Edinburgh & Glasgow

Two Scottish cities I couldn’t pronounce to save my life before I went, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Let me help you out in case you ever decide to go, which I highly recommend since Scotland is my favorite place on earth besides North Idaho. Edinburgh is pronounced like Ed-In-Bru (like Bru, slang for bro) and Glasgow is pronounced like Glaz-go. (Not Glass-Glow as I was saying it) 

I’m not sure if I would have ever visited Glasgow if it weren’t for me really wanting to see my old study abroad roommate.  Glasgow was a city I felt comfortable in, the people were nice, there was fun little food places, tea shops, and everyone speaks english (score).  It has this incredible garden, the Glasgow Botanic Gardens that were created in 1817; I love how everything is so old in Europe. One of the days Clare was working I walked around the city and headed to the garden. I have been to Botanic Gardens before but this one was something else. I especially loved it because of the unique sculptures. The white marble contrasted with the vibrant greens of all the different plants was just so amazing! 

We traveled to Edinburgh by train, its only 42 miles away from Glasgow. Edinburgh was dreary but in the most intriguing way. It’s almost like you could feel all the strange things that had happened in the city.  We walked around for a while and there was hardly anyone around (bonus of traveling during the off season). We decided to take one of the underground tours starting at St Giles Cathedral. I am a total sucker for underground tours; I have been to the Seattle one on multiple occasions and love it every time!

The history of Edinburgh’s underground vaults was so interesting it actually is my second favorite part of my Scotland experience. There was a series of chambers that were built in 1788 and were then used for years to hold some pretty shady material such as bodies from the infamous serial killers Burke and Hare. I had never heard of Burke and Hare but over in Scotland parents will tell their kids that Burke and Hare will come snatch their bodies to scare children into eating their dinner or going to bed early.  They were murderers who were killing people and then selling the bodies to the doctors to study the anatomy of the human body. There was a shortage of legal cadavers, which led to Burke and Hare making good money from the bodies.

I loved every second of my trip to Scotland and cannot wait for when my travels bring me back there!