Edinburgh: Blog Post Prompt 4

After having spent some time in England, and my entire life in the U.S. I had pretty much no idea what to expect in Edinburgh, Scotland. Would it be similar to England? Or would it be completely different, and would I like it? We arrived in Edinburgh in around seven pm. I have to say I was not at all prepared for what I saw. It was amazing. The buildings were beautiful, and the architecture was unbelievable.

Just walking from the train to the hostel you could get a sense of the immense history surrounding you as you walk through the streets. Not only was it beautiful, but it just had this great feel. There were so many aspects of Edinburgh that I had not expected. First, there were all of the street entertainers. There were singers and painters and bag pipe players throughout the streets. Another thing that I was not all together prepared for was how friendly the people there are. I mean if you even look slightly lost someone approaches you and asks to help you. I even had one guy pull out a map, and draw a path on it so that I would not get lost. Can you imagine anyone in the U.S. doing that? Certainly not. Furthermore, I haven't encountered anything similar to that in England. The people in England are very helpful, but you usually have to ask for the help, I haven't encountered anyone who readily volunteered it.

Also, the pub culture that has virtually disappeared from Grantham, we discovered a much better version of it in Scotland. We learned so much about the culture just based on our interactions with many of the people in the pub. I had an AMAZING time that night. On top of learning about the culture, we heard live music, and some of the people attempted to us some traditional dances. This attempt, although completely futile, was extremely entertaining. In addition, we also quickly discovered an important difference between Scottish and English culture, in Scotland it is perfectly acceptable and often preferred that you tip, whereas in England in many cases if you attempt to tip they can often get offended.

I have to say a somewhat pleasant and unpleasant surprise was my hostel. We stayed at the Castle Rock Hostel, and it was directly across from Edinburgh Castle (which was completely gorgeous). The people who worked at the hostel were so cool. We basically came home at like 3 am and then talked to the people at the front desk for like two hours about our night and everything that we encountered. So the workers at the hostel were cool and it was relatively clean; these are the positives. So now onto some of the negatives, as you will note from earlier postings I am basically a clumsy mess, and my bed was on the top bunk. You can only imagine how many issues I had with getting up to that top bunk in a pitch black room, while trying to remain quiet and not tick off the other people in the hostel. Even with all of the lights on this endeavor would have been a candidate for America's Funniest Home Videos. In pitch black this display would easily have won the cash prize. Another surprising thing about the Hostel was that the bathrooms and showers were entirely coed. This concept was something that I had never considered. To be honest I was a little shocked when I walked into the bathroom the first time, and Lauren just started laughing hysterically after she discovered the bathroom/shower situation. This took a little bit of getting use to, but ultimately it was not that big of a deal.

Being Scotland made me realize how much more willing I am to go with the flow. At home, I tend to be very regimented. I have set places that I always to be. I have to get Sophie to school in the morning and then I have to get to class; so everything has to be on a schedule. I feel like maintaining that schedule is what kind of makes me a bit more uptight at home. Here I am able to be a bit more spontaneous. And that spontaneity seems to make me more open to new experiences. I feel like I have really been able to embrace all of the different elements of the culture here, and in Scotland. I am not so afraid of change and/or novelty as I would be at home.