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Edinburgh, UK August 9, 2015
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After spending the evening before traveling from San Diego to Edinburgh, we arrived at 7:15 am. A quick, cheap bus ride from the airport to the city center and our first (of many) time getting lost and we arrived at the Sheraton Grand Hotel with a beautiful view of the castle. 
Since it was so early, our room wasn’t ready yet. We ate breakfast at the hotel, got our trusty map out, and planned out our day. After our breakfast, we made a quick stop to the Starbucks nearby to grab water and finally checked into our hotel room, which overlooked the castle. 
Now, I know the number one rule after travel is to not take a nap but exhaustion set in and I just HAD to get at least an hour of sleep in. By the time we woke up, it was afternoon and I knew we had to explore. We set out towards the Princes Street gardens, walked through the masses of people relaxing on the expansive lawn underneath the castle, and found the Royal Mile.
As we made our way down the Royal Mile, which is a mile long stretch of road (duh) from Edinburgh castle to Holyrood Palace, the crowds were massive. August in Edinburgh is festival season, which means the highly popular Fringe festival and the Military Tattoo were going on. Street performers and vendors were in full force and the pubs were packed. We finally made it to the end of the Royal Mile and reached the bottom of Arthur’s seat, a hill that people can hike up for spectacular views of the city. Even though the weather was perfect, we easily got nice and sweaty during our hour long walk up and down the hill. By the time we reached the bottom, I was thirsty for a pint of beer.
Luckily, on our way back we passed the World’s End pub, which had been one of our many ‘Pinterest’ items to visit in Scotland. Even though it was packed inside, there was no wait for a table and we quickly ordered our beers. So refreshing! The dinner clearly was not memorable since I failed to take one picture of it. Oops! After dinner, it was time to relax back in our hotel.
