2017 Europe Trip 05: Edinburgh, Scotland Visit

My next visit on my 2017 Europe Trip was Edinburgh. This would be my first time in Scotland as well. One of the more northern cities in the UK, I've only ever known and heard that Scotland is relatively cool and cloudy all year round, due to its geographic nature and placement.

Scotland's Connection to Hawaii

Also, with such a small area, Scotland has also produced many famous people who've come to influence and change the world in all types of fields including science to politics. Living and coming from Hawaii, the one connection that I had no idea was between Scotland and Kingdom of Hawaii. Back before the U.S. overthrew the last queen of Hawaii, Princess Victoria Ka'iulani was half Scottish and half Hawaiian. If the Hawaiian monarchy wasn't overthrown, it would have been interesting to see how things would have transpired having the first queen in Hawaii to have European blood.

Edinburgh "Heat Wave" and Weather

Once I landed and deplaned from the Easyjet flight from Paris to Edinburgh, I realized I wouldn't need my jacket. Apparently, I had come into Scotland in one of their unusually warm "heat-wave" period. Now, note that heat-waves for Scottish is in the mid-20s celsius. That to me is just a normal high temperature for Hawaii. But for the Scottish used to the 10s Celsius as normal temperatures, 25 C on that day was extraordinarily hot. For the next 4 days, the weather and temperature were quite warm and comfortable. On my last day, a passing cold front brought some thunderstorms, also rare for Scotland to have lightning and thunder.

First Impressions of Edinburgh

Upon landing and needing to get to my Airbnb in the Leith neighborhood within Edinburgh (located on the north side of the city) ... I can say that Edinburgh has one of the best bus systems in the UK, if not, in the whole world. The Edinburgh bus system is run by Lothian Buses. Now, I'm usually the type of person that cringes on the idea of having to use buses as a mode of transportation, but Lothian bus app makes it SO easy to get on the right bus to get to your destination. 

The Lothian bus app gives you information on the next several buses that would arrive at a certain bus stop. Also if you do a trip planner, the Lothian bus app will tell you the best buses to take to get there. I really feel that ALL cities around the world really need to provide a transportation app so that people can easily know which buses (or trains) to take to get to their destinations.

The bus system is relatively cheap with options for single rides (£1,60) and day passes (£4,00).

So big thumbs up for making it very easy to get around Edinburgh.

Something else to note though is that Edinburgh is a very walkable city. It's not so large and spread out compared to other UK cities such as Manchester and/or obviously London. I could easily walk around within a 1-3 mile radius within a 30-45 minute timeframe. I even was able to get to the top of Arthur's Seat from Leith which is about 2.5 mile walk. Looking from the top of Arthur's Seat, I really just couldn't believe I had walked that far, but it wasn't really tiring at all.

Tourist Things to Do in Edinburgh

Edinburgh has plenty of known tourist and out of the way places that some people may not have even found.

As someone who simply travels to see some tourist spots, but really just want to hit up pubs and drink beer and have good food.

The must go tourist places is seeing the Edinburgh Castle. You can see this castle from many different viewpoints around Edinburgh. I didn't bother going actually into the castle as I've heard from locals that it's really not that interesting inside.

The second place is Arthur's Seat. Climb a hill of an extinct old volcano to get great views of Edinburgh in all directions. Honestly, the actual monument to Arthur's Seat wasn't that interesting, but the view was worth it!

The third place to check out is definitely National Museum of Scotland. While it's just like any other natural history museum, skip the world sections and go straight to the one portion of the museum that showcases Scottish history from the days of the kingdom all the way to the present. Scotland is rich with history and is definitely worth soaking in. Best of all, it's free entry!

The fourth place to check out is The Elephant House where J.K. Rowling supposedly wrote parts of Harry Potter before she got famous. Word on the street is that the cafe was going to close and go out of business, but that J.K. Rowling bought it to save it from closing, and asked that the cafe stay original way without making it into a Harry Potter cafe. The place gets lots of tourists, so I didn't bother actually getting coffee ... but it was nice to see where J.K. Rowling had her humble days writing the book.

