Edinburgh--Part 1

Ok, so! Edinburgh! Let's start with: I am completely in love with that city. I just felt an immediate connection to it (in a way that I also distinctly remember feeling with Hawaii when I first went there...though those couldn't be two more different places!), and my love only grew as I saw more of the place! I stayed with my good friend Ratna, who was kind enough to house and feed me for two days, three nights. I started out my stay with a 3 hour free tour of the city. Such a great deal, and a great way to orient myself for the rest of the trip. Well, actually, I really started out my stay with a cup of coffee and a panini at Black Medicine Coffee Co. (apparently frequented by JK Rowling) and then went on the tour.
The tour was, as I said, great. We walked along the Royal Mile, into little alleyways or "closes" like this one, with a great view of the Sir Walter Scott memorial tower...:...through Grassmarket, by the Castle, down to Greyfriar's church/cemetery, by St. Giles cathedral, and other places that I now can't remember! Our enthusiastic guide gave us great history along the way and surely kept me entertained the whole time. Look! A Castle! More on that later...
A cute story from the tour was of Greyfriar's Bobby, a little terrier whose owner was a nightwatch policeman. After his owner died and was buried in Greyfriar's cemetery, Bobby apparently sat next to his grave for the next 14 years! He was looked after by the whole city practically, and they loved him so much that they buried him just outside of the cemetery, and gave him a monument on the street in front:
Edinburgh/Scotland in general, it seems, is very serious about its pets. In addition to the Greyfriar's Bobby memorial, I also saw a small cemetery at the castle for the dogs of military officers and a sign in a pup saying "please keep dogs off the seats." Yup, not out of the pub, just off the seats, please!

After the tour I took to wandering some more on my own, walking all the way down the royal mile to Holyrood Palace and Arthur's seat. Look its me! I'm so happy to be there!
That night I went out with my friend Ratna and her flatmates and had a great time at a pub and later at club that, honestly, played pretty awful music, but oh well!
Thus ended day one in Edinburgh. I'll save the rest for the next post.

Sorry to be a few days behind on updating, but I guess I'll just have to blog more about Dublin when I'm already in Cork, and then do Cork when I'm in the US! Leaving for Cork tomorrow morning, but before that I just have to go out on the town and find me some dinner! :)