A Little Bit of reddit
So I found this neato drawing while waiting for my thermodynamics class. This is a reference to the icon of reddit (never capitalized), called the reddit alien. I only care because I've been browsing reddit for about three years. But this isn't Scotland related, so onwards and outwards.
Above: I'm not the only redditor in Scotland!
Friday
Sara, Jordan and I wanted to go to Chocolate Soup. But Jordan had a test, so Sara and I had to give her a little study time. Using our amazing meandering ability, Sara and I went to a new place called PieMaker.
Above: What does this even mean?
Above: NOM NOM.
By the end of it my stomach was so stretched it hurt to move. Feels good man. We think the mystery pie was an experimental steak and veggie pie.
Above: After-effects of the eating carnage.
Forbidden Planet
Unfortunately we still hadn't wasted enough time to give Jordan her study time. Fortunately we did find the most amazing store just a couple stores down. The owner was like Comic Book Guy, except a bit more Scottish.
Owner =
+
Above: He was like that.
Above: Classic Cybermen!
Above; New Daleks!
Above: A Sonic Screwdriver!
Above: Davros (maker of the Daleks)!
It took nearly everything I had to not buy that sonic screwdriver. I might not be as strong if I ever come back again.
Eventually we pick up Jordan and make it to Chocolate Soup, home of delicious food.
Above: Great dessert place.
I got a white chocolate shot, their most inexpensive item. It was delicious. Don't let the small cup fool you, this little bit of molten white chocolate takes longer to eat than a steak and ale pie.
Above: The only kind of shots Bryan takes.
So let me begin by saying I can be really, really dumb. So Saturday at 5:00 pm I'm supposed to leave to eat and go to The Real Mary King's Close. I'll talk about that later. But Saturday afternoon I put my clothes in the washer at 4:00. I realized afterwards there was no time for drying! I'd have to dry the clothes in my room. But how? How did people dry their clothes before dryers? I needed a clothesline. But I did not have any rope. Fortunately I've been collecting plastic bags. I now had 30 minutes to fashion some rope. I started by tying the bags together.
Above: I tied bags together with square knots.
Above: One side I tied to a bookshelf.
Above: The other side was attached to a hot-water pipe via belt.
Then was the moment of truth, only one weak bag or knot and all my clothes would collapse on all my desk stuff. So I got my wet clothes and hung them and, voila!
Above: Ha! It worked!
Caiqian was the one who told me to use hangers (like a smart person would). I was just going to drape all my clothes over the line (dumb). By the time I hung them all, I had negative five minutes to get to Sara's.
Fortunately it all worked out. We then went to Prince's Street and went to La Tasca, my first tapas place. I never knew what tapas were before, and when I realized I was amazed. Instead of having one main dish, you get three or four small dishes. With the three of us there were twelve dishes in the table!
Above: Twelve Dishes.
I also had melon with ham again for one of my dishes. This was a bucket list item I crossed off before, but it seems appropriate to try it again at a Spanish restaurant.
Above: Melon with ham.
The Real Mary King's Close
So a preface to all this, NONE of these photos were supposed to be taken. They were all snapped secretly, by me when everyone was looking away. Trust me, if I could have taken more pictures I would!
So Edinburgh has an interesting history. It is a city built atop a city. Here is a model of Old Edinburgh, built around the 1500s. If you look at the alleyways between the buildings, those are called closes. So Mary King's Close in American English would be called Mary King's Narrow Alleyway. One notable feature is that it is really steep, which helped prevent sewage from gathering into cesspools.
Above: Of the two alleyways, Mary King's is the one on the right.
Since the buildings of Old Edinburgh were built of stone, deconstruction was very difficult. But living conditions in Old Edinburgh were becoming unbearable. How did Edinburgh grow? Of course, by building on top of Old Edinburgh around the 1700s. Below is a representation of how Old Edinburgh looked like underground. The wooden top represents the ground of New Edinburgh. It's amazing to see the labyrinth that's been below my feet the whole time!
Above: Old Edinburgh Buried.
There were all kinds of disgusting stories surrounding Old Edinburgh. For instance, people only had one bucket for bodily fluids and at 7:00 am and 10:00 pm every day people would shout "Gardyloo!" while dumping all of their bodily fluids into the closes. This caused the richest people to live in the middle floors. They didn't want to live at the top (no elevators), but they also did not want to live next to the stink. Also, when the bubonic plague came, over 1/3rd of Edinburgh citizens died, with poor sanitation not helping. Fortunately Scottish superstitions prevented the black death from coming back again!
Edinburgh superstition said that the plague came from "bad smells" aka a miasma, so plague victims houses were burned to rid the smell. What this also did was kill the rats which were the actual cause of the plague. They also wore masks and large black coats to slow the smell from getting to them, which also prevented them from getting bitten by plague-carrying fleas.
As for the close itself, here's the only picture I could snap. To get it I had to wait behind while the tour guide moved on. It felt pretty spooky, especially since the tour guide had the only flashlight. It was a narrow, dark, steep alleyway completely underground.
Above: Mary King's Close.
Although I didn't see any ghosts, it was pretty dark and cool. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes dark rooms and cool stories.
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