Our final day in Edinburgh, and I thought it was the best one so far. A good one to end on.
I’m not going to lie to you. I spent money today. I dropped coin. I’ve been really good, but today I went on a spree and I’m not feeling too bad about it. I’ve been trying not to be an impulsive shopper, and I’m getting good at it. I saw my purchases in town days ago, but held off to make sure they were exactly what I wanted. And today I got them. And they are all for the people I love. Sue me. I love people. Five people, actually, and almost six. She got something, too.
So I wandered around and the weather was beautiful. It’s jacket season, as usual, but the sun was out and there was a breeze that came and went. I loved walking around by myself.
Eventually I bumped into Cara, Aurora, and Susan, so we all took a hike up to the Royal Mile to finally walk through the Castle. The views were spectacular. We saw the crown jewels, which look exactly as fake as the British ones. Lots of Germans today, too. What’s up with the Germans?
Dear Middle-aged German Women:
Please stop cutting your hair really butch and dying it with henna. It’s not a good look, unless you are a lesbian.
Love, Christopher
Also at the Castle we wandered through the Military Museum, though it’s nothing like the Imperial War Museum in London. I’m just amazed by the Castle, though. Walking up the winding paths to the top feels like something out The Return of the King. I try to think of the severed heads on pikes, burning witches, and blood trickling down the cobblestones just so I don’t over-romanticize the place. But it’s hard not to. It’s just a spectacular piece of history, and today was kind of a perfect day.
After the castle I parted with the girls and walked down to Prince’s Park, which runs along the foot of the North Cliff. I sat on a park bench and read my Horrible Histories book on Edinburgh, and sat underneath the very Castle where all the horrible histories happened. It sounds a bit gory, but it was actually fun for me. I like the story about the cannibals, and also the story about King James blaming bad weather on innocent people and killing them for it. What a jokester!
Tonight at six we all headed to the park up the street and watched the students perform their Shakespeare pieces. They have been rehearsing them since they’ve been over here, and tonight we got to finally see them. They did a fantastic job. I told them that if they forgot their lines they should just say “to be or not to be,” but nobody really needed to. Alex murdered Jaclyn with a pillow. It was disturbing. Some teenage girls wandered over and cheered for us, and then showed us a really lame dance they made up to a Hairspray song. But everybody got to share.
And then we walked down to Starbucks on Prince’s Street, ordered some hot cho and pastries, and ate them in the park while the bagpipes played, the drums sounded, and the fireworks exploded from the castle above us.
