Exploring Scotland! (Customs & Edinburgh Castle)
/After a long flight that I didn't sleep enough on, I arrived in Scotland at 7a pretty worn out. My plan was to arrive in Glasgow, hop on a bus from the airport in Glasgow to the train station and then chill on a train to Edinburgh so I can meet up with a Haggis explore Scotland tour group the next day. The rest of the plan entailed taking the tour and then a few days to roam with a soccer match and some brewery tours thrown in as possibilities. I didn't book a hotel for any of the 9 days I am here because I just wanted to end up in random places and then find an adventure from there. This is the first time I am traveling by alone and my first time in Europe so I was a bit unsure of myself. Of all the problems I thought I could have, I didn't think I was going to have a hard time getting through customs, they nearly didn't allow me into the UK.
The customs agent could not wrap his head around the fact that other than the tour, I had no plans. He kept asking me where I was staying in Edinburgh and why I didn't have a hotel or a place to stay. I showed him the Haggis tour confirmation and that didn't seem to sway him very much. He then asked where I was going to go after the tour and I told him I wasn't sure yet and that I would like to just find myself going somewhere on a whim. Trying to lighten the situation, I cracked a few jokes that didn't go over well. After staring at me for a minute the unfeeling, no nonsense agent excused himself and brought another agent over who asked me all the same questions to which I gave all the same replies. He was equally unimpressed my plan for an adventure. They told me that unless I could provide more concrete details I was not going to be permitted into the UK. Another agent, we'll call her "Agent Super-Amazing Supervisor" came by and asked the other two agents why they were giving me such a hard time. She stamped my passport and sent me on my way. Phew! I wasn't going to ask questions, I was out of there.
With the adventure in customs behind me, I made my way to Edinburgh. The Scottish public transportation system is pretty easy to use and every person I asked questions to was super friendly and very helpful. From the train, I could see the ominous silhouette of the Edinburgh Castle so that was my first stop.
The castle sits atop a huge plug of a long extinct volcano. As the volcano was going extinct, the magma flow slowly hardened into a very hard type of basalt called Dolerite. When the glaciers receded the area, they cut away part of the land on the North, South and West side of the Dolerite leaving it exposed. The East side has a more gentle slop, making it the only accessible route to the top. The plug stands 430 ft above sea level and has a commanding rise over the rest of the immediate area. No wonder the Scottish have had some sort of defenses on it since before the 12th century! Trying to seize the castle by force would be extremely difficult with only one way to access it. Edinburgh castle was seiged 26 times in it's 1100 year old history. That makes it the most besieged place in the whole of the U.K. Crazy!
