Day trip to Edinburgh
Travel Location: Edinburgh,United-Kingdom
We woke up early because we knew there was a lot to see in 1 day in Edinburgh. Tony, Blair, Adriane, Meaghan, and I piled into our car and began our 1 hour drive from Dumbarton. It is all motorway there so its not too bad.
Our first destination in Edinburgh was of course, the castle. We parked at the base of the hill, in the designated parking lot, but we failed to notice how expensive it was. It came to £12.70 when we went to leave, maybe 5 hours later…extortionate!! So we made our way up the hill, which is about a 10-15min walk, depending on how eager you are.
the most haunted place in all of Scotland!
Once at the top, you need to pay admission before you enter the gates into the castle. Again, a bit pricey at £11.00 each, but you can buy a pass to see numerous castles around Scotland for £19, which 3 of our friends did. The castle is like many other castles, except for the fact that this one has some spectacular views! From all sides of the castle you can see the city below, stretching for miles and miles. Even though it was slightly overcast, it was quite busy there. I would recommend going in the morning as we did, because as the day went on, it was getting busier and busier. Quite the tourist attraction, go figure.
From there we made our way down the hill, about a 10min walk away to Mary King’s Close. Which we were told, was the most haunted place in all of Scotland! This is where all the people who were infected by the plague were put. Hundreds of people were living in this underground area, where they would just wait to die. This was a 1 hour guided tour, and it cost £8.95 for admission. Well worth it, as the guide was very informative and you do get very creeped out being down there. There is no photos allowed so we bought the photo guide book for £3.95, which also tells the whole story.
After this we made our way down a few more streets, maybe another 5mins away to the Edinburgh Dungeons. We thought this was going to be another haunted place, but as we entered we realized it was not. This was more of a haunted house that you would see at a fair or something. The admission was a staggering £12.95, but we decided to do it anyways. We had to wait about 15min before there was enough people to send the group through, which was not that great as we were running short on time at this point. Once we started going through we were happily surprised as it was more of a comedy show, with some shock-you scare tactics through each room. You walk through about 7 or 8 different rooms which included a torture chamber and an operating room. All the actors do a great job, and this turned out to be a lot of fun.
After all this we were quite hungry so we got back in the car and made our way to George’s Square, where we found quite a few nice restaurants. We were sick of pub grub, so we decided on a nice Italian place called Est Est Est. The bill for 6 of us was just under £100 which included drinks, starters, mains, and even a couple of desserts. Not a place for those on a tight budget, but quite reasonable considering the prices everywhere else. After dinner we walked about 2 blocks down to a small drinks lounge called Tonic. A little bit pricey on the cocktails menu, with a bloody mary coming in at £6!, but nice funky atmosphere nonetheless. We all had a drink, made our way back to the car and headed back home. A fun day in Edinburgh over!
