Onward to Edinburgh

Edinburgh, Scotland. Population, 470 000, give or take a handfull here, or a handful there. As far as Scottish cities go, it's right up there, trailling Glasgow by a hundred thousand. Still, half a million people, that's pretty respectable right? And people have heard the name Edinburgh so that has to count for something.

"Where are you going? Ohh... Calagary - I've heard of that." That's how you know Calgary is a worthwhile city to see, for a few days. "Where are you going? Caronport... I've never heard of that place." That's how you know, you can probably skip Caronport - much better to hit up Moose Jaw (never mind that few people have probably heard of that place either. But, I tell you what, they have some lovely tunnels under the city and great doughnuts at the local grocery store.)

After that somewhat ridiculous deviation, I'll get back to my point: Edinburgh, people know that place. It must be for a reason. There must be some fantastic things to do there. And yet, I find myself somewhat disillusioned by the fact that my flight there is potentially the most expensive flight I will ever pay for. It was hundreds of dollars more than a flight to London, far more expensive than flying into Egypt, more expensive than my flight to Tokyo, and - really this just hurts inside - I could have flown to Australia for less.

This has me thinking, there are no direct flights. This means that no one in Ontario wants to go to Edinburgh. Nobody in this fine province is saying, "yes, this is the place we should go to. Flights here need to exist." There is none of that, just people sidestepping the whole place.

Now - were there other aside from a ridiculously overpriced flight? Sure there were -

Option One: I could have saved two hundred dollars by flying to London, and then taking a discount flight on one of those lovely tiny no flash airlines. But, the downside is that you might not be able to book a flight right when you get into London. Sometimes you'll get it right away, and other times you will have to wait upwards of twenty four hours. To some this is the thing to do. To me, my time is limited.

Option Two: I could have taken a train from London all the way out to Edinburgh. This would have saved me even more money, but the train ride is eight hours. Again, for some people this is definitely the thing to do (and I would consider it if I could get on a night train - because that would just be fantastic! But, I could find no flights to accommodate that.)

So, with those two options nixed, it was just time to bite the bullet, order my tickets with a click click click, and be done with it.

Now, it was just about finding things to do once there. Certainly there would be pleanty of websites out there telling me great things to do in Edinburgh. Wait, what? You mean there are not.

Again, I am at a loss. Do people really not go there? What am I doing going there? Am I making a terrible terrible mistake? Time will tell!

I hope to rectify the absence of concise Edinburgh information by making two posts of things to do there - one compiling the best resources I've found, and the other once I get back, and can speak from personal experience.

Keep reading for a plethora of Scottish tales, insights, and information. And if you have any tips, please feel free to drop me a comment below, or an e.mail above!