Becky woke me up super early today, so I only got a total of like 4 hours of sleep. I’m not a very fun person when I get woken up prematurely, so I wasn’t too happy when this happened and I was grumpy all morning.

After a while I finally woke up enough to be functional, and I got ready for another day of laid back tourism and hanging around the city center Edinburgh. We made up a list of things that we wanted to do on this day, and we did a pretty good job of sticking to it. Our plan was to visit the national art gallery, climb Arthur’s seat (a very large extinct volcano just outside of downtown Edinburgh), look for Hearts jersey’s and then attend the Hearts match vs. AEK Athens for the champions league (more on this later).

We hopped on old reliable (bus 44) into the city center and started walking around and looking for things to do. We thought that it would be cool to take a bus tour of Edinburgh, but we quickly decided against the tour when we found out it was 9 pound (~17 American). It simply wasn’t worth it for a bus tour, especially since we had already seen much of the town on foot.

So, we set off to walk toward the national gallery and on our way we walked past the Scottish national monument, which was a very tall and towering stone monument right on Princes street. We paid 3 pound to walk up to the top of the monument (287 steps). The top of the monument afforded some awesome views of Edinburgh, and I was able to take some pretty cool pictures.

It was really windy at the top of the monument, and I actually felt a little uncomfortable standing at there with the wind blowing. I’m not a major wuss or anything, it was just such a confined space that I didn’t quite feel stable while I was up there; especially with the gale-force winds. It didn’t help, either, that the walkway was only big enough for one person to pass, and there were about 10 people on the top level, we didn’t really spend much time at the top of the monument.

Walking down to the bottom of the monument was a little cumbersome, and quite uncomfortable. The corridors we used to go up and down the monument were very tight, and there wasn’t much room for movement. Plus, there were people going both up and down the stairs at the same time, so we actually had to accommodate for two-way traffic while we walked down the stairs. It was a relief to finally get back onto solid ground.

Next, we walked to the national gallery. Becky and Ed heard a recommendation earlier in the week that there was a great exhibit displaying the works of Ron Mueck, an Australian sculptor. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the gallery, because I didn’t hear the recommendation, but I was very impressed with what I saw.

His sculptures were the most detailed and surreal creations that I have ever seen in my life! In addition to being exceptionally detailed and life-like, many of the sculptures were literally larger than life. I’m not sure that my descriptions could even do the sculptures justice (they are just so amazing), so I found some links to information about his work on the Internet that should help you get an understanding of the level of work contained in his pieces. Link 1. Link 2. Link 3 (be careful on this one, as one of the pieces is a nude). If you ever get a chance to see a Ron Mueck sculpture or exhibit, I recommend you take advantage of the opportunity. My only complaint about the gallery was that there weren’t enough sculptures.

After the gallery, we walked around Princes Street some more, and then walk to the royal mile to check out some of the street performances as part of the Edinburgh festival. The royal mile was absolutely jam packed with performers! Some were pretty good, but the majority weren’t (I don’t like to criticize street performers, because it takes a lot of guts to perform in front of random people, but the quality of these performers isn’t close to the quality of the performers I’ve seen at other festivals and in other locations).

Although it sounds like a lot of fun to be around so many performers at a festival of this nature, it ended up being more uncomfortable than anything. There were just so many people that it was difficult to walk down the street. It was also very windy and cold, so that also added to the level of discomfort.

After a while, we decided to get some cappuccino and sit down for a while inside one of the shops along royal mile. We got a great table in front of the window, so we were able to see many of the ongoings and performers on the street, while at the same time not being harassed by the millions of people handing out flyers on the street. It was also a great people watching place, and we got to see tourists from all types of nations and backgrounds walking down the street. I love people watching!

Once we got bored with the royal mile, we decided to take a bus to Arthur’s seat, for some extensive hill/volcano climbing. As I alluded to earlier, Arthur’s seat is a long-extinct volcano that is right on the border of Edinburgh. It is the highest point in Edinburgh, and takes a fair climb to get to the top. We got off the bus about half mile away from Arthur’s seat and then walked up the steep hill all the way to the top. I wasn’t sure how high the peak of the hill was, but after looking on Wikipedia, I found that it was 823.5 feet. It probably only took us about 30-40 minutes to climb to the summit, but it was surprisingly tiring, and we all took a long needed rest at the top.

While we were at the top, we took a few moments to admire the views. It was great, because we were able to see pretty much all of Edinburgh. I tried taking a 360 video panorama of the view, but it didn’t turn out very well. It was sooo windy at the top that I could hardly stand up! I honestly felt like I would get blown away. We were very close to the clouds, so it seemed as if we were actually in a cloud! I did manage to get some pictures from the top, and once we were rested, we walked back down into civilization. The walk down was much easier (and faster) than the walk up, and before long, we were back onto the main road. We hopped onto the 44 and went back to the flat for a breather.

As I mentioned earlier, we had planned on seeing a Hearts match later in the evening, so we tried to get organized so that we could attend the game without being late. Not long after we got settled, we received a call from Grant (Ed’s friend who was lending us his flat) and he told us that tickets to see the Hearts would be 35 pound! That’s around $70 US to see a soccer game! None of us wanted to spend that much, so we decided to watch the game on TV instead. I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t see the match, since it was an extremely important match for the Hearts, and the atmosphere would have been amazing.

To give you a full understanding of the importance of this match, I’ll give you some more background on what the “Champions League” is, and how it works. This is not an exact definition of how it works, but rather my interpretation. The Champions league is a European soccer tournament that consists of the league champions from each major European soccer league. The top teams from England, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, etc. all compete in a tournament to determine the best soccer team in Europe! This is a massive tournament, and next to the World Cup, this is one of the biggest tournaments in soccer.

As you can see, the champions league is a BIG DEAL. It’s especially a big deal for the Heart of Midlothian soccer club, as they have never made it this far in the Champions League tournament. Simply put, this was the biggest game in the history of the Hearts! I really wish that I could have gone to the game, but I just couldn’t justify the cost. Also, they are playing again on Saturday, so we’re planning to attend that match instead.

Rather than going to watch the game, we met up with some of our Scottish friends and had some pints and watched the Hearts match.

The match was going well for the majority of the game. The Hearts scored the first goal, and lead into the 88th minute (a game is 90 minutes plus x minutes of extra time at the end) when AEK Athens scored a goal to even the match. Not 5 minutes later, Athens scored again to win the game 2-1. What a bummer! The people in the pub took the loss pretty hard, and it was a little awkward being there.

Fortunately, we were in Scotland, so the mourning didn’t last long (why mourn when you can drink another pint?). So, we ordered some more pints, and forgot about the loss shortly thereafter.

We spent a fair amount of time at the pub, and I made an attempt to order something “traditionally Scottish”. Well, obviously you can’t get more traditional Scottish than drinking Scotch whiskey, straight. So, I was given straight Scotch to sip on. No ice. No water. No twist. Just straight Scotch. Fantastic!

The Scotch felt very warm on the way down, but it wasn’t a bad drink. I took it like a pro and would have made my dad and grandpa proud.

The pub closed quite early, so we went back to the flat and had another pint and enjoyed each others company. I also completed some work that I had to do, and I eventually went to sleep with a sense of accomplishment. Not sure what we’ll be doing tomorrow, but I’m guessing it’ll involve bus route 44!