Den Haag

I had originally thought I'd show up in The Hague, wander around the city for a bit, make my way to the beachside suburb of Scheveningen, tram down to the ParkPop festival, and call it a day, taking a tram to Antwerp next for a few days in Belgium. I dropped my stuff of in the hostel and, putting the citymap away in my back pocket, starting aimlessly ambling through the city. I saw lots of great buildings whose names and functions I had no idea, just soaking in the atmosphere of thi city, which was, frankly, nicer than Amsterdam. Amsterdam is big and touristy and 95% of the tourists are there to see/experience two things; those things are not the Van Gogh museum and the tulips. This gives Amsterdam an air of rushed expectation. The Hague was much more laid back, much more charming with a more authentic feel, and much more empty. I was really digging the city when, walking down some street I heard a kid's voice call out "Abba." Now, I don't know Dutch, but almost a week here has given me the ability to recognize the phonetics, and I knew that Abba is not Dutch. I turned round and saw a man walking with two young children, and he had a kippah on! I went right up to him and said to the effect of "nice to see another kippah here;" I assumed he was also a tourist as I didn't think there was a Jewish community here. I was quite wrong. He told me he lives here in The Hague, that the Jewish community was having a BBQ, and that if I wanted to come run a few errands first, he'd take me to the BBQ. I eagerly accepted and made friends with his two kids in the car on our way to the hardware stores (Iyrgalen, 6, and Ronit, 3). The BBQ was fun and, and to increase the funky cooincideces of the day, I met a young couple who, three months before, moved to the Country Club area of Teaneck, not an 8 minute walk from my parents' house, who are living for two years here in The Hague for work. Wild! We even got to talk about the Young Israel of Teaneck!
After the BBQ we all went to Scheveningen, to the beach, where I played with the kids and, finally, ate some amazing herring. The beach was, well, a beach. Nice sand, decent water, tons of people, nothing new. The herring was though. They sell entrie fish that are beheaded and lightly salted and covered in chopped onions. You hold them by the tail, tilt your head all the way back, drop the fish in, and bite of a nice chunk. The texture is soft but the flesh is quite firm, not like the nasty cream sauce-mayonaissey stuff in the states, and it is not overly salty like our matjes (and I had matjes here as well as the normal herring). Final opinion: awesome. I will never eat herring the same way again. Eat that old Hungarian gys from Rabbi Friedman's shtiebel! (And no kichel here!)
After the beach I went back to the hostel to shower (did I mention, by the way, that the hostel I am in here is amazing?) and then I took the tram to the ParkPop festival. I got there with just two hors to the end, but I got to see Alpha Blondie, Nena, and Danko Jones perform. The festival itself was huge, a nine hour music extravaganza spread out over three massive stages set up over a grand expanse of field, covered in hundreds of thousands of people, soda and beer cups, and food wrappers. I've never been to Woodstock, but this was the closest I'll ever ever get. The sheer size of the it and the amount of people in attendance was staggering, and at least 80% of the people there were stoned or some level of drunk. It was pretty intense. I have never heard of any of the performers either, but they played some pretty good music.
Today I wandered around a really nice 15th centruy town called Delft. It was sooo hot, and after a few hours of walking and seeing some really nic buildings, I lay down on the grass in one of the parks and passed out for half an hour. The heat drains you, especially when carrying around a bunch of stuff and walking a lot. After the nap I felt better, and I went back to The Hague to walk around a bit more, and to go back to Scheveningen to sit on the beach and read (it was empty today) and have a last herring. As I dangled the herring over my mouth, actually already in my mouth, a seagull divebombed and grabbed the fish right out of my hand, whacking me in the face in the process. It was pretty hilarious, and I started cracking up; the bystanders who saw what happened laughed as well, and I got a new herring at no extra charge. I went to the shul for mincha/maariv, and called it a day. Tomorrow I go to Antwerp.
Today I

