Compact City

I know. Second lamest title ever. You know what? I'd like to see you write better entries from Scotland.

On Tuesday, because I didn't have class until 4pm (did I mention that I'm only in class for eight hours a week? That's right, read them and weep), I took a few hours to wander around the city and see the more touristy political attractions- the Scottish Parliament and the Queen's Palace. I didn't actually pay for the tours, just lurked around the two places. Although the Parliament had a lot of gates that should have been closed that weren't. Was really tempted to just walk in. But alas, didn't. Now here's what I love about Edinburgh. They hate their Parliament building because it took 500 million pounds to build. After the building costs reached about 200 million pounds, they sort of just didn't have a budget anymore, 'cause it was just so expensive anyway. And that logic is freaking awesome. And they always mention that they didn't even have a Scotsman design it. Crazy, post-modern Germans. Also, I love how efficient and compact this city is. So I'm walking along, here are some cafes, apartment buildings, and oh, two feet away is the Scottish Parliament, and the Queen's Palace is literally across the street, and between them is some weird science thing called Our Dynamic Earth and all in the background, just standing there, is Arthur's Seat. That big mound right there. Just chilling.



People love to climb Arthur's Seat. It's good exercise and gives you a great view of the city. But come on, people, it's not even a pretty hill. It's just patches of overgrown grass, most of it brown. I don't hike back home. But I do know that you cannot get away with calling this 'hiking' in New England. This is not nature, people. It's a hill with lots of little paths on it leading to the flat, barren top. You can do better, People of Eddie Bert, you deserve better nature.






See these paths? We just don't do nature the same way.





Grass, grass, all over the hill. And a sad view of the Parliament because I didn't want to climb the whole hill (we're saving that for another day) and because it got really windy and I remembered that our guide during orientation had warned us that sometimes, the bottom of the hill might look calm, but the weather will change suddenly and get really scary up top and, "then you die." His words. Yeah, kind of scarred now.