Mary King's Close + The Virgin Room (Sep. 30)

I'm going to jump to Friday because Wednesday all I did was hw and catch up on the blog, and Thursday was just another study day. Friday I had plans to meet Sam Kampa in Edinburgh where we would be until Sunday when he would come North to St. Andrew's. On Friday's is when I have both of my classes. Latin and 3 pm and Medieval Castles from 10-12. Because the castles class is an honors class, we don't have tutorials, but just longer seminars. I am sure I am going to like the class. We have a full day field trip where we go to 4 or 5 different castles. I'm excited to get started, although I do not know what to expect with the grading and study system. Anyway, after class I made the trek back to DRA to grab my bag for the weekend.  I then had to catch a bus going to the Leuchars train station and then the train to Edinburgh Waverly Station. It was actually my first experience with a bus and train. I got on the bus alright and got to Leuchars. I missed a train that left 10 minutes before, so waited for half and hour.  Not many people where there. When the train came I got on, found a seat, and waited to hear Edinburgh Waverly Station to get off. I had no need to worry, because Waverly was the end of the line.

Sam met me outside the station where we walked to the Castle Rock Hostel on Johnston's Terrance, looking up at the castle (One street above Grass Market where I stayed in the Apex International Hotel, and one street below the Royal Mile). It was a great location. I got my key, and Sam showed me up to the room. Each room in the hostel has a theme. Some themes were super heroes, clans of Scotland, underwear etc... Our room was the Virgin Room. In the rooms, there are names that correspond to which bed and locker you get. My name was Jesus! So I was in the Jesus bed, and Same was Brooke Shields. Other names included the immaculate conception, airlines, records, and more. I thought it added character.

Following locking up our stuff in a locker, we made our way towards St. Giles Cathedral where Mary King's Close was located. Mary King's Close is a underground tour of closes (narrow alleyways) that were covered up hundreds of years ago and remain intact. It was interesting that because of the tall buildings surrounding the closes, when walking on the streets, there would be little light reaching the ground, thus lanterns were used 24/7. The closes did not seem like a nice place to live. People would throw their sewage on the streets, so it could be a few inches to ankle deep. So it smelled foul. Living conditions were quite small and unsanitary so illness and plague was common. Edinburgh was just not a lovely place to live. It was said that you could smell Edinburgh before you could see it. That's a gross image. On the tour, the tour guides impersonate somebody from the time period. We had a poet, who was the inspiration for Robert Burns. He was a good tour guide, however the other people on the tour were super obnoxious and never stopped talking. They even made farting noises. They were at least over 40 years of age. Come on.  We learned that murder was commonplace. We learned that a mother in law killed her son in law because he was promised a dowry for marrying the mothers daughter, but he never got it. He won the court case and she killed him for it.  The wife was able to flee to Germany because she was pregnant, and thus would not be killed until after birth. The mother was not very lucky. She never got out of the city. In fact, the guide said she had her wrists nailed to her knees, and was thus thrown into the Loch (the loch was where sewage was dumped and is now today the Princes Street Gardens) and left to drown. It took 10 minutes for her to drown due to a layer of sewage crust that sat at the surface. What a terrible way to die. There was talk about the plague. So some gross stuff, but the close was really cool.  No pictures were allowed, so I can't really show people.

To change the subject, Sam and I then went to the Royal McGregor to eat. I had some fish and chips. After dinner we went to the Jolly Judge where Sam tried Irn Bru for the first time, and really , I mean really enjoyed it. We then went back to our hostel and went to sleep.