Amsterdam

I spent the first day in Amsterdam walking. I walked around in the morning on my own, I went on a guided walking tour in the afternoon, and I walked around more in the evening and night. I like Amsterdam, it is chraming. I wasn't shocked by anything, everything was as I expected. The architecture is nice, the canals are charming, the red light district is, well, what you would expect. The best thing I saw was a raft made of a flat wooden floor with six plastic oildrums bolted to the bottom and an outboard motor and couch on top. That was it. Two guys were just literally couch surfing down one of the canals.
The second day I rented a bike and biked in Amsterdam Noord (north) where I saw lots of fields and canals and cows and even some of the famous windmills. The bike ride was nice, and very easy (this country is so flat!), but it was then that I made the decision to come home early. I am still kicking myself for it, but I am sure it will all work out in the end. At night I took a walk and stumbled upon the International Thetre School's fesival/party and joined, where I found out about ParkPop, supposedly the biggest pop music festival in Europe, kind of like the European Woodstock, which takes place in Den Haag. Just that morning I got an email from Ephraim teling me about the amazing herring in Scheveningen, a beach suburb of Den Haag, and I decided to go after shabbos.
I had planned to go to the museums in Amsterdam on Friday, but after seeing how much they wanted to charge (14 euro for Van Gogh and 12.50 for the Rijksmueum, which was mostly closed undergoing renovations) I decided to skip the museums, and I walked around the last bits of the city that I had not seen yet, including Vondelpark, a realy nice park, and the outdoor Bloemenmarkt, the flower market, where the two most ubiquitous products were tulip bulbs and cannbis seeds.
After I was finished with the city I went to the family I was staying at for shabbos, the son of the family I ate with last week in London. Nice family, their kids have the reddest hair I have ever seen. If you look straight at their heads you get blinded, it was that intensely and brightly red. There was another North american there for shabbos, a Canadian med student who was an absolute pleasure to talk to. He did philosophy in undergrad and has a masters in theoretical physics and is now in med school and we had some brilliant conversation, easily the highlight of shabbos.
Shabbos endd extremely late (we didn't make havdallah until 12, the fast is going to be torture), and after showering and using the internet, I got to bed at around 2.
And woke up at 6 to catch the tain to Den Haag.
All shabbos and before people were telling me that Amsterdam is the only thing really worthwhile seeing in The Netherlands, that it is a boring country, that the rest of it is just plain old nothing. I never believe people when they say things like that, especially if they are city people. As a New Yorker, I am also biased against the surrounding areas, so I went to Den Haag anyway, especially as there was that huge music festival going on and great herring to try. I was only going to stay a day, but something happened that made me stay for longer.

Arriving in Amsterdam

Easyjet is a pretty decent airlines. I've heard horror stories, but the plane was new, the seats were of reasnable size, and for the price of a 12 hours bus-ferry-train trip, I took a 45 minute flight (and I am including the baggage fee that Easyjet adds). Sure, from the time I left the city of London until the time I got to my hostel was actually four and a half hours, but the train ride that was twice the price of my journey takes the same amount of time. I sat next to two Dutch sisters on their way home from a London shopping spree and we ended up talking for the entire flight, the baggae collection, and then, when my credit cards failed to work in the ticket machine at the airport, Sven, a boyfriend of one of them who came to pick them up, bought me a ticket. Nice guy.
I got to the hostel eventually, showered, and went right to bed. No staying up late in amsterdam for night number one.

The Magic of Travel

I was tired. I spent all night doing laundry and packing, and I got only three hours of sleep. I spent all day walking around the Tower of London, it was hot, and, despite a multitude of sitting breaks, I realized that my knee is a lot less recovered than I thought. I was hot, sweaty, getting bored of, or at least too used to, London, and between being tired, my knee hurting, and the feeling of boredom, the first thoughts of going home started to flit across my semi-consciousness. The hot and sweaty train ride to the airport and the shlepping 50 pounds of bag on my back with my knee didn't do much to help, and I have to admit tha my mood was dropping faster than the UK's welfare benefits.
Then I got to airport security.
Over a hundred people were queued up waiting to walk through the metal detectors, taking their phones out of their pockets and their belts off, all of s sharing the wonderful universal experience that is airtravel.
A smile started to creep across my face.
The "Strange Creatures" music from Doctor Who started playing in my head (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqm4vaWJhpw).
By the time I got through security I was grinning ear to ear, rejuvenated, reenergized, ready to go, excited to visit yet another new place, all thoughts of home vanishing from my mind, the pain (almost) leaving my knee, and was psyched, once again, to travel, reminding me why I love doing this. I have no idea how I am going to 'settle down' again.

