Scotland, Part II: Edinburgh and Stirling

We arrived in Edinburgh to find that there were cops everywhere and that many of the streets were shut down (much to the chagrin of our driver, Bobby, and to the confusion of our TomTom navigation system that we named Sean). It turns out that there were so many street closures because we happened to arrive on the last day of the Edinburgh International Festival. I was kind of bummed that I hadn’t found this out beforehand because we might have attended a day or two of the festival if I had planned for it. We did, however get to catch the closing fireworks which were fantastic as a background for Edinburgh very gothic-feeling skyline.

The next day, we took one of the free walking tours that I’m always pimping out on this website. As per the usual, our guide was young and quirky and took us on a fun and informative tour of the city. We learned about the history of Edinburgh castle, the Stone of Destiny, some stuff about Harry Potter that I wasn’t especially interested in (I guess it was written in Edinburgh?).

I was, however, highly entertained by the history of witch trials in Edinburgh. I guess Scotland was at the forefront of witch-hunting in the middle ages. I don’t find this especially surprising; I just found it humorous that, according to our guide, witches were accused based on three characteristics - red hair, freckles, and a third nipple. If they had all three of these characteristics they were thrown into the Nor Loch (a lake that used to exist adjacent to Edinburgh but has since been drained) to see if they floated. If they did float, they were a witch. If they didn’t float, well, then they were just a dead regular human. I guess Monty Python is surprising historically accurate after all.



Once we finished our walking tour, we proceeded to do what is always my favourite activity in any new city/country we visit: test the local food!! In the case of Edinburgh, this consisted of three things:

1- Haggis: a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours. This was surprisingly delicious! It ended up tasting like a spicy sausage and was served with mashed turnips and potatoes (“neeps and tatties”). I’ve learned from my Scottish co-worker that M&S sells a nice haggis in London, so I plan on buying more here!
2- Deep-Fried Mars Bar: um, the name kinda says it all. A mars bar is like a milkway bar. They dip it in some kind of batter and then deep-fry it. This was (unsurprisingly) AMAZING!!! It seems that the Scotts deep-fry everything. In the same shop that was selling the deep-fried mars bar, deep-fried haggis, hamburger patties, hot dogs and pizza was also being sold.
3- Irn-Bru: This is a soda produced in Scotland. It is of note that this soda outsells coke and pepsi COMBINED in Scotland- the only country in the world that can say this about one of its home products. It tasted like crème soda.

We spent the rest of the day stuffing ourselves full of local grub and tasting more whisky in bars around Edinburgh. The following morning we headed towards the English lakedistrict, taking a little detour to visit Stirling and its historic castle.

Major battles during the Wars of Scottish Independence took place at the Stirling Bridge in 1297 and at the nearby village of Bannockburn in 1314 involving Scottish freedom fighters William Wallace and Robert the Bruce respectively. Stirling is also home to the William Wallace National Monument. I really enjoyed Stirling. It was much more of a proper castle than Ballandoch and we were led on a wonderful tour that gave us a history of not only the castle itself, but also the fight for Scottish independence.

After Stirling, we headed onto the lakedistrict.