Out of the Beaten Path Things to Do in Edinburgh

A couple of other non-touristy locations to check out for the lifestyle include the neighborhood of Leith. It's a coastal town within Edinburgh that historically people would not have gone to but has been rebuilt and become a new hip spot. There are plenty of great pubs and shops along Leith Walk. 

Take some time to stroll along the coastline. There's also nearby coastline beaches you can check out close to Edinburgh including Cramond Beach and Portobello Beach.

There's also an out of the way old traditional Scottish village that's located in Edinburgh called Dean's Village which is worth checking out for it's picturesque Scottish views.

Lastly, one of my favorite movies, T1 Trainspotting was filmed in the neighborhood of Leith as well as in other parts of Edinburgh. Of course, I had to go find the worst toilet in Scotland, and while I didn't find the toilet, the shopping centre where they filmed that scene, Muirhouse Shopping Centre ... is still there, looking quite dodgy and run down as it was back in 1996. I plan to rewatch T1 and check out the newest Trainspotting sequal, T2.

There's much more to see in Edinburgh, but in the short 4 days I had there, these were the top spots I at least got to check out. Of course, I will return to Scotland to see more of Edinburgh as well as other parts of Scotland.

Food and Beer in Edinburgh

I couldn't go without having some good Scottish beer. Honestly, I drank a bunch of pints and can't remember many of the different lagers and pale ales I tried, but can genuinely say that for the most part, any of the beers you get, you'll enjoy. UK still makes great beer.

Just Fish and Chips

While not just Scottish in origin, I did enjoy getting the traditional fish and chips, those either of cod or haddock as the fish. Plenty of places around in Edinburgh to get fish and chips ... and they don't skimp on the portion sizes. Small is still a lot, and large is well, just A LOT. I would usually cover it with the local HP brown sauce. Actually, one of the pubs served the fish and chips in a style that I've never seen, seem like the healthy version of the battered fish and chips I'm primarily used to.

Scottish Cuisine: Haggis

Scotland doesn't have a wide range of actual "own cuisine" ... but that being said, the one thing Scottish for sure is "haggis". What is haggis? Usually haggis is sheep's meat minced with some kind of vegetable such as onion. I personally did not like or hate it, but it was just something that I needed to try, having visited Scotland.

Where to Get Cheap UK Food

If you just want dirt cheap food, I was told by a local to simply go to Wetherspoon. Apparently, this chain is quite popular in UK for simply just serving the cheapest food. Also been told that at some points in the night, drunk fights usually break out. So obviously I had to try it out and almost saw a family and two women at another table fight with each other just because of the family's loud crying son. It was actually quite comical sitting from a distance.

Scottish Whiskey

And lastly ... if you are a whiskey fan, then Scotland has LOTS of different whiskey variety. Unfortunately, I'm not a whiskey fan, however ... I did try one of the starter Scottish whiskeys ... and yes, it went down my throat quite warm. I can see how whiskey development progressed well since Scotland is quite cold, so to keep warm, whiskey helps with that.

Best Hangover Cure

Besides having a hearty English breakfast consisting of eggs, sausages, beans, cut tomato, haggis, toast, and much more ... one of the best so-called post-hangover drink is a soft drink called Irn-Bru. It's a Scottish national drink, and is orange, carbonated soda that people from time to time have.

The Scottish National Animal: Unicorn

The best fact that I loved the most is that Scotland's national animal is the UNICORN. The f*cking UNICORN.

I'm out of my mind. I know it's a bit silly that one of my favorite mythological creatures is unicorn, but I can't help but think that this just alone makes Scotland and the Scottish super fantastic. 

Overall Edinburgh Impressions

I overall had a blast in Edinburgh, and had a great time staying with local Airbnb hosts in Leith. I also was able to meet up with a digital nomad who I designed a kick-ass logo for her copywriting business, Untamed Writing. 

(Above is the logo I designed for her copywriting business)

And lastly, I met countless of awesome local Scottish people for drinks and good talk. I thank the great hospitality that Scotland and Edinburgh have provided for me. I'll always remember the short, but amazing time I had there.

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- Have you visited Edinburgh?

- What do you like about Scotland?

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Feel free to see my full 2017 European travel plans.

Next Location >> London, England

Previous Location >> Paris, France

And follow me @hustletoparadise to stay up to date on the European adventures and travels.