Last Days in London

I spent the last two days hanging out with a friend from Argentina who was over in London with her mom after acting as a delegate to Amsterdam from the Anne Frank house in Buenos Aires. It was nice to have some company. I showed them around the city on Monday (I guess I've been here a long time). At night I went out to eat in a great restaurant, this funky pizza parlor called Pizaza, with good thin crust pizza and decent milkshakes, and super company; Gaby Davis and her boyfriend Dovid took me, and taught me some great British slang, words that seem so benign in American yet mean completely different things in English English. I'll be useing them.
Today I spent all day with Lu and her mom in the Tower of London. The Yeoman tour was great, and everything else was neat, but I did not think it was worht the very expensive entrance fee. Ah well. I can say I saw the Tower and the Crown Jewels and the Armour of lots of English kings and a perrier firing and... ok, I guess there was a lot to do and see, it was just quite expensive.

Posh HipHop

I went to town today, drawn by a music festival that was going on in town (actually,there were a few but I only made it to this one). All of the museums and schools near Exhibition Road (V&A, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, royal College, Royal Academy of Music, etc) hosted performances from all over. I did see a bit of the science museum, but the performances were really the highlight. I saw a string quintet in the science Museum (ok), a bit of As You Like It, a gypsy band, a Hungarian cello piece, a Brazilian piece for cello and guitar, capoiera, but the highlight was definitely this guy: http://www.myspace.com/mrbthegentlemanrhymer.
He calls himself Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer, and he did what he calls 'Chap-Hop,' affecting a very posh accent and demeanor and doing rap, and sometimes rock, style music, but about posh things like cricket and drinking tea and crack cocaine. K, that one isn't that posh. He was hilarious. He started every song with "Hit it sir! and ended with "I thank you" but in a very posh British accent. Amazing.

Boring, and then Better

This past week was mostly boring, with one very nice day. After the Stomachache, on Tuesday, I stayed home to rest and rehabilitate my knee, doing absolutely nothing. So Tuesday was boring.
Wednesday was fun though. I went to Cambridge and was shown around by a real live student! (Thanks Gaby!) We walked around a bunch of colleges, getting into places ordinary tourists can't, and I got a very interesting explanation of some of the history and culture of Cambridge. Those people can party! For two weeks in June, after exams, the University has something called May Week (no idea)where the colleges throw massive black-tie balls, complete with circuses and champagne and oysters and silent disco and Jay-Z and unlimited food and alcohol and fun. I did not get to go to one :(
Very cool though. That night I went out with a young couple I got friendly with. They took me to a kosher pub, which was kind of neat. The place was a pub, and a restaurant, and all the food is kosher; though they don't serve pub food, it was still fun. The food was decent, the atmosphere was...different, and each table had a touch screen computer on which you order, play games, pub quizzes, and can read your horoscope.
Thursday and Friday were both boring days. I stayed at home, RICEd my knee, stretched, and was bored. Shabbos, however, was AMAZING. On Friday night I went to a really amazing family, had amazing food (lamb tagine, brisket, moroccan chicken, roasted veg, roasted potatoes, great salad with quinoa, really delicious) and some great conversation. The grandfather can trace his family entirely in England all the way back to the 17th century; he was in London during the Blitz and told stories about hiding in the bomb shelters and actually getting hit by an explosion. The grandmother and I talked about Victorian literature, we all talked about military history, and the three oldest kids and I (the eldest is exactly Yosef's age) had a very intense conversation about Doctor Who, while the adults rolled their eyes at us. Awesome! It is a shame that American kids don't grow up with Doctor Who, it has to be one the most well-done kids TV shows (that can also be enjoyed by adults) ever made. Watch it.
For lunch I went to one of the rabbis in the JLE, a South African fellow, who had 40 people for lunch. 40. It was massive. I met tons of new people, including a cohort of French girls, some of them med students, who sat across from me. We talked for most of the meal and between mincha and maariv as well. The rabbi put on this hilarious, I guess you could call it a show, where he sang, in quite an operatic voice, a yiddishe song about mashiach and then proceeded to put on hats from a number of different countries (USA, Scotland, South Africa, England, Russia, etc) and sing in each country's 'style.' You had to be there, but it was hilarious. The whole shabbos had great food, great people, great conversation, a great end to my time here in the UK. I leave to Amsterdam on Tuesday, my knee is sort of starting to improve-ish, and hopefully, next week will mirror this past shabbos more than it will this past week.

