Miriam's Semester in Edinburgh: A surprise parade, a themed race, two sunny days, and other happenings

On Saturday, I made my way to Edinburgh Castle for the first time. The biggest landmark in the city, I'd been waiting for our Pomona tour to actually go see it (because then it'd be free!). I took my camera out to capture what my street looks like, and then things started to look weird... A bunch of streets were closed off and police officers were standing at the corners. Edinburgh always throws events and I never know about them until it's too late, but this time I wasn't too late! It turns out that the Scottish troops just got back from the Middle East last week, so they were holding a Homecoming Parade for them. The streets were lined with cheering families, and the soldiers marched to bagpipe music down the Royal Mile. It was the shortest parade ever- over in about 5 minutes- but it was great parade nonetheless!

Right outside my building. Alex's building is the bright yellow one, and the tower on the hill (Calton Hill) in the distance has a ball on it which drops exactly at 1 pm every day as a signal to the sailors

Note the heads popped out of the windows! I didn't know those ladies were there until I heard their loud whistles and catcalls at the men

Edinburgh Castle is the highest point of the city, and the view is incredible. I feel like I say that a lot, because so many views around here are great, but this one is definitely my favorite so far. We spent as long as Tom would let us just taking pictures, and then he showed us around the castle.

Old Town. The mountain on the left is Arthur's Seat

The Forth in the background

Princes Street Gardens

Lindsey, me, Chris, Chandler

In the middle surrounded by the trees- the school that Hogwarts is modeled after!

The Castle was mainly used to house soldiers and prisoners of war and to perform witch executions, apparently. There was also a Great Hall for social events, a War Memorial for all of Scotland's fallen troops throughout the centuries, and the oldest building either in Edinburgh or in all of Scotland. It's a tiny chapel from around the year 1100. Pretty old!

The inside of the palace has all been recreated to look like it used to, with lavish art and fine details. And I got to see the Crown Jewels of Scotland! Also known as the Honours, it includes the crown, the sword and the sceptre that all the Scottish royals were given. And I saw the Stone of Destiny (Stone of Scone)! It was pretty surreal to be inches away from these incredibly famous and important objects.

A creepy bust

Amazing ceilings

Lindsey and Chandler are loving the Great Hall

The crafty prisoners of war used the bone from their mutton ration to make stamps to counterfeit money

After our tour of the castle, we decided to take a walk around the city. We've learned to take advantage of the sun while it lasts. My friends Lindsey, Chandler and I wandered through the Meadows for awhile before deciding that we actually had to get some work done. But we had fun in the meantime.

The guy who played Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies! He was doing a photo shoot

A typical Scot with his typically huge dog... alone in a children's playground

Chandler's flat building used to be an all-girls school. The hallways look very academic still, and there was this weird mural on the wall. Note the bashful creature in the tree... none of us understand it.

I look a bit disheveled, but that's okay. My first real macaron (not the coconut kind that I'm used to, but the fancy French ones) from a mobile French cheese truck! Perfect, petite and pistachio.

I came home for a quiet evening, and ended up talking for hours with my flatmates about politics, how hard it is to learn English, international travel, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

This morning on my run, I ended up encountering the tail end of a charity race... A Halloween-themed one! Everyone was running dressed in costume, and it was very entertaining to pass by sprinting mummies, witches, cats, and zombies. There were some people with just ears and a tail, but many had full makeup, capes, wigs, and accessories. The best costume I saw was a surfer whose board had been half-eaten by a shark. She was running with a boogie board under her arm and a bathing suit over her running gear. Very impressive.

Lindsey and I, after being so productive on our exploration of Edinburgh yesterday, decided today to check out the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The building itself was beautiful, and although I wasn't a huge fan of the classical portraits, I really loved the contemporary ones. They seriously looked like photographs, they were so accurate and detailed. It was one of the best exhibits I've ever seen.