The second day in Edinburgh started with rain, presumably punishing me for my first beautiful day in Scotland. After packing up and checking out of the hostel we had stayed in the night before, Miark ran through the rain twice to rescue my coat from the car. This is a coat, coincidentally, that I didn’t think to pack, but my mother had a fleece-lined waterproof coat that she lent me a few days before I had left the country. As the rain poured down, I was very glad to have it.
Miark and I set off at about 9:30AM to go meet up with a friend of his for breakfast. We wandered for a while before meeting up with her at a little tea shop. I, without thinking, ordered two slices of toast and a boiled egg. I had forgotten that boiled eggs come cooked in their shells. And because I had ordered it runny, I couldn’t very well crack it open, so I had to pretend that I knew how to eat a boiled egg, with two people who had probably done it half a million times watching closely. I think I did a pretty good job of faking it, but it was a truly humbling experience.
Next we said goodbye to Miark’s friend and headed up this long hill to see the castle in Edinburgh.
As we climbed the hill up to the castle, I noticed that my legs were hurting a lot more than they should have been, considering my somewhat relaxed activities over the last couple of days. I dismissed this to some sort of unnoticed exertion, and didn’t think much of it at the time.
We visited a couple more places on foot, including a rather nice art gallery (featuring Raphael, among others) and a few nice churches and monuments.
After that, we took the bus back to our car, which we had had to park at the outskirts of the city. As I sat down in the car, I realized that my legs weren’t just sore anymore, everything was. I felt the familiar aches and chills running through my whole body, as my head began to pound painfully. I was getting sick.
We spent the rest of the day driving, and seeing various towns and Scottish highlands. It was very scenic, and while I wasn’t able to get out of the car after that, the parts that I noticed between my fitful sleeping were beautiful.
One thing worth noticing, was Doune castle. For those of you who have seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you probably won’t recognize this castle from the scene where the French taunt some of the main characters from high on the castle walls.
This picture has the privilege of being the last (and one of the only) pictures of that day. I spent the long drive back getting sicker and sicker, and after getting home and starting laundry (in preparation for my lengthy trip beginning Thursday), I went to sleep. After about 15 hours of sleep, I am feeling a little less feverish, although still pretty ill. Here’s hoping that I get better before I leave again on Thursday. Holidays are not the best time to be coming down with something.
To see more pictures of Edinburgh, click here.
To see an archive of all the pictures from this trip to the UK (and beyond), click here.
Hope Helps 