Scottish Parks

The parks over here are wayyyyy more fun than those in the US....though a bit more dangerous. Most of the items within the park are meant to send you flying. Instead of a teeter totter, you have handals on two sides of a metal beam, which swings in circles. So two people grab hold, you run in a circle, and then you both go up. We saw a great playground in the zoo as well, which looked like the fancier play equipment given to great apes. And it is lifted off the ground. Kids need to be tethered in to play on that!

Hogmanay

Scots take there holidays very seriously, especially hogmanay. Hogmanay is the last day of the year, aka new years around here. It is a several day holiday, with many government businesses closed from New years eve through the 4th or 5th.

Marc and I had dinner with friends (one of the friends is vegan, so we had a delicious vegan friendly feast of curry, roasted potatoes made by her irish roomie :), humus and dip, and stuffed mushrooms.) After, we hiked up the craigs (adjacent to arthurs seat, but a little less steep) and watched the fireworks. There was a display over the castle, and another big one over city centre (I think maybe in St. Andrews square?)

Several paper lanterns were also set loose. We watched a family set them off, they had a bit of trouble, but the lanterns burn really bright and did well with all the wind that night. Absolutely beautiful.

Butterfly and Insect World at Dobbie's

Marc and I went to a wonderful shopping centre for gardening and home care called Dobbies. It is huge, and is fun to wander through. It also has a garden restaurant and deli with delicious fresh grown foods, as well as visitor attractions like a seasonal ice rink and a butterfly and insect world. The butterfly and insect world has a large butterfly garden, with painted quails and iguanas running around. In a separate room they have reptiles, amphibians, insects, a bee colony (though it is a bit cold for them), and a nocturnal room. It was fun, and the standards for animal care overhere seem to be much higher than in the US. Even pets for sale like hamsters and rabbits have healthier looking coats, and are curious and approach people. They have varied diets, enrichment, and all around just seem better.

Edinburgh zoo, chocolate soup, and arthurs seat

Today was wonderful! Marc had the day off of his internship, so we spent the day walking around and exploring. We spent the morning at Edinburgh zoo. It was very nice, but somehow all the exhibits seemed to be uphill. Very steeply uphill; you need hiking shoes for this zoo. The animal species and enclosures are fairly typical of most zoos in the states, with a few things I was impressed with. The public education of research was really neat; they have entire buildings illustrating the research they are doing with capuchins and squirrel monkeys. It shows there research set ups, and you can access the equipment and do the test task. They also have computer monitors showing spectrograms of vocalizations. Wonderful :) Also, I had never seen a bush dog before. Very rare, from south america, about the size of a cat. They live in family groups and make a neat squeaking sound. The zoo is most famous for its penguins. Not only do they have a voluntary penguin parade each day, but one penguin is honored by the military each year at the tattoo festival. His rank just continues to go up, and this past year he was knighted.

We then refreshed ourselves at an award winning hot chocolate place called chocolate soup, and then walked to Arthurs seat. We proceeded to hike to the top, and enjoyed a great view of the city. It is a very steep climb up, but since it is steep it goes quickly. With all the melting snow and ice, that also meant it was slippery, and there was lots of falling (at least for me...Marc is wiley and managed to stay on his feet most the time). But it was alright...with all the water, the scottish grass is more sponge like, so it cushioned the fall. This also turned me into a giant mudball.... but the view was worth it, you could see the whole city in rolling fog.

Bobbie's bar and the Elephant Cafe

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After visiting the museum, went to Bobbie's bar and the elephant cafe for refreshments. Bobbie was a small dog whose owner passed away. He pretty much lived at his owners grave, only leaving to get meals at this pub. Bobbie has since passed away, and was buried with his owner. But now the bar was renamed in his honor. And the Elephant house is the birthplace of Harry Potter. The girls bathroom is covered in nerdy Potter graffiti.

National Museum of Scotland

Visited the National museum of Scotland today. Very large, took most of the afternoon to just breeze through everything. A few of the gems:

The Lewis Chessman: Chess pieces dating back to the 12th century, made out of walrus ivory. One of the oldest complete chess sets in the world.

Mary Queen of Scots tomb

There was a very interesting section on the death rites in early Scotland. Mourning periods were long; for a parent the mourner wore black for at least a year. Another interesting piece was a group of 17 mini caskets, found on Arthur's seat in 1836. No one knows what they are, why they were there. They were very detailed; the little figures are hand carved with custom clothing, hand painted in lots of detail. One guess is that they represent the 17 people Burke and Hare killed and then proceeded to sell the bodies for dissection at the University. Others think that they were used for witchcraft, or perhaps by sailors for good luck.

View from flat

Happy boxing day :) The snow is finally melting, but the view of the mountains with the snow is just to pretty, I had to get a good panorama before it was gone. This is just outside our apartment.