Edinburgh at Night 09-24

Edinburgh. I don’t know what I could possibly say about Edinburgh that could fully express how much I love it. This is a place I could live. We expected the city to 90s themed touristy like Dublin, so we didn’t have high hopes – but it blew us out of the water. It’s absolutely gorgeous here. The city is layered, built with old brick, and most dwellings that of the original structure. The streets are cobblestone, and the stores prideful of their Scottish heritage. This felt like home to me, in the sense that I was proud to know I have lineage with the Scots. I was proud to see this thriving city so beautiful, and ever more so to see that it struck true to the history that built it.

After we settled in to our hostel – which was better than all the other places we’ve stayed to date – we saw a flyer for a ‘haunted ghost tour’ of the city at night. We saw that it took you to the underground of Edinburgh – the vaults – and figured, why not?

The tour started with a walk through a part of the city – where an old building used to stand that was used to permanently quarantine those infected with the black plague. The tour guide did an amazing job in building suspense while telling the stories – just had to throw that in there. We then continued to Greyfriars cemetery, where she further explained stories and rumors of paranormal activity, as well as gave insight to the fact that there were over 200,000 bodies buried there, in layers below the dirt. After – we went into the vaults. We were warned that several people throughout the tours feel too much, and get sick in the vaults and have to be escorted out. Based the overwhelming ‘earthly underground’ scent – I could see why. She told us stories of the historic use for the vaults in regards to the Scottish witch trials, and the horrific torture the women went through.

Overall, it was a fascinating tour – getting to learn about the gruesome history of Edinburgh. But being honest with you – I took this as the perfect opportunity to practice my night-time photography skills. Haha, and I must say, I’m pretty darn proud of myself – take a look: Do keep in mind - I have not done any touch up work on any of these. I also did not have my tripod with me. For those of you who love taking pictures - you know, the amount of blur here is pretty dang impressive considering I had to hold my breath and stand as still as possible! Oh, and I have a thing for phone booths...

Okay, this is during the day, but the rest are at night