Dream Vacation - Day 13

Woke up and headed out to "old town". I found a place that was serving a traditional Scottish Breakfast. This included Sausage, Bacon, Fried Egg, Beans, Haggis, Black Pudding, Tomato, Toast and Tea. I was looking forward to trying Haggis and Black Pudding. I had an idea what it was but didn't know exactly and wasn't going to look it up until I had already tried it. Well I enjoyed the Haggis but could only get a bite down of the Black Pudding.

So here is what Haggis is, it's a savory pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. 

Black Pudding is a type of blood sausage commonly eaten in Britain and Ireland. It is generally made from pork blood and a relatively high proportion of oatmeal. It can be eaten cold, as it is cooked in production, but is often grilled, fried or boiled in its skin.

I'm so glad I didn't read what they were before I tired them.

So I randomly walked around "old town" and just happen to come across a cafe called "The Elephant House" and saw a sign in the window that said "Birthplace of Harry Potter" of course I had to look it up and come to find out that this is where J.K. Rowling started writing her Harry Potter series. I had no idea this place was here but was very happy that I just happen upon it.

National Monument

Next I headed to Calton Hill which is a hill in central Edinburgh, just to the east of Princes Street and is included in the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site. On top of the hill are several monuments National Monument and the Nelson Monument.

Calton Observatory

As I was up there it started to rain hard so I found shelter in the Calton Observatory, Inspired by a Greek temple of the Four Winds, the building was designed by William Henry Playfair in 1818. It was currently being rented by an artist with some very usual pieces of art. Since I had no where to go I checked out the exhibit. I really didn't get the pieces and you could tell about 2/3's of the people that were there were only in there because of the rain.

After about 20 minutes the rain was still falling but much lighter then before and I had gone around the entire exhibit twice. I decided that I would just continue my sightseeing in the rain. I wandered into a near by grave yard when the rain started to fall heavy again so I quickly walked over to the local mall and to my favorite store and used their wifi to post some pictures.

I grabbed a late lunch / early dinner around 3ish before heading back to the hostel to relax. After a few hours I headed back out for an hour and just kind of roamed around the city before nightfall.

When I got back to the hostel I now had 11 roommates, it was a packed room. I didn't do much in the evening and went to bed early.