The Birthplace of A Wizardry Hero

8:45 am: Elder Street Bus Station, Edinburgh

After spending 10 hours on the bus, we finally arrived at the capital city of Scotland. The roads and the pedestrian paths were wet as it was raining just before we reach the city. We were 45 minutes behind our initial plan as the expected time arrival was supposed to be at 8:00 am, but we were still sticking to the plan anyway, which is to get something for breakfast from a Sainsbury’s nearby (cause I saw in the map the day before that there is a Sainsbury’s close to the bus station). We walked out of the station and stopped in front of St Andrew Square. I was just about to open my Google Maps when a lady in a red jacket approached us and asked “Is everything okay girls?” I asked her how to find our way to the nearby Sainsbury’s. She showed us the direction, apparently it's just at the other end of St Andrew Square. Oh my, what a very good first impression! This is what I call ‘blessings of the day #1: Friendly Scottish’.

Scott Monument

I got myself chocolate doughnuts from Sainsbury’s (and a shopping bag because I forgot to bring a laundry bag, shame on me) and made our way to our breakfast spot. We passed by the Scott Monument, located in the East Princes Street Gardens in which they are having ‘Edinburgh’s Christmas’, an Edinburgh version of London’s Winter Wonderland. The Victorian Gothic monument is dedicated to Sir Walter Scott who is a Scottish author, and stands above the railway track of the Waverley Railway Station.

Princes Street Gardens

Our breakfast spot! Actually it will be more accurate to say: the West Princes Street Gardens (the East and West parts of the gardens are separated by the National Gallery of Scotland, Royal Scottish Academy and a street named ‘The Mound’). We were enjoying the nice weather as well as the nice view too J. After filling our tummy and spending our time with cute squirrels in the garden, we continued our journey to our next pit stop.

Camera Obscura and World of Illusions, The Scotch Whisky Experience

There’s a reason why the street was named ‘The Mound’ in the first place. It was curvy, and hilly XD My poor friend had to carry her luggage all the way climbing up the hill. (I was a bit gasping with my rucksack too XD) We didn’t enter the Camera Obscura anyway because I found out it will cost us 13 pounds and I was not prepared for that haha. So I just took a guidebook outside the building, took a picture of The Scotch Whisky Experience (