Christmas in Edinburgh

Arriving in the late afternoon to Edinburgh, it was bitterly cold but also breathtaking. This building caught my eye as I struggled past it in the freezing rain bent double under my huge backpack. I then promptly got lost on my way to the Hostel and went in a massive and rather useless circle. Luckily just went I was starting to feel extremely unhappy a spry old Scottish gentleman came and insisted on carrying my bags halfway there and talked to me about all the sites to see in the city the whole way. He reminded me exactly of Billy Connolly. After this fortuitous meeting I finally made my way to the hostel and didn't move until the next day - Christmas day.

Christmas day I didn't have much to do, the hostel was dead quiet and it was bitterly cold outside - although no snow unfortunately. I skyped my family and then headed out to see the public sites and buildings of Edinburgh - I knew everything that required going inside would be closed. Edinburgh is riddled with narrow alleys called 'Closes' such as the one featured below, and I very much enjoyed peering down or even going through these mysterious medieval passages and seeing where they led to.

 The streets were in fact rather busy for Christmas day I was surprised to find, but then many of the pubs and restaurants were in fact open, unfortunately as I found out you had to have booked weeks ahead however, so after wandering around in the cold for a few hours I admitted defeat and retreated to the hostels warmth and cheap toasted sandwiches.

The view of the old castle on my way home as the sun began to lower in the sky (at 4pm no less) was very striking. And so ended my quiet Christmas day.