Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Meag: Sadly we had to bid adieu to the beautiful Highlands this morning. We dropped the car off and I was looking forward to seeing Sebastian, the Polish man with the Irish accent, to show him how pristine we kept the car. Luckily for him, it appears that Sebastian had Sunday off and we handed the car back to a regular-accented Polish man – still though I was right chuffed.

We were feeling *ahem* not stellar so when we sat down on the train to Edinburgh and ate a chicken wrap, I passed out hard. Nap of the day numbero uno. I did wake up though to enjoy the scenery and it continued to be breathtaking – rolling hills, yellow flowers and oodles of baby sheep.

We arrived in Edinburgh and WOW THE HILLS. I knew it was hilly but somehow that didn’t compute until we were huffing and puffing our way up to the hostel. The buildings are all extremely old and impressive…so long as you look at them from the first floor up- as Sav suggested when we arrived. Castle Rock Hostel, where Sav stayed before, is right near the castle and has so much character. Each of the rooms have different themes and the beds have different names rather than numbers. There is a Latin room, a Scottish Movie room and a plant biology room. We’re in the Scottish Clan room – beds Graham and Stewart respectively.

Sav: We decided to use the rest of the day to tick off a few things on the list, so we can relax tomorrow. First things first: Edinburgh Castle! A few people told us they hadn’t gone in and both of us kept saying ‘wait wait of all the castles you should see, isn’t this the one if you’re only gonna see one?’

Anyway it was beautiful, as expected. There was a really cool exhibit on the prisoners of war, where they explained the history behind the prison cells in the castle. I was surprised to read that the prisoners were way better off than regular townsfolk in a lot of cases. They had good rations, they sold wares they made in their spare time, and they even got paid! Like… an allowance… to be a prisoner. Weird.

We also saw the room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to King James 6th of Scotland and 1st of England. Apparently it wasn’t in her beautiful stately bedroom but in the closet at the back of the room. Okay lady you know what? You do you. Have fun with that.

One awesome thing we’ve discerned about Scottish museum curators is that they love making fake plastic people to go in their exhibits – and they are terrifying. Like just so poorly done and they are way down in the uncanny valley and creep the crap out of me and Meaghan. Today’s castle was littered with the things and we kind of bee-lined right through those parts. No thanks!

Meag: They’re creepy to the point that I am uncomfortable when I have to turn my back on them to read an interpretive panel. Why, Scotland, why?

Sav knew of a Thai place nearby and it was just what the doctor ordered. We had tickets for an activity (more on that very soon) so post-delicious dinner we went back to the hostel and had a little shut eye for a few minutes before we had to get going. At one point there were four of us napping in our hostel room and I have dubbed us “The Nap Club.” The ‘non-Savanna’ members of this exclusive club don’t know about it but they seem cool so maybe I’ll let them in on the secret.

I woke up from nap numero dos terrified for our next activity. Savanna decided that we were going to do a… wait for it… ghost tour. Yes. Yes you read that right. Ghost tour. (S: it was an executive decision on my part.)

Now a little background – In Belfast Sav insisted that we do a ghost tour. We brought along our friend Kelly who we’d met in Galway and even though I was sufficiently freaked out, Sav decided that it could have been scarier. So that brings us to this trip which she decided was a great opportunity to scare the living daylights out of me again. I cannot stress this enough: I hate scary.

Somehow I made myself leave the hostel (S: correction. I made her leave the hostel) and we made our way to the meeting point to go on a tour of haunted underground Edinburgh. The guide was fantastic, with super great humour and interesting stories about the city. We walked along the streets for a little bit and come upon a pretty gate all covered in ivy. Sav commented on its prettiness and then of course our guide opens the gate and we see a long, dark corridor beyond. Not so pretty anymore! As soon as we walked through the gate I latched onto Savanna’s hand and could not let go. The vaults were surprisingly warm but the darkness and the anticipation was killing me. I kept having to tell myself to just breathe and all would be fine. The guide spoke about the creation of the vaults and the conditions for people living in them – let’s just say it wasn’t exactly a five star resort.

Eventually we went into another room that was significantly different. Before going in, he warned that it was much much colder. If we started feeling nauseous or lightheaded, we should simply take a big old step to the side. He said these are the signs of an “encounter” about to happen, but not to worry too much because they’re quite localized so if you move a little everything will be A-OK. Except for the 38 people who have passed out on his tours over the past handful of years. Well then. You can imagine I am a super happy camper at this point. When we went into this vault it was so much colder. I could feel something in my chest (which was for sure just adrenaline and nerves making my heart beat a mile a minute) so I was not able to stand still. I kinda danced around for a few minutes to avoid an encounter, dragging Sav with me because obviously I was still holding on for dear life.

The guide prefaced the next room by saying that 90% of all encounters happen in there. Well isn’t that swell. Sure, I’d love to go in there. He was telling this story and slowly turning off both his flashlights and then the candles. When there was just one light left Sav goes “Meag close your eyes.” Up until this point I had not been looking at much aside from the floor in front of me or the guide, terrified of what kind of tricks my eyes would play on me if I looked anywhere else. I heeded Sav’s advice and shut them as tight as I could. Everyone else gasped when the light when out so I held on even tighter. At the end of the story the guide turned on the light, jumped and yelled. I immediately curled into a little ball and fell into Savanna, who then almost fell into a guy standing behind us. All of us had freaked out with the story and so most people were laughing it off afterwards. I was so tense and unable to speak at all the entire time until we were a few blocks away from the end of the tour. I needed a beer.

Sav: OKAY WAIT. When Meag literally crumpled into me I sort of stepped backwards, also afraid, and into this big ass bearded dude who was ALSO afraid and he almost threw me to the floor. We laughed about it after but he was like ‘shit sorry I thought you were a ghost it’s a good thing I didn’t punch you cause my fist was up!’ oh good. Almost got punched today.

Both of us were rattled, but I had a great time. I’m not sure why I like this sort of thing but I’m sure happy Meag came with me. We decided a beer was definitely in order, and went to a bar recommended to us called The Brass Monkey. It was quaint, had good music, great beer and was just busy enough to be fun. We stayed there for a few hours chatting about adult life, and how we feel we’ve changed recently. I mean it was better than talking more about me almost being punched in the face by a big bearded dude tonight, right?

S&M

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