Getting to know Edinburgh

View from my flat

My flat with the golf tavern on the right

This week has been the first week of classes for me. I have successfully found all of them as it was a challenge because Napier University has four separate campuses all across the city. I have two classes in  Sighthill Campus which is the furthest campus from our apartments. It is the newest of all the campuses and is pretty nice, but the bus ride there is dreadful. Then I have one class (Scottish Culture and Society) in Craiglockhart campus. It is a cool looking campus because one of the buildings looks like a huge eye from ( I will post a picture once I learn how). I only have three classes and they are all on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so it leaves me with a four day weekend and time to do some sight seeing. I have gotten a bus pass which allows me to travel all over the city and to my classes easily. I have gotten use to the bus system and how to find which bus I need and when to get it.
In the center of he city is the Edinburgh Castle which is quite cool and is next to Edinburgh main street, Prince's Street. On Prince's street there are all shops which makes the street really busy but makes it a good atmosphere. Right behind Prince's Street is Rose Street. This a little cobble stone road which no cars go on and is sandwiched in between small pubs and restaurants. It is a very lively street as well because there are lots of people pouncing from pub to pub or restaurant. Behind Rose street there is George street which is the location of many pubs and clubs. It is a popular street to go to at night for drinks. All of these is in the city center which is considered New Town. There is also a section in Edinburgh called Old Town. In Old Town there are many small roads like Rose street which makes it a very enjoyable walk and makes you feel like you have gone back in history to old Edinburgh. All the building are stone/cobble stone and all the roads are cobble stone as well. In old own there is the Royal Mile which are a collection of streets that go through this part of town. In the part of Edinburgh there are also a lot of pubs, restaurants, and coffee shop. One of the coffee houses, The Elephant House, was the location where J.K. Rowling would get tea and right the first Harry Potter novel.  Also in the old town is a part called The Grassmarket which is a wide street lined with pubs.  Not in any of these sections is our apartment, even though we are close to old town and a ten minute walk to the city center. Our apartment is located to a massive park called the Meadows and in the backround is the massive Holyrood hill (Arthur's seat). It is nice because there are always people playing sports in the park, walking there dogs, and jogging around the park. Right next to our apartment is a pub called the Golf Tavern. It is called the golf tavern because the part of the Meadow's right next to us has a small golf course with 10 yard long holes, basically like chipping holes. The Golf Tavern is a really cool pub and is are usual destination for a couple of pints. They also play sports so we go down and watch football matches and the American football playoffs.  About 50 yards from us is a Kebab place called Efes. This makes for a bad combination of pints then kebabs.
This is most of Edinburgh which makes it a easy town to travel around, especially now I have my bus pass. 


P.S. Ill try to figure out to put some pictures up