas.... so walking around always involved alot of climbing around...


View of Edinburgh from the castle. I was with another lone female travellor, and she had wanted to climb all the way up to the walter scott monument for a view of the city. After coming up here, I told her... now you can save that money...


There is a short guided tour given every hour around the castle grounds (but not inside the buildings) very useful if you just want to know a little about the history of the castle, and am too cheap to purchase an audio guide. The guides are very friendly and they are always willing to asnwer your questions and even ask you to ask them questions.... so there you go...
So this below is the gun that is still fired everyday at 1pm from the castle. It is very loud, so if you're anywhere in the city and you hear a loud noise at 1pm... it's not a bomb... it's this thing...




Behind me is the memorial to all the Scottish soldiers who fought in the world wars. One thing you notice here in Scotland immediately is that scottish people are very very proud of their heritage and they LOVE to take any opportunity to distinguish themselves from the english, despite all being classified under the United Kingdom. One wonders what today would be like if they were still 2 separate countries.... not much difference I reckon... coz even though they're united... they're not really....

No cameras allowed inside but having seen the english crown jewels a few days ago, it was hard to not make a comparison. The crown jewels are much simpler with less precious stones than the english crown jewels. but it's hard to win, when the english covert 3 of the world's biggest diamonds and not including the black ruby among many others...

Next few photos: the place where Queen Mary gave birth to her son... the future James I of England, the guy who would actually unite the Scottish and English thrones...



Me trying to hold a ONE handed sword... it was freakin heavy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how men held on to this for hours in battle is so beyond me...

This is the two handed sword... i couldn't even lift it properly without injuring someone...


Cemetery for soldier's pets... I don't why this is here.. I just happened to spot it when I was looking down at one point in the castle.

The view of the city from the castle. If you look closely, the "black spike" in the middle is the Walter Scott Monument

Interior of St Margaret's chapel. This chapel is very popular with couples for weddings, but you may NOT invite more than 20 pple to the wedding!

Mon's meg: medieval cannon which is like extremely heavy, so historians are still trying to figure out how it managed to be carried all the way up the cliff to the castle. This cannon actually fires up to a good two miles (tried and tested the day Queen Mary gave birth to her son)

View at night of my hostel (Castle Rock Hostel) and the castle in the background. My hostel was pretty cheap (11 pounds per night in a girl's dorm) I think there were like 14 beds or so (7 double decker birds) and everyone got their own locker with it's own safe inside. There are no electrical plugs in the room, but we can leave our devices to be charged at the reception, so keeping them safe to. I quite enjoyed this hostel, it had a very homely feeling in it. There was a large common room where everyone just gathered every night to either have drinks, write in their diaries, read a book, meet people, have meals or have a game of billiards.... so it was a very nice atmosphere... and I really enjoyed my stay there... reading the reviews on hostelworld... there were some good and bad reviews... but overrall i had a pretty good experience here... so yeah.. would definitely recommended this place