Most Expensive Stomachache

I went to get some Indian Food for dinner last night. I thought it would be neat, meat Indian food, which, besides in Teaneck, you can't get in NY. It was expensive, but I haven't been spending much on food, so I figured it would be ok. From now on, when I say I love Indian food, I mean the vegetarian stuff a la Madras Mahal or Kalpna. The meaty stuff is as greasy as Chinese food. At least it wasn't as full of sugar and cornstarch as well. My tummy, used to crackers and tuna and the occasional hummus, is not handling it well. That, along with a worsening knee, is prompting me to take a day off today.

Good Times, but Winding Down

Well, by now I've walked most neighborhoods of London, been to most of the museums (though not all) and I'm starting to feel the first aches of boredom. I might have to go somewhere else soon.
Yesterday was fun though. I started off in the Marylebone Summer Fayre. As an aside, Marylebone is pronounced 'marly-bone.' Leicester is pronounced 'lester.' The English may have invented the English language but it seems they take too much license with spelling and pronunciation.
Anywho, the fayre was mostly torture, as it was mainly a food fair, with stalls representing cuisines from most of the world's countries, as well as bakers and cheesemakers and other local food craftsmen selling their wares. It smelled sooo good. What made up for all of it was a couple giving a dance demonstration; they were dancing the Salsa to "Never had a friend like me" from Aladdin. Legendary. After the fayre I walked to Hyde Park, where, on Sunday, in one corner of the park, anyone who wants can set up a little soapbox to pontificate on anything he/she may desire. I had to see it. It turned out to be a few arguments of varying civility between Muslim and Christian clerics, which was quite brilliant to listen to. Most of them, even though they were trained in seminary, were not brilliantly educated; one of them tried to bring an example from Greek mythology but confused Heracles with Antaeus, which undermined a significant point of his argument, though if anyone else caught it, they didn't speak up. What was very interesting though, is that the Islamic clerics would continually include Judaism and the Jews in their theology, specifically setting aside those two against the theology of Christianity, while the Christians took it for granted that the Jews are wrong in their beliefs. While, at the present political climate, many Jews perceive Muslims as enemies, it seem sin the religious arena, they are our closest friends.
After observing the religious wrangling I wandered about for a bit, up Baker St (221B isn't really there, a huge disappointment), into Regent's Park (very nice), into Selfridge's (similar to Macy's), and unexpectedly into the Wallace collection, one of my favorite museums so far. It is a small luseum, really a rather large private collection of all kinds of art, armour, and the like. The collection is magnificent and eclectic but not overwhelmingly huge. I got there 40 minutes before closing, but I have to go back. By the time I was done with the museum my knee was gone, so I had to return home.
Today I was going to go to the Tower of London, but the lines were huge AND, IT IS SO EXPENSIVE! 15 pounds for a student ticket! Yeesh. Instead I wandered around the Barbican and the Museum of London. I was starting to get a bit bored. The city was getting to be a bit repetitive, just, nice, relatively slow moving clean civilized touristy streets, park, museum, park, museum. I got into the Tube to go to the Imperial War Museum, free, and on high recommendation from a few people. I got out at Elephant & Castle (the Tube stop) and, BAM, a breath of fresh air! This part of the city was, well, gritty. At least more so than the center of town, all clean and pristine and proper and toursity. This place had some diversity, some realism. God, I miss New York. The museum was good, two great exhibits on the First World War and the Second World War 2, and a Holocaust museum. I was in the museum until 5, when I went home, ate some mediocre and overpriced Indian food, and ten just hung around.
I have to say though, before I sign off, that anyone who spreads the stereotype of the rude, impolite New Yorker has never been to London. If you are following, you know that I have re-injured my knee, and it has gotten to the point where it is difficult to walk normally, so, I got hold of a cane. Works wonders. Anywho, when I was walking around on my cane post-op in NYC, whenever I got on the Subway, without asking or even making eye contact, at least one person would offer me their seat if there wasn't one available, people in a rush would give me some room, and were generally pretty nice and considerate. Now, I am not so crippled that I cannot stand up in the subway or handle a bit of jostling, so I don't say this out of any personal affront or offense. No one here on any of the five Tube rides I took today, all of which were crowded, offered me a seat. People pushed and jostled and tried to get ahead and came barreling towards me with no concern and no regard and no consideration. Now, practically speaking, it was fine, like I said, I am more than fine enough to handle all of that. However, it was a noticeable behavior difference compared to New Yorkers, who really don't deserve a stereotype for rudeness. London seems to have us beat by a mile.

