We arrived at the crack of dawn via overnight bus from London Victoria. As far as bus journeys go, I’d say it was fairly okay and I got a good amount of sleep. If you’re attempting this I’d definitely recommend 3 things; noise cancelling ear plugs, a sleeping mask and something warm to throw over yourself – the aircon gets cold! I think this was the difference between my reasonable journey and Davids fairly rubbish sleep. The uber cheap bus and a full extra day to explore in Edinburgh was totally worth it though.
Saturday in Edinburgh
As soon as we’d dropped our bags at the Castle Rock Hostel, we headed straight across the road to explore the real Edinburgh Castle. I always go for the audio guides these days so we grabbed one each of those and began to walk around. My favourite part was the cemetery for soldiers dogs. Many, many photos later we decided it was time for coffee.
Saturday mornings in Edinburgh are well spent at the famous Edinburgh Farmers Market on Castle Terrace, so that’s where we headed. Fresh coffee, sausage rolls and amazing apple strudel were among the delicacies we tried.
After brunch we spent a couple of hours getting schooled on Scottish history at the National Museum before heading back to our hostel for a quick cat nap because honestly we were pretty pooped by this point. Later that evening it was time to hit the pub, chow down on an Edinburgh famous curry at Kalpna’s, then party it up at our hostel.
Sunday in Edinburgh
With or without a Scottish hangover, you’ve got to get up Arthur’s Peak on a Sunday and I’m speaking from experience when I say, if you don’t want to do a reasonably challenging hour long walk to the top, make sure to look out for the signs pointing you to the easy route! On our way down we noticed we’d walked directly past these and taken the much longer path, also enjoyable, just a little stressful when you’ve got a train to catch. The view from the top was really incredible and definitely the best we saw in Edinburgh. Until we climbed to the top, I hadn’t even realised we were so close to the water.
The rest of our afternoon was spent mostly mulling around town, eating good food, drinking great coffee, and making the most of any photo opportunity with the castle.
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