Ghost Bite

When we were in Edinburgh last weekend, Dovey and I went on a ghost tour of the city. It was great fun. The guide took us on a walking tour of the hidden chambers under the city, and through a beautiful old cemetary called "Greyfriars."

When we were at the end of the tour, he let us stand inside a fairly famous tomb in a gated section of the cemetary. It's a tomb that's rumored to be host to a ghost called "The MacKenzie Poltergeist." The guide warned us not to stand too close to the back of the tomb, because that was where the majority of the activity happens. He climed that tourists often complained of coming home from the tour only to fnd the next morning that they had been inexplicably, and badly, bruised.

We scoffed, and made sure to stand at the far back, right next to the wall.

After the tour, we laughed, had a few pints and headed back to the apartment. When I got in the shower the next morning, here's what I found on my arm:

Boo!

I had a momentary freak-out, but then Dovey reminded me that I had actually fallen down on the street the previous morning. (Not a result of ale ove-consumption. We had been in the city about ten minutes when I tripped over a cobblestone. Graceful. I fell on my knees hard, and skinned them both big time.) So, that's a much more likely explanation. Still, it was an interesting spooky coincidence.

Crisp Madness

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on the blog before, but the British folks over here seem to be crazy about potato chips. They're called 'crisps' over here, but their differences to American potato chips go way beyond just names. In the states, it's pretty common to run across the occasional flavored potato chip. Bbq, sour cream & chive, cheese, and salt and vinegar... The usual suspects. Nothing too bizarre.

On principle, I'm not opposed to flavored potato chips. For example, Jay's makes a fiery hot & spicy flavor that I totally love. My friend Kristy Kallback in high school had a stepdad named Walt that drove a delivery truck for Jay's, and her cupboard was always stuffed full of those things. We ate them until our fingers were semi-permanently stained red.

So, there are certain flavors that I expect to see on a potato chip bag. But, it's as if the British have made crisp flavoring into some sort of Fear Factor-esque dare. I'm a fairly adventurous eater, but the flavors of British crisps travel waaaay outside of my comfort zone. The flavor choices are much more varied, and much more bizarre than what I'm used to. Here's a list of some of the crisp flavors that we've sampled the past few weeks:

Italian Spaghetti Bolognese
Spanish Chicken Paella
French Garlic Baguette
BBQ Kangaroo
Sweet Chutney
Teriyaki Chicken
Worchester Sauce
Roasted Chicken
Extreme Wasabi

And those are just the flavors that we've actually tried. Some of the other crisp flavor options include:

Indian Curry
Stilton and Cranberry
Prawn Cocktail
Texas Paprika
Chili and Chocolate
Onion Bhaji
Crispy Duck
Tomato Ketchup
Baked Bean
Marmite
Cajun Squirrel (for real)

I think it's fascinating that some of these flavors have made it to store shelves. Some of them are just so... disgusting. But, I have three more serious beefs with the whole British flavored crisp obsession:

1) I actually like plain potato chips. Weirdly, they're next to impossible to find at the store.

2) The abundance of flavored crisps wouldn't bother me if I actually had some other choice for a snack treat. But the only salty snacks that seem to be at the store are crisps. It's really odd. If I go into a grocery store and walk down the snack aisle, it's 90% devoted to crisps. The entire length of the aisle (and we're talking about a big aise) is almost all crisps. They're unavoidable. When Mark was visiting, we searched two different grocery stores for pretzels and popcorn, but only found two choices: One bag of assorted flavored pretzels, and one box of plain microwave popcorn. It's as if they like a variety of choices when it comes to crisp flavors, but don't need any sort of choices outside of crisps.

3) Most of the flavored crisps are honestly kind of gross. It's as if they just make one kind of crisp and then dust it with all kinds of different flavored powders. The flavor isn't really a part of the crisp, it's just powdered on. The powder gets all over your hands, and, if you make the mistake of breating in while trying to eat a paticularly powdery crisp, in your lungs. Not good.

It's just one of those wacky cultural differences. I don't think I'll be nostalgic for the bizarrely-flavored crisps once I'm back home. (Well...Maybe the worchester sauce crisps. They're actually not too bad.)

Orange Moon

Although impossible to capture on film, the full moon tonight is a beautiful shade of vibrant orange. I've never seen anything quite like it.

I'm glad that Dovey was here to see it. It's his last night in England, and I'm already missing him.