A Hiccup, An Obstacle, A Problem

Shabbos was, as usual, amazing, lots of fun, met great people, the whole nine yards. Ate well, slept well, conversed well, even learned well (I went to a Gemara shiur in shul). What is not well is my knee. I have pushed it too hard I think. Over the last few weeks of biking, hiking, walking, and climbing, I have slowly pushed my already injured knee farther and farther, having to pop more and more motrin to keep going, knowing I was doing something stupid but not wanting to give up on my goal of climbing the three peaks or biking Skye etc. Now, I am paying the consequences. I have been RICEing my knee over the past few days, I have been stretching and doing the light exercises my therapists gave me, and it is only getting worse. Stairs are a killer and now just walking on flat ground is starting to get painful. Not. Good. I'll have to figure something out, but I do not want to come home. If I go home now I'll regret it forever, as I still have so much to see and money to see it with. Maybe if I find a walking stick... Or a place to rest for an extended amount of time while I do some rehab...

Back in London

In London I was exhausted, again, but I went into the city, to see a matinee of Henry !V Part1 at the Globe (amazing, hilarious), to the Tate Modern, back to Golders Green to relax. Yesterday I went to Westminster Abbey, which, while expensive, was totally worth it. I have been to so many beautiful Cathedrals and I thought I'd be Cathedralled out, but this building was amazing. And the Poet's Corner was soo Cool! Chaucer's grave! Among many others! After I went to the British Museum. A word on the museum. Very impressive, very col to see so many important historic and cultural artifacts under one roof, but too much. I was there for three hours and I don't feel like I got a good idea of any single one of those cultures. You need to devote days to that museum to really get its full potential, but that is just too. Some of the artifacts on exhibit though, are very neat, both for their importance (the Rosetta Stone) and their inherent grandeur (the wall carving from Nimrud).
After I got bored with the museum I met a British friend who i met in Buenos Aires for a drink, and went to another Shakespeare performance, this time Macbeth, at the Globe. If you have never been to the Globe, I have to explain. The theater is round, and on the floor is room for a number of what they call groundlings, people who pay 5 pounds to stand up the entire show. this is what I did. However, the floor is right by the stage and between the stage and the doors for the actors, so there is quite a bit of audience interaction. This production of Macbeth happened to be the single most bloody and gruesome play I have ever seen, and there were quite a lot of screeching girls, and some screaming guys, when the witches crawled beneath people or bloody body parts shot out of no where. It was all quite fun, and I am definitely getting my summer Shakespeare fix. I almost don't miss Shakespeare in the Park.
today I just wrote and did laundry.
Have a great shabbos!

Coming back from Skye, Harry Potter

The next day I woke up a bit later and had a ridiculously long day, taking a bus from Skye to Armadale, a ferry from Armadale to Mallaig, the Hogwarts Express from Mallaig to Fort William, a bus from Fort William to Glasgow, and an overnight bus from Glasgow to London. The train was nice-ish. The buses and ferry were ok. The overnight coach was miserable, with no room, and two half hour stops where the driver turned the lights on and made loud announcements. Why!!! It was an 8 hour drive! Why all the breaks! Why wake me up!?!
the best part was meeting two other travelers who took the same journey with me, all the way down to Glasgow from Skye.

Skye

By the time I got to the Isle of Skye, one of the inner Hebrides, I was exhausted, so I went to the hostel, checked in, took a shower (yes, I sat on the bus for three hours smelling, well, rather gross), and prepped to go to bed. I just wanted to take a short walk to see the town...
And I passed by a pub where they were playing live Scottish/Celtic music! I love that stuff! So, I went into the pub, got a local ale from the only brewery on Skye, and had a great time for over an hour, met some Polish girls traveling, and then, finally, went to bed.
The next morning (I was still exhausted; I woke up at 6. It's the sun's fault!) I rented a bike and biked around the island for 60 miles or so. what a beautiful area. The pictures are on Facebook. It was the nicest bike ride I have ever done. I also ran out of water with about 15 miles left even though I took over half a gallon, and there was no where to fill it up, so I returned tired AND dehydrated. But it was totally worth it, and I even got to see the Outer Hebrides and got to do something I have wanted to do for years: I got to sit on the Hebrides, looking at the Henrides, listening to the Hebrides. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3MiETaBSnc.
I took a shower when I got back and drank lots of water and tea and juice to recover. I ate also, a lot, and took a short walk after. I saw that the pub was advertising more free Scottish music, so I went again, got the same beer, and finished it really quickly when I realized that band was only covering overplayed American rock songs (why do the British love "Sweet Home Alabama" so much?).
I went back to the hostel and watched Star Wars episode one, one of the worst movies ever made, with an Austrian.
Oh yeah! I almost forgot! At the hostel there were a bunch of danish biker dudes from Norway, and at the pub that night they were all a bit drunk and wearing viking helmets for national viking day. It is a great story, but I cannot do justice to it in text. Call me if you want to hear it.
After the Duel between Obi-Wan and Darth Maul, I went to bed.

