My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean....?

So Kari and I are almost done with Edinburgh, tear. Today we took another free tour (!) and it was fact-filled and fun. Our tour guide, Helene, was a lively South African who came to visit last year and stayed indefinitely. We walked down Royal Mile, which is this long road that connects Holywood Palace to Edinburgh Castle. We went to a ton of very historical sites, like St. Giles Cathedral, Merca Cross, Grass Market and Grey Friar's Church, which were all very stoney and old. More importantly, though, we were able to see the school that inspired Hogwarts! It is now called the George and Harriet School, but was once a hospital/school for orphaned boys. We also saw the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the books. Ah, I love me some Harry Potter trivia, and thank you to Kari for bearing with me while I squirmed with glee... Another interesting story was that of the real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a man named Deacon Brodie. He was basically this rich, respectable Scot who had a double life of partying that put him into serious debt. In order to make up for this he began robbing his friends. One thing led to another and he ended up being hung by the same gallos that he had originally funded. Actually, now that I think of it, most of the stories ended with a death by hanging. Good times! After our tour we climbed to Calton Hill (which is where we are in the picture below with the great view), then we came back and made dinner, well I made dinner and Kari did an excellent job of eating it. Tomorrow morning we are taking a 7:30am flight to Prague so we are spending the night watching movies at our charming hostel. So far, so good!

(Also, it is true that drunken Scots sing "My Bonnie." My parents definitely used to sing this to me, so I was prepared! Thanks Mom and Dad for prepping me for this trip 20 years ago)