Adventures in Edinburgh

After several hours on the train, my friends and I finally reached Edinburgh, Scotland! 

The scenery on the train was beautiful because our train took us right along the coast.

On Saturday morning, we hiked up a mountain called Arthur's seat just after sunrise. The climb took quite a while, but the view was worth it!

The view from the top of Arthur's Seat. We could see the entire city!

We enjoyed touring Edinburgh castle. It sat on top of a large hill, and we could see it from our hostel window. 

Inside the castle. It was really cool to see how all of the buildings were literally built into the mountain.

We stopped for a snack at the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. The entire cafe was elephant theme, so there were elephant decorations everywhere.

On Saturday night, we took a ghost tour of Edinburgh (which is known to be a very haunted city). The next morning, we went back to this graveyard because some of the names on the tombstones served as inspiration for J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter characters such as McGonagall and Thomas Riddle. 

And yes, I did see a real life bagpiper wearing a kilt!
I had a wonderful time in Scotland. There were lots of beautiful old buildings in Edinburgh, and we were blessed with beautiful weather. My one regret is that I didn't get to go and search for Nessie the Loch Ness monster. Oh well, guess that means I'll have to go back someday! :)