Day 2: Shit-faced Drunk

"What did you learn today, Brad?" That's what my mom would say around the dinner table in elementary school. Well, she wouldn't be too thrilled with what I learned today.


No, I did not get shit-faced drunk if that is what you are wondering. I did not have a single drink today actually. I did, though, go on a 'free' walking tour of Edinburgh today with an Irishman as our tour guide. A bit odd since I am in Scotland, but it was a great tour nonetheless. As I mentioned yesterday, Edinburgh is an absolutely amazing city. I feel confident saying it is already up there in my top 3 favorite European cities and may take the number 1 spot by the time I leave here. It is how I pictured Dublin would be, which ultimately disappointed me as a city. If you have to choose between Dublin or Edinburgh, hands-down go with Edinburgh. 

Edinburgh Castle. Across the street from my hostel.

What did I learn on my tour today? Well, I learned that the term shit-faced drunk came from Edinburgh. You see, in old Edinburgh families had no way to dispose of their urine and poo except to throw it in the streets and let it work its way down the Royal Mile to the lake. Problem is, they would throw it down there from their 3rd and 4th story windows into the streets during the day and obviously people would become covered in shit. Not an ideal system clearly. To solve the problem a law was put into placed restricting people from throwing their feces into the streets until after 10pm...the same time the pubs closed. 

The story goes that the French would come into town not knowing of this practice and leave the pubs walking under the windows and be so drunk that they had no idea that the locals were throwing their piss and feces down on their faces...leaving them shit-faced drunk. And that, folks, is your fun fact of the day. 

the elephant house. Where Rowling wrote much of Harry Potter.

Other than that, I saw the room JK Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potter books and the cemetery. Basically, this whole city reminds me of Harry Potter. Probably because she was inspired by so many of the places here. Hogwarts was based on a local private school here, the houses all look like Potter's, and the names on the headstones of many of the deceased in the cemetery across from Rowling's flat are character names in Harry Potter.

Finally, I ended the night by catching the 10pm showing of the newest Dark Knight movie. My least favorite of the three, but it was nice seeing a movie in a theatre for the first time in two years.

Off to St Andrews tomorrow. I cant wait.