Speed Racers

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. I've been having such a good time showing Mark around, that I just haven't had the time to write. I'll do a thorough update soon. For now, though, I just wanted to say that we're having tons of fun. Mark and Matt are actually down the street at the moment, racing go-karts at Maryport's indoor track. Woo!

Edinburgh Castle

People have lived on the site of Edinburgh Castle since 9 BC, and there's been a royal castle there since the 12th century. It's a pretty impressive place... It looks very foreboding as it's perched on top of a large hill, surrounded by rocky cliffs on all sides but one.

It looks unreal, almost like a movie set. The fact that the caste has survived so long is a testament to how solidly constructed and well-placed it is. You can easily imagine that once upon a time it was completely untouchable.

Edinburgh City Pictures

Outside Waverly Station, looking up towards Old Town

Grassmarket

Grassmarket, at a pub called "The Last Drop." (So named because it's located right outside where the city gallows used to stand.)

Arthur's Seat

St. Giles Cathedral, The Royal Mile

The Dove on The Royal Mile

Stockbridge, near the Water of Leith

Some sort of weird spire that totally looks like the castle from The Dark Crystal.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Just got back from Edinburgh, and really had the most marvelous time. Dovey and I rode in on the train on Saturday morning, and headed back early Monday. That gave us about a day and a hal of full-on city time, which was absolutely perfect.


Edinburgh is one of my favorite cities on the planet. The history and architecture of Edinburgh is really interesting, and the people all seem to be very warm and welcoming. It's not quite as spread out as London is, either, which makes it very easy to navigate. Once you get the general layout of the city down, it's pretty simple to walk from one place to the next. (Although, since I'm fairly directionally-challenged, it was great to have The Dove there with me. Still, even on my own I think I'd be just fine navagating around the ciy center. It's pretty simple.)


The only thing that takes a little getting used to is the amount of stairs climbing/hill walking that you have to do to get around Edinburgh. The city is built on a series of slopes and inclines, and Old Town near the castle is built at the highest point. From there, the major downtown streets slope downward and are bisected by narrow passageways between buildings called "closes." The closes are basically long, narrow staircases-- Imagine an alleyway, but totally made up of stairs. Some of them marvously steep, too. Not necessarily the best situation for the claustrophobic or easily winded. After a few days of walking around Edinburgh up and down the sloping streets and in and out of closes, my feet were feeling pretty beat. Still, well worth the effort.


One interesting side effect of the way the closes connect the different parts of the city is that it always seems like there are hidden secret passages through the city. Every close seems to have one or two interesting stores or pubs tucked away on it, none of which you'd be able to see unless you knew where to look. We stayed on one of the closes called "Fleshmarket Close," for example, and there were two pubs and a barber shop that were only accessible from various spots on the long stairway, none of which you could possibly see from the main streets above or below. The whole city feels a bit like that--- As if at any moment you could stumble across a hidden gem. It's really exciting. Or maddening, since for every amazing shop or pub you stumble across, you know there must be six or seven others right under your nose that you're missing.

Here's a look at the center of Fleshmarket Close, where we spent the night on Saturday and Sunday.

This is the pub that was immediately below our apartment, four floors down.

It's so tucked away, t'd be easy to miss. It was a really interesting and friendly pub, too called "The Halfway House." (It's halfway up the close, get it?) . It had two booths, two tables, a short bar, and that was pretty much it. I'd say that it woud fit twenty-five people, max. But that would be quite a squeeze.

Here's Dovey, hoisting a pint at The Halfway House.

The apartment we stayed at was perfect for our purposes. The decor was a little dated, but it was clean and rght in the heart of the city. We just had to walk up the close, cross the street, and we were right in the heart of The Royal Mile. A perfect location, really.

Waverly Station was right across the street from us, which was super convenient. (And not as noisy as you'd imagine.)

To add to Edinburgh's charm, most of the old buildings don't have any elevators. We had to walk four flights up a steep spiral staircaise to get to our aprtment. It was such a haul, that whn we came back to the apartment for a breather after a long day of tourist stuff, it was honestly just easier to plop down at one of the booths at The Halfway House for a bit of relaxation. Dovey and I played many card games and sampled quite a few Scottish pints there. It was very cozy and homey. I enjoyed it immensely.

I'll post more touritsy-type pictures of the city later...I have tons!