Half an hour.

Last day in Paris, have only half an hour to update so will do my best...here goes.

Fireworks.

After the ghost tour, we walked back through the Cowgate (which is kind of like some streets I know in Melbourne where yobbos hang out and there is lots of piss and vomit around- lovely) down to The Mound which is at the top of the Princes Street gardens. It seemed as though the whole of Edinburgh was out. They were here, like us, to see the fireworks around Edinburgh Castle which marked the end of the Edinburgh Festival. There were people crowded literally as far as I could see. We watched most of the fireworks display then made our way through the crowd towards the pub and our last sleep in this town. It is a credit to the people of Edinburgh that at no time amongst this huge crowd (many of them drunk) did Tricky or myself ever feel unsafe. This is a great place to visit.

The dark side of Edinburgh.

Apart from the usual medieval tricks of beheadings, body-snatching, nailing ears to church doors and impaling bodies and heads on sticks, there were lots of even nastier tricksters about. We went on this ghost tour of the Grey Friars Cemetry and a tomb called the Black Mausoleum. This tour is in a disued cemetry which was closed to the public a few years ago due to some very strange goings on particularly in the part of the cemetry that contained the Black Mausoleum. The tour operqtor managed to get the council to hand him the keys in exchange for some money- those Scots! This was a tomb that once contained the body of a Scottish guy who went by the name Bloody Mackenzie so called because he liked to slice peoples guts open and impale their heads on stakes-that kind of thing. The strange goings-on started about 3 years ago when a homeless person found his way into the tomb and, although no one knows exactly what happened to him, he went certifiable after spending the night with MacKenzie. Ever since then, there have been several hundred genuine events of wierdness occur including many of actual, unexplained incidents of harm to people who visit the tomb- such things as scratches bruises over the whole body and more than 30 losses of consciousness. The tour guide we had said he had personally carried 13 people out of the tomb- unconscious! Its enough to say that I am a sceptic and I just about shat myself.

Last day in Edinburgh.

Our last day in Edinburgh started with a tour of the OLD Town by a distinguished Scottish man in a kilt who lead us on foot around the landmark buildings and sites of the Old Town for almost 2 hours. The cost of this? Zero. these people do it out of their love for their town and it is I think one of the best ways anyone could get to know a place better. I’ll tell you more about the tour later but I say almost 2 hours because we had to go quickly back to see Edinburgh Castle (boring, admire it from the outside and save yourself 8 pounds) then back to the hotel to get ready for our GHOST TOUR! 

Miserable.

Both Tricky and I have colds and are battling to get up the energy to do anything. Tricky has also berated me for not giving her the requisite amount of love and attention when she was sick first (and I was fine) and for actually getting a bit snappy with her for complaining.

Now I’m suffering. Guilty as charged.