Ben Nevis was built up by nearly everyone I spoke to. The Rabbi in Edinburgh told me to be very careful, that a number of frum people from Glasgow had to be rescued, the leaflets and information packets all had bright bold red warnings, and the tourist information folks at the Information Center in fort Wiliiam all warned me about navigation and steep drops and snow and high winds and quick, blinding fogs and and and...
They almost scared me.
I must say that it was the EASIEST, SIMPLEST mountain I have ever climbed. It was barely a strenuous hike. I sweated, sure, but I did not breathe hard once, and I had only slept an hour the night before, and an hour on Thursday night. The trail was insanely easy to follow and there was nothing difficult at all about this hill. For that is what it really was. A hill. in fact, when I asked the fellow at the Parks office about the mountain and what he thinks, he said, I quote "it is a shit hill." It really is. I was extremely disappointed.
I was easily able to make it down and on a bus to go to Skye, which really cheered me up with some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever scene. Ever.

Catching Up Part 2 and Shabbos in Edinburgh

On Thursday I tok a free walking tour of the city which pointed out, among other things, the school that Hogwarts was based on, and the graves of McGonnagall and thomas Riddle in a cemetary overlooked by the very cafe that JK wrote her books in. Harry Potter fans, be jealous! I ate, for the second time, at the only kosher place in town, a vegetarian Indian restaurant (didn't I mention it?) whith an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. Let me tell you, when you are surviving on rye crackers and tuna, a buffet hot meal is heaven. Thursday was a pretty quiet day though, as were all of the days in Edinburgh. I wandered around the city, met the fellow I would be staying by for shabbos (Ohad Kramar, great guy), napped in the park, and went out at night. Friday was more of the same, though in the afternoon I moved my stuff from the hostel to Ohad's flat.
The Jewish community in Edinburgh was great, really nice people, less mainstream than the rest of the Jews, who all pretty much live in London and Manchester. Shabbos was really great though, especially as I met a guy from Baltimore who knows my family. He even met my brother a few times! Weird Jewish-geography moment. We took a walk up Arthur's Seat again and through the Old Town. The weather was pretty amazing too, for the most part, until it went from sunny to pouring in a minute. shabbos was insanely long too; we couldn't daven maariv until 11:15! By the time I got back to Ohad's flat, it was 12:30, and I had to wake up at 4! And Ohad wasn't home yet, and I had to use the internet to prep for my trip to the Highlands. I waited up for him, he returned at 2:30 and made us both pancakes. I ended up sleeping an hour, waking up an hour later to catch a bus to Fort William, the town closest to Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in all Great Britain.

