UK Travel and tour Part 1 : Edinburgh PT.1 Arrival Figuring out the local dialect.

This year I had the fortune to travel around my native nation, the United Kingdom. My first destination was Edinburgh, the jewel of Scotland.

Basics before you get there : How to pronounce Edinburgh

Before we start, let's try to figure out to say "Edinburgh" correctly. Many non UK residents pronounce the name in the same way as Pittsburgh (how it appears to be writtten) (/ˈɛdɪnbɜːrɡ/ Ed -in-burg).

NOPE!!

The name is actually pronounced in the same way as many British towns ending in "borough"
This can be pronounced with a short ə sound after the b , or without, pronouncing the consonants br together as a blended sound.

This Scottish lassie has very definite views on how to pronounce it (with the blended br )

Edinburgh (/ˈɛdɪnbrə/ edd-inn-bra ( or /ˈɛdɪnbərə/ edd-inn-bu-ra )

Although this guy doesn't do a video on general Scottish or the Edinburgh accent, he does one on Glasgow and Aberdeen, and has many pronunciation videos for dialects across the UK if you are interested. Well worth subsrcribing to get you started on British and Scottosah dialects.

The Fringe

Edinburgh has been a popular destination for tourists for many years now. It's World Famous Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is an eclectic selection of arts, comedy and surreal performance. Unmissable if you have the time and money, but beware the hotels and guest houses start filling up months before the actual event.

The Currency

Scotland uses the pounds sterling, the same currency as the rest of the UK. Interestingly their banks still produce their own banknotes which differ from the Bank of England's standard banknotes. If you are interested, the wiki is here.

The weather.

Expect rain, but don't pack an umbrella. A seemingly contradictory sentence, but you may well find that your umbrella is blown away or destroyed by the wind before you can get any use for it. A better choice is a good rainproof jacket or coat. Or maybe a pac-a-mac a small rainproof coat which can be compacted to fit in a small small space. You will need jumpers and underclothes most of the year round, and any time outside of summer, hats and gloves will come in handy.
Be prepared for the weather to be changeable.

My pic of Edinburgh castle looking gloomy and not terrbily castle like.

Scott Monument (Central Edinburgh)

Some info about Sir Walter Scottt

This gothic style tower is a tribute to Sir Walter Scott. Climbing up the inside of the tower is somewhat scary and claustrophobic, (also bad if you suffer from vertigo) but the views are amazing as long as you don't have to turn around inside the spiral staircase. Enjoy the pic without vertigo!!

My fave pic of the Scott Monument.

My pic from near the top of the tower.

View over towards Edinburgh Castle from the Scott Monument.

MORE EDINBURGH GOODIES TO FOLLOW IN PT.2.

As well as tips, I also provide some occasional shoots from my photography, I hope that you enjoy.
A selection of my posts:

• Long exposure tips
• Photostitching
• Welsh Wedding
• Robin Hood's Bay photoshoot
• Pickering War Weekend 1
• Pickering War Weekend 2
• Check out my Flickr for more pics. Or my website Spinkphoto

My steemit blog

Any tips on visits to Edinburgh? Where to visit?

Please post below with suggestions.

DISCLAIMER - All my own photos and writing. , the steemit logo was taken from imugr to add to my title photo. The pics may have been previously uploaded to other websites (flickr) but I own full copyright for the pics.

The videos in this blog are taken from youtube, not my content and copyright of the respective uploaders. Apologies for not using the wonderful D-tube this time. Please check it out and upload vids if you have time.

Check out my D-tube foraging videos if you have time:

• Foraging for nettle pesto pizza
• Intro video

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