An Afternoon in Edinburgh--Edinburgh, Scotland

The air was crisp, the sky grey, and the leaves shimmered gold in Autumn as I hopped off the bus in Edinburgh after 10 hours of travel. I had no particular plan for the day, as this trip to the city was a spur of the moment decision. With a few recommendations from the tourism office, I soon realized that I just wanted to wander. Edinburgh has the charm of old town with it's cobble stone streets, cathedrals and castle, but also the population and size to satisfy a city culture. Atop a hill to the East, one can obtain a panoramic sense of the urbanscape, the surrounding sea, hilly scenery and can even see a deteriorating grave yard shadowed on either side by new construction. From this view, it seems as though the city has a perfect combination of history, modern and greenspace, with an extensive network of accessability to the surrounding nature of Scotland and capital city, Glasgow. When wandering the streets, one can see British style houses, passageways reminiscent of Belfast's entries, and Irish style shop fronts, already decorated for Christmas. And of course, even in such charming of cities, if you look hard enough, you'll find a little bit of Graffiti.