Catching Up

Finally, access to a computer that won't log me off after 15 minutes.
I just returned to London by overnight coach, but more on that later. I haven't really been able to update much due to the lack of internet.
The morning after biking to, climbing, and biking back from Scafell Pike I was completely exhausted, but I had a bike to return and a train to catch, so I woke up nice and early. The fellow and the bike shop told me to have the bike back by 9 sharp (they usually don't allow ovenights) but, when I got to the shop at 9, no one was there. Nor by 9:30, 9:45, etc, so I locked the bike up to the front door, left the key in the lock and a note in the helmet, hoping that it would get back to them (it did). When I got to Edinburgh they were just seeing the edge of a rainstorm, so the weather was bleak, and I was exhausted, so my first impression of the city wasn't wonderful. I shlepped myself over to the hostel, checked in, and summoned up some more energy to go out and walk around. After a bit of a walk finding the shul and the kosher establishments, I returned to the hostel for a short but invigorating nap, allowing to climb to the top of Arthur's Seat (250m), the remnant's of an extinct volcano and the highest point around Edinburgh (pronounced, by the way, Edinburuh, not edinburg). The hill is accessible both by nice shallow paths along one face and steep rock scramble along the other. Of course, I took the steep rock scramble, which contributed to tiring me out, but the views at the top were amazing, especialy as the sun was setting behind the city.
The next day I just walked around the city some more, exploring some of the residential neighborhoods as well as the Royal Mile in Old Town, the parks, and the New Town. I liked the Old Town better; though it is way more touristy, with kilted bagpipiers on every block, it has more perosnality. There are dozens of small, narrow alleyways, called closes (because they used to end in enclosures for animals), old buildings, maze-like streets that lead from the upper level of the city to the lower, and a dark, almost sinister, but definitely mysterious air. Oh, and another claim to fame is that the city is the birthplace of Harry Potter. I stayed a few minutes from cafe where JK wrote, and I saw the school that inspired her books, and the gravestone of Thomas Riddle (he was a real guy).
The city also touts tons of tours, from ghost tours, underground dungeon tours, historical tours, and a literary pub tour. Can you guess which one I took?
That night I joined the literary pub tour, led by two professional actors. They took us through the streets of Edinburgh to all the sites of literary significance, all the while quoting Robert Burns and Scott, among others, with thick Scottish accents. Some of the Scottish cask ales aren't too shabby either.

Edinburgh and the Last Few Days

Whew. I have been completely exhausted these last few days. Edinburgh nightlife just drains you. Nah, it's actually all the hiking that I ended up doing for the few days before. Between the Peak District and peat bogs on Sunday, Scafell Pike, Bowfell Pike, biking, and the Lake District on Monday, walking Edinburgh and Arthur's Seat on Tuesday and Wednesday, I had no energy. I spent a good amount of time walking around in a bit of a daze and taking naps in parks. Still, the weather has been great, I got a good feel for the city, and had quite a bit of fun. I went on a literary pub tour a few nights ago, led by two actors who quoted Robert Burns poetry in the original and passages from other great Scottish writers, and took us to some great pubs. Very funny guys, very good tour. The people here are also very nice, especially the people in the tourism industry (the fellow at the bus station spoke with me for half an hour trying to figure out my plans and in the end saved me over 100 pounds. As a New Yorker I felt like he was going to lose his patience, but he kept going. It has been like that almost everywhere except by the Lake District, where, I have to say, the people were a bit rude and impatient and really not very hospitable. Oh well.
I write in the past tense because after shabbos, I have a 5am bus up to Fort William, where I will attempt to conquer the third, and highest, of the three Peaks. I'll be spending shabbos here in Edinburgh with the community here. They say it is small, but very hospitable.
I have to add that Edinburgh may be one of my favorite cities I have seen so far. It is small, but it really has a great personality.

Edinburgh So Far

It rained the entire morning non-stop today. Finally! I was beginning to think that 'rainy England' was a myth. I didn't have much time to experience the true English weather, as I had a train to Edinburgh at 10 in the morning. Bye bye Merrie Olde England, hello Bonnie Scotland!
When I first arrived in Edinburgh I wasn't crazy about it, but then I was still completely wiped out from yesterday's hike (I didn't sleep very well, but I am not sore!). I checked into my hostel, great place, quiet rooms but lots of facilities... And I walked around the city, I found the shul, the kosher restaurant and bakery (all three closed today), and bought a new backpack (my old one broke in four places and was held together by knots). I still wasn't having a great impression of the city, as I was still exhausted and the weather was still quite bleak. I went back to the hostel to take a nap and, Behold!, everything changed. After an hour I was refreshed, the sun was shining, and I was ready for Edinburgh part 2. I went over to see if I could catch a Literary Pub tour (the Scots are very proud of their native authors, including, be jealous all ye nerds, J K Rowling). The tour was cancelled due to lack of people, but I'll try again tomorrow. Instead I climbed Arthur's seat, the highest point around the city up a very steep and rocky side of the hill (260 meters). The climb up was intense, but it was worth it, especially as the view of the city, with sun setting behind it, was amazing (and I couldn'tget a good picture). I walked through the city back to the hostel, and here I am, showered, drinking tea, and eating Scottish shortbread (with an OU!). I really like Edinburgh.