Day 1 in the Capital of Scotland

View from The Camera Obscura of St. Giles Cathedral.
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Our first day in Edinburgh, we got quite alot accomplished. For lunch, we ordered sandwiches from an upscale eatery called "Subway". I wish we had places like that in the States, real scottish submarine sandwiches made fresh while you wait. We took our fancy meal and ate in the Princes Steet Gardens, a huge part in the center of Edinburgh. While we devoured our lunches, we we entertained by an older man playing the accordian. After we finished, we gave our performer some money, got some ice cream for dessert, and began our hike up to Edinburgh Castle. It was a tough one at times, but the view it offered was amazing and just kept getting better and better the higher we got. From the streets below the castle we could see that some sort of construction was going on right outside it. As we neared the entrance we could see they were building large bleachers. The bleachers were for the impending Military Tattoo, an annual celebration held in August. For over fifty years military organizations from all over the world have met here to perform for a huge audience. We passed the bleachers, entered the Edinburgh Castle, and walked around for about 2 hours. We saw lots of cannons, Scotland's Crown Jewels, and fantastic 360 degree views of the entire city. The castle sits on a large hill (cleverly named "Castle Hill") with the city built around it. From nearly any point in Edinburgh you can see the castle. It's like someone's watching you wherever you go. Kinda creepy.

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When we had seen all we could see of Edinburgh Castle, we walked down a block to "Camera Obscura". At the top of the small five story building is a 150-year old Camera Obscura that reflects views of the entire city onto a a round wooden table about 3 feet wide in a dark room. According to the brochure, this is "probably the oldest camera onscura in the world". Probably. The rest of the museum was filled with optical illusions, holograms and a morphing machine that took your photograph and morphed your face into that of a baby or a monkey, among other things. Needless to say, we were quite amused. Chris and I took our time wandering around Camera Obscura and ended up leaving just as the museum was closing.

This is the horizon at 12:30 in the morning!
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We walked down the Royal Mile for a bit, then took refuge on a bench and looked through some tour pamphlets. It didn't take long for Christina to find the perfect one. Beneath some parts of Edinburgh there exists a, until recently, mythical underground city. In the sixteenth century, a wall was built around the entire city of Edinburgh to help protect it from Britain's constant attacks. As the city grew in population, the space for homes to be built diminished and instead of building homes on ground, they began to build up, placing structures on top of already established buildings. These wooden constructions were very weak and often collapsed or burned down leaving many families homeless. Since it was illegal to live on the streets of Edinburgh at the time (and usually too expensive to rebuild), these families made homes out of the only space left in the city: The hills of Edinburgh. They dug vaults and corridors out of the dirt, and lived in darkness and disease. The lives of the underground inhabitants were full of scandal and murder, and because of that, these vaults are said to be haunted. The tour Christina had chosen promised to bring us to these vaults. It also included a tour of the city's darker side with tales of grave robbery and witch hunts, and a quick look at ancient torture devices. We couldn't miss this.

Just one of the many interactive optical illusions at Camera Obscura that entertained us for way too long.
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We met with the guides and the rest of the group at just as the bells of the St. Giles Cathedral chimed 10 pm. As in Amsterdam, we had two guides. One gir, Terry, was well versed with the tour and observing the other not so experienced girl, Sarah, give one of her first tours. Both girls were dressed in a goth style, complete with velvet bustiers and black capes. We started walking a few blocks up a hill (there are alot of those here...) and stopped near a quiet alley. It was here Sarah began telling us exactly what two things 10:00 at night meant hundreds of years ago. First and foremost, it was "galley loo" time. When the bells of the city tolled 10, everyone throughout the town would gather their chamber pots, open their windows, and yell out "galley loo" as they tossed the contents out on the streets, which were sometimes up to 14 stories below. Because the city is built on a hill, all the umm... stuff... from galley loo would end up in a huge pond at the bottom of the city (today, this area is the lush green (thanks to all that fertilizer) Princes Street Gardens). Edinburgh also declared 10 pm as the offical time for closing the bars. So, during galley loo, the only people on the streets were drunks, and foreigners, most likely unaware of the nightly event. However, if you happened to be sober enough when the warning was heard, yelling out "hold yer hand" would give you enough time to run up against the nearest building, shield your eyes, close your mouth, and hope for little splashback. Unfortunately, foreigners had no chance. Luckily, Chris and I had now been warned, and Edinburgh has since been fitted with modern day plumbing. As we walked to the next stop, we were told about the origins of graverobbing in Edinburgh. There was once a medical school within the city and, as one would expect, the school was constantly in need of bodies to practice on. For their supply, the school relied mainly donations which were increasingly rare. In order to bring in more specimans, the instructors began offering money in exchange for bodies. The fresher they were, the more money the corpses were worth. Since fresh dead bodies were so hard to come by on the streets, people began to frequent cemetaries to dig up the recently buried. These graverobbers figured since the schools only needed the actual bodies, they were free to help themselves to anything of value that may have been laid to rest with it. Our guide continued to tell us a particular tale of two graverobbers who had dug up the fresh grave of an old lady. As one of them began cutting off her finger to get a ring, she suddenly awoke with a terrified scream. She had been buried alive. This situation led to the idea that perhaps other seemingly deceased bodies were also being buried alive. At that point in time, to be declared dead all you had to do was look the part. From then on, corpses were buried with brass bells in their coffins and it was well known that if you happened to wake up buried alive, all you had to do was calmly ring the bell as loud as you could. Hopefully the person who heard it was not petrified by the sound and, instead of running, rescued you. Creepy.

The Castle all lit up.
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Next, we were led to a square in front of St. Giles Catherdral where Sarah brought up the topic of witch hunts. She explained that the Scots were just as caught up on witches as the rest of the world. We were then told stories of how accused witches were tortured, stressing how it took little effort to convince an entire town one was a witch. Once it was decided someone was a witch, the town would take him or her down to the pond of waste at the bottom of the city (remember the galley loo runoff...). If the accused witch did not confess, they were repeatedly dunked in the water. If there was still no confession, their hands and feet were bound, and they were then tossed into the pond and rescued shortly before drowning. At this point, whether the accused confessed or not, they were burned at the stake. If the victim screamed (as I imagine most would), it was said the witch soul was escaping, and the town had successfully done their job.

Just part of the Edinburgh Castle.
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Then we were finally off to the underground vaults. On our way there we were led through a room full of torture devices. Some contraptions were quite creative, some obscure, most pretty obvious, and a few available in child size (that would never fly in the States). Terry then pointed out the heavy looking metal chastity belt, not something I typically considered as a torture device, until now. When men would leave to fight, they would often lock these belts on their wives and take the only key with them. This would obviously prevent the women from having sex and becoming pregnant. The torture came not from the abolition of sex, but from the occasional instance that the woman would be unknowingly pregnant before her husband left. If the mother-to-be even survived full term, she never survived through labor.

The Camera Obsura is the white building on the left.
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With that thought in mind we were shown the entrance to the Underground. Before we continued with the tour, our guides gave a disclaimer warning anyone with anything from clausterphobia to asthma to epilepsy to notify them because, due to the nature of the remaining portion of the tour, the environment was likely to trigger attacks. The warning was so persisitent and accompanied by such graphic stories I began to wonder if perhaps I did have undiagnosed asthma, or some latent form of epilepsy that may just choose tonight to surface. After brief consideration, I decided against sharing these ideas with Terry and Sarah. I really wanted to go into the Underground, and I really really wanted to see a ghost. The group then trickled into a long wide hallway with rooms cut out on one side. We were surrounded on all sides by dirt. It was damp and chilly and the only light was from the green emegency lighting that had been installed after many unexplained incidences of failing flashlights. Chris and I had come up with a plan that would give us the best chances of seeing a wandering spirit. We would stay a the back of the crowd and peer all around us in the hopes that one would show itself to us. It sounded like great theory at the time. The first vault we crowded into was said to be the least haunted. Rarely the ghost of a child had be seen cowering in the corner. The room, which was about 15 feet square, had a dirt floor which, due to the dampness, was more like mud. Sarah said that when this room was occupied, it housed about 3 dozen people at a time. There was no light because "if you could afford a candle, you could afford not to live here". If you were lucky, there was a bucket to use as a chamber pot, but with over thirty people using it, it filled up fast anyway. Since they were first built, the underground vaults were always wet and cold, but whenever it rained it Edinburgh, it got even worse. About 3 days after any downpour, the water would seep through the ground and soak everyone living there.

A view of Calton Hill from the Edinburgh Castle.
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As she led us back into the hallway, Sarah began telling another story about the lagest group ghost sighting this tour company had ever experienced. A guide was leading a rather large group into the underground when one of his people had a panic attack. Since the group was so big, and they were somewhat near the exit, the guide figured he could take the person out himself rather than call for back up, as was the normal procedure. After he left, another man approached the crowd. He was dressed in old style clothing which the group assumed was a costume. Taking him for a replacement guide, the tour followed him deeper into the vaults. When the first guide finally caught up to the group, he was confused as to why they had continued without him. They explained they were following the new guide who, for some reason, had suddenly disappeared. The guide's face went pale as he simply told the group, "There was no other guide". Our eyes lit up at the possibility of seeing this ghost. Sarah told us this had been the Northbridge Poltergeist, the most commonly seen underground spirit.

Pure silliness.
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The second room was as uneventful as the first and I honestly don't remember much about it. It was the last room that really caught our attention. It was about the same size as the first, but the center of the room was roped off. One of the poles holding the rope had fallen into the forbiden center area. It was in this vault a terrible thing happened. A man once stayed overnight in the dark room with only a few candles and a large dressing mirror. Believing the room to be a portal to another world, he hoped that as he sat in the center of the room surrounded by candles a spirit would enter through the mirror. The man fell asleep. When he awoke, the vault was pitch black. He stumbled around and was able to light a candle. Once the room was lit he noticed the mirror was knocked over. As he lifted it up he was shocked to see the mirror didn't even have so much as a crack from the fall. He also noticed, as he studied his reflection, he was covered in scratches. Since then, many people have stayed the night in the vault, some with similarly chilly outcomes. It is believed that the center of the room holds an evil force which explains why it was roped off, as well as why no one was willing to reach beyond the ropes to pull up the fallen pole.When we walked into this last room, it was noticably creepier than the others. This was aprtially due to the fact there was no light in this vault, not even the green emergency lights. Apparently, for some unknown reason, the emergency light never worked in this room. Terry and Sarah split the group, having men on the left side of the room and women on the right. They explained that it is in this room they experience the most "attacks". These attacks are typically mild, but they are the worse when a man and woman are standing next to each other. Christina and I huddled with the other girls in the group, making sure our backs were to the wall. After telling us their beliefs on the powers of the center of the room, they asked if any skeptics would like to find out the truth for themselves. Some tour-goers in the past had taken this opportunity and woken up the next morning with unexplained scratches, or had an abnormal string of bad luck. After this warning, no one was brave enough to risk it, including my sister and I. Terry and Sarah then proceeded to turn off their flashlights and tell us the aforementioned history of the room. I'm not going to lie, it was tense. In the solid black darkeness of the vault, Chris and were clutching each other's hand, waiting for, well, I wasn't really sure, but something had to happen. Sure enough, at the end of the story, another guide dressed in a black robe and mask jumped into the room screaming. It was kind of a cheap and predictable move, but it was fun nonetheless. I mean, we went in for a scare and even this one was better than nothing.

We left the vault peering over our shoulders for one last hopeful sighting of the Northbridge Poltergeist. No luck. The last leg of the tour ended with a stop in an old pub. There was a twenty-something guy on a small stage singing as he played his acoustic guitar. I loved the atmosphere. As I noticed when we were at the Fall Out Boy concert, this place felt like home (with the exception of all the thick Scottish accents around us). We sat through a few songs before we got sleepy and decided we should head back to our hotel. It was maybe around 12:30 in the morning as we walked. As we glanced down an intersecting street we noticed the horizon. There was still light, though we weren't sure if it was the sunrise or the sunset. Neither would have surprised me. We also enjoyed the view of the castle. It was the first time we had seen it all lit up. It was an amazing sight.

We made it home safely, had a small snack and went to bed. The next day was the last day of our adventure, and we had no idea what to with it.