travel euro weekender

Jewel North of
the
Edinburgh is a city of a thousand faces, brimming with spectacular
surprises. Luc Ciotkowski guides us through the streets of his home town.
WORDS by Luc Ciotkowski

with rocky crags on one side, you A great vantage point to see all of if you’re used to Madrid taxi
Edinburgh will ask yourself, “How the hell this is Calton Hill, at the east end prices. You can get around much
did that get into the middle of a of Princes Street. Up here, as well of city and see a lot more by foot.
city?” On a smaller scale, but even as being able to appreciate the (Girls should save heels for the
more dramatic, while you walk juxtaposition of Medieval, Geor- evening; there are a lot of cob-
down the main shopping thor- gian and present-day architecture, bled streets!) Bed and breakfasts
oughfare, Princes Street, one side you can see several monu- are the best accom-
holds nothing more than a row of ments close up, including modation for you to get
Georgian buildings tarnished by the half-finished National a look inside the lovely,
shops you find in any UK city. If Monument. ’Edinburgh’s high-ceilinged stone
you look across the road, beyond Disgrace’, as it is also tenements, although
the passing double-decker buses, known, was modelled on checking out times feel

A
you see a swath of gardens, a the Parthenon in Athens horrendously early com-
fairy tale, a ghost story, a rocky cliff and a castle on the top and helped the city earn the pared with hotels in Spain.
period drama, a romance, that will make your jaw drop. This nickname, ’Athens of the North’.
a crime thriller or a story still blows my mind and I can only The Edinburgh Festival in August My recommendations in the
about drug-addiction; guess the impact it makes the first and Hogmanay (New Year) party style of a rip-off of Irvine Welsh’s
walk around Edinburgh for a time someone sees it. are what make the city world Trainspotting: choose the Castle,
weekend and you’ll see how it’s famous, but a celebration that choose Arthur’s Seat, choose the
a fantastic place for any of these. From Edinburgh Castle, is getting bigger every Meadows (but not at night when
You might even feel like you’re in the Royal Mile tapers year is the Beltane Fire you’re liable to get mugged),
one (with a little luck neither of down the hill to the Palace Festival. On the night of choose drinking in Rose Street in
the last two). No visitor who I’ve of Holyroodhouse (the 30th April, Calton Hill is the day and the Grassmarket at
spoken to has failed to comment Queen’s official residence host to a pagan fertility night, choose a Scottish break-
on its striking beauty, but there’s in Scotland) and this, festival with thousands fast with square sausage and po-
something more about my other along with the buildings of people (lots of them tato scones, choose keeping away
home city that makes people fall in the ravine to the south, makes naked) gathering to celebrate the from the aromas of the brewery
in love with it. It’s something up the Old Town. Here you’ll find traditional start of summer with if you’ve got a hangover, choose
mysterious, and something winding streets and dark closes; a procession and a re-enactment climbing the Scott Monument
magical. passages and stairways between of a ritual sacrifice carried out by to work off a hangover, choose
tenement buildings linking streets people in body paint. food and some whisky at Whiski
About 350 million years ago a and courtyards. Moving north Bar on the Royal Mile, choose
series of volcanoes collapsed, past Princes Street Gardens, Since a direct air route opened descending into the Edinburgh
cooled and became extinct a few which used to be the castle’s moat last year, Edinburgh is just Vaults and pishing yourself with
miles from the southern banks of until it was drained, the 18th three hours from Madrid, and, fright, choose the Royal Yacht
the Forth estuary. Glaciers came century New Town begins and although there’s far too much Britannia, choose enjoying a
in from the west during the Ice contains some of the best Geor- to see in a weekend, you can get drink on Leith Waterfront,
Age and ripped out the softer gian architecture still in existence. through a lot in this compact, choose saving some money at
rocks, leaving craggy rock faces This contrast of the Old Town easy-to-get-around city. A ₤5 the end of it all to buy shortbread
to the west and long sloping tails (Medieval) and New Town (Geor- open return gets you from the and vanilla fudge.
to the east, made of the debris gian), a UNESCO World Heritage airport to the city centre and a
dragged in that direction by the site, is what makes Edinburgh so ₤2.50 day ticket lets you hop on Forget ’Athens of the North’...
glaciers. Now, I know this is a atmospheric and what inspired and off buses that will take you Athens could be more flattered
bit like being at school, but it’s Robert Barker to invent the term pretty much everywhere you with ’Edinburgh of the South’.
important because when you see ’panorama’ to describe the style need to go. ’Fast black’ taxis will Just make sure you learn how
Arthur’s Seat, a great big 250-me- he used to fit everything in when get you where you want quickly, to pronounce it properly before
tre hill covered in wild grass and he painted the city. but they’ll sting your wallet you go.

12 feb 08 www.europeanvibe.com