Edinburgh: King of the Hill

My introduction to Edinburgh was much like the grand entrance David and I made to Venice all those weeks ago: once again, I opted for taking the nightbus, but instead of going to Glasgow, where I would be staying that night, I continued on to Edinburgh to allow myself a couple extra hours of bumpy bus sleep. 

The city I awoke to find was as steely and gray as the castle that towered over it. Edinburgh Castle rises up out of an inactive volcano, with the 'old town' flowing down from castle like the tail of a comet. That first day, it was hard to look at anything for long without my eyes wandering back to the castle, to the sheer slate edges that are wrapped in a sort of netting, as though without its flimsy support, the fortress would crumble and fall.

Definitely my favorite moment of Edinburgh, and, so far, of my whole trip, was hiking up to Arthur Seat, the highest peak amidst what Wikipedia describes as "a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape" just outside of the city. The wind was so strong that we had to be careful as we crested the various hills; holding a camera steady enough to take a picture was almost impossible to do. But even in the middle of that hurricane, the sun was shining huge slanting shafts that cut through the clouds to give the whole landscape a glittering golden glow. Finally standing on Arthur Seat, I wondered if would-be Edinburgh invaders had felt as I did now: that by hiking 45-minutes up a hill, I had conquered the city and everything in it.