Edinburgh, 2018

Have you ever wandered the streets of a city you’ve never been to before (or at least not consciously) and fell in love with every building, every street corner and detail? Edinburgh did that with me.

Together with two of my best friends, Christina and Yanick, I flew to the Scottish capital on March 8 to visit my twin sister Laura and her room mate Aline, who is currently studying at the University of Edinburgh. Furthermore, we wanted to celebrate Christina’s birthday on March 11 – what better way to do this than by flying to the oh so beautiful Edinburgh?

DAY 1

We started our first day by exploring the city by bus and heading to the University and afterwards, my sister surprised me with a trip to Victoria Street – the very street J. K. Rowling got inspired to create Diagon Alley for her Harry Potter books and we also visited Greyfriars Kirkyard with Tom Riddle’s grave, which wasn’t hard to find since it was the one grave with all the ground in front of it trodden down. The cemetery itself was also beautiful (Is anyone else also inspired by old graveyards or is it just me? :D) and we ended up in a very special shop, the Diagon House, in which I could’ve stayed forever with all the Harry Potter stuff! We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill and the amazing view from Castle Hill and I couldn’t help myself but be longing for the Highlands once again! Another highlight of the day for me was a little spontaneous photo shoot with an art installation called „Edinburgh Lumen“ – Christina and I had lots of fun experiencing the light and music coming together!

DAY 2

Saturday then provided us with a very intense taste of typical Scottish weather, which basically consists of rain and wind! Nevertheless, the castle on the hill looked quite spooky and impressive in the fog and I also managed to meet a lovely couple, Joe & Jenny, in a stylish modern café and have a little couple session with them (coming soon!) before heading back to have dinner with my friends and my sister in a tiny place near Victoria Street.

DAY 3

On Sunday, which was Christina’s birthday (YAAAY!), we went to see the owls at Gladstone’s Land, which is a house from the 1600s. We found a new friend in Hazel, the most beautiful and cutest owl in the world (special thanks to Alex, the most amazing bird keeper, who has such a deep love for his animals, which was touching), and learned a lot about living in 17th century Edinburgh. Afterwards, we headed back to the castle and met Adam on the way, an epic guy teaching about Scottish history. He was dressed as a king of the Picts and greeted Christina with a very hearty version of „Happy Birthday“ – even some of the random passersby joined in and we talked for a long time about the Jacobites, teaching children and Manowar ( Warriors of the world unite! :D), which led to the most epic group photo ever taken on this street (prove me wrong)! We ended the day at „The World’s End“, one of the oldest pubs in the city. Fun fact: The name of the pub comes from its original location for it stood right at the walls of the city and, beyond that, there was basically nothing important – thus: The World’s End).

DAY 4

We wanted to spend our last day in Edinburgh at the beach, so we headed to Portobello to stick our toes in the sand (well, our shoes, to be correct) and to watch happy dogs play around on the shore. It was the perfect ending for our trip! It was such a nice expirience meeting my twin again, exploring the city (we walked arond 50km by foot) and making new friends in Scotland! I can’t wait to go back in July with my family 🙂