Fireworks over the Castle as my farewell to Edinburgh!

National Monumnet (based off of Parthenon in Athens) on top of Calton Hill in Edinburgh. This is the uncompleted memorial to commemorate those who died in fighting for the U.K. in the Napoleonic Wars.

Nelson's Monument

Views of Edinburgh from Calton Hill

View of Palace of Holyroodhouse at the end of the Royal Mile-official residence of the Scottish queen. At leats I think that's what this is.

View of the Old Town

The spire on the left is St. Gile's Cathedral

This was the view from my seat on the side of the hill under the observatory to watch the fireworks. Too bad it's like 7 p.m. at this point and fireworks don't start until 9 p.m.... (Dugald Stewart Monument in the foreground-what a Scottish name-Dugald...)

Same view, but around 8 p.m. (there wasn't much to do...)

Sunset over Edinburgh!

Sunset over Princes Street and the Castle

Maybe 8:45ish or so-finally getting dark!!

Finally!

Last morning in Edinburgh-A cathedral on York Street that I saw from the bus coming back from Glasgow and wanted to check out

One last look at the Scott Monument on the way back to the hostel

One last view of the Castle through Princes Street Gardens

Ross Bandstand where the orchestra played the night before to the tune of the fireworks (or maybe vice versa)

Little kid kilts!haha Colton's lucky he didn't get one of these ultra-hip outfits. It would have been like Ralphie getting the bunny suit in The Christmas Story-he would have had to wear it at least for Halloween.haha

Farwell to kilts and Scotland. I loved my time there!

So when I arrived back to St. Andrew Square (where the bus station is), I decided that as I was already fairly near it, I would go up to Calton Hill which boasts some of the best views of Edinburgh. It stands at the end of Princes Street (exactly the opposite end of the street from my hostel and the Castle). It was also about 6:30 p.m., so I could get some good dusk shots of the city. Well walking up there, I kept seeing Event Staff like those that were stationed all along Princes Street (the street had closed at 6 p.m. to allow the spectators to start lining up along the barricades). After taking in the views, I noticed that quite a few people were sitting around on the hill facing the Castle with blankets, beer, and dinner. I decided that even though it was about 2 hours until the start of the fireworks, there couldn't be a more perfect place to watch them than from here (well actually in Princes Street Garden would have been nice-or at the bandstand underneath the Castle where the Orchestra was playing, but those seats were either sold out or you had to buy tickets for them somewhere that was unknown to me). So I found an old man that had set up his tripod and fancy camera and sat near him as he must know where the best view is. It turned out that he was a professional photographer and had photographed the fireworks from all over the city throughout the years and liked this spot best.

As the sun started going down, I began to get pretty cold (the sweet old man even offered me his jacket). I hadn't planned on staying out past dark, I had planned on going back to the hostel to change before the fireworks, but there was no point in that now. The hill was getting packed, and I would lose my seat in the good hour it would take me to run back to the hostel and get back. I also knew that realistically, if I made it back to the hostel, I woudl not leave again after being out all day. So once the fireworks actually started, I positioned my camera on my knee and took hundreds of continuous shots. Too bad my knee and hands were shaking so much from the cold that most of the shots were blurry, but it was still a great show! We couldn't hear the music from up there, but I think we had the best view of the 45 minute fireworks show. Afterwards, trying to get hundreds of people down the one ancient staircase up to the hill took quite some time, then fighting the crowds down Princes Street to get back to the hostel was tiring after a long day, but definitely worth it!

My last morning in Edinburgh, the tiredness and running around finally hit me (my train left around 12:30 in the afternoon, and of course I was up by 7 because just like every other morning, the girl above my bunk was the one in the room who had to get up at 6 to catch a plane/train/bus somewhere else). I tried to go back down near Calton Hill/St. Andrew Square to look at the Cathedral and also go in the tourist shops to buy Cotlon a little surprise. I didn't have much energy though and finally headed back to the hostel to hang out before the train. My nice dormate even carried my suitcase down al the stairs to help me out!

When I got to the train station, I was a bit early and looked at the arrivals board instead of the departures and went to the wrong platform. Luckily, another lady was just as confused and had enlisted the help of station staff to take us to the right one which was miles away and all under scaffolding in the part of the station being renovated. We would have never found it! The station was in an uproar because Prince Charles was coming into Edinburgh from Glasgow in just a few hours, so the station was buzzing with police and drug dogs. Finally on the train, but not in my reserved seat because a really sweet lady and her dog were in it, and she preferred not to move him as her dog had just had a fright when he had fallen in between the platform and train at the last station. She told me that he was not currently speaking to her, so moving him would be troublesome, but the seat in front of mine was available if that was ok. Between her, the lady that had gotten lost with me who I talked to for about an hour or so, and the nice old photographer from the night before, I decided that Scottish people were among the nicest I had encountered. All in all, I loved Scotland and the really nice people that call it their home!