About Yesterday

Yesterday we rode the train to Edinburgh across the green fields of Scotland's narrow mid-section. Arriving at the Edinburgh station, the first and most obvious element of the city is the castle which is situated on the top of a rocky cliff directly above the train yard. We set out immediately, as I'm sure most tourists do, to climb the hill toward the castle. Apparently most of Edinburgh's visitors yesterday were of like mind because the street only got more and more crowded as we climbed higher. The tourist shops were bustling. William Wallace was posing with housewives and fraternity boys on the streetcorner. After a hectic hour navigating the crowds, we split up to explore the city.

I went down the hill and away from the center, immediately drawn toward a high, rocky bluff to the east. It turned out to be an old hunting park called Holyrood Park surrounded on three sides by the city and, on its eastern side, by the Firth of Forth (which is one of the best names for a bay that I have ever heard.) I climbed to the top (823 ft.) and sat for an hour writing in my journal and taking a few pictures before moseying my way back down into the city.

Back in the city center, the Goths were swarming (no, really!) In one of the central squares, a large group of very young, very somberly dressed kids were standing around. They were smoking and shouting and hugging and walking around with a great deal of carefully-rehearsed nonchalance. They made me curious so I stood in the middle of the crowd (maybe 125 or so) for awhile and struck up a conversation with a couple of them when they passed too close to ignore me. It turned out that they always do this, that there are a couple clubs close by that they all frequent. They were very polite and interested in me, wondering where I was from, why I was in Edinburgh. They ran to get friends to introduce to me. I took pictures of a few of them, including a boy named James who was wearing a rather non-Goth outfit which included a bright pink wig and a pair of enormous fake breasts under his denim jacket.

We stayed to watch the lights come on up at the castle (an exercise which would have been much more enjoyable in the company of my wife-to-be) and then made for the train station and home to Glasgow.