Edinburgh - Dunedin of the north.

Capital City #3

I expected that it would be difficult to understand people in non-English-speaking countries. One thing I didn't expect was difficulty in understanding people who have spoken English their whole life.

My theory is that people who speak English as a first language don't put any effort into pushing their accent to the middle, where most people will be able to understand, whereas people who speak English only secondarily have to work at it. I imagine the universal point of understanding lies somewhere between the Queen's English, and Midwestern American English - in other words, the English that's spoken in movies. I think this generic English accent is what the Scandinavians and Slavs I've spoken to since are trying to emulate.

I think Edinburgh was the worst for this, but with so many accents all throughout the UK, it was a problem everywhere. I'd have to really concentrate to be able to figure out what people were talking about. (The hardest accent I've encountered so far though, has to go to the dude who decided to talk to me while I was washing my hands in Halifax. Newfoundland apparently has the most unintelligible accent ever. This guy was harder to talk to than the road worker in Canada who only spoke French, and who persisted in ignoring Anna - the only other person who actually spoke a little French. I digress.) I found myself paralysed when talking to people - I knew that what they said was in English, but even if they repeated it for me, I still couldn't quite recognise the words as recognisable words, but with a little more thought, perhaps I wouldn't have to get them to repeat themselves, so I'd just stand there, with a puzzled look on my face until they repeated themselves anyway.

Edinburgh was swelteringly hot when we arrived, and we were tired as, hoping to check in to our accommodation, and get a good night's sleep. The room we got was probably about the size of a small bedroom. The double bed was up against one wall, and there was enough room to walk around the side to get to the bathroom. The window, which only opened a quarter of the way, was closed, and the sun was streaming in, giving us an unwelcome object lesson on the greenhouse effect. Not the most comfortable place we've been in.

Anyway, on to the attractions.

Edinburgh Castle.

Looking around the castle was cool; we managed to get in on one of the free guided tours of the castle - the tour guide was intelligible, he wore a kilt, didn't play the bagpipes and he kept making jokes. The crown jewels were rather impressive, the stone of scone not so much.

A Ferris Wheel, the Scott Monument (Sir Walter) and some clock tower.

One thing we did that I recommend you don't, is going to pretty much every tourist shop in town. Tinned bagpipe music. Tinned bagpipe music everywhere. Harder to avoid, though, would be the numerous buskers also playing bagpipe music on street corners everywhere. It definitely made it less heart-wrenching to say goodbye to Scotland when we left, though.

On the hill overlooking the city there is an eclectic mix of monuments and buildings. My favourite would have to be the National Monument.

More neoclassical mumbo jumbo.

Yes, it's unfinished, but I think that means there is so much scope for making it something other than yet another grandiose neoclassical megalithic architectural monstrosity.

Weirdly enough, we didn't really take all that many photos during our time there, so I'll just leave one more for you.

Cairn

This cairn commemorates the founding of the new Scottish parliament. It's made from stones from a bunch of places, including Auschwitz, Paris, and various locations within Scotland.

Leaving Scotland behind, our next stop was Norway. No more sleeper buses for us! Only a 4.30am wake-up time to catch a 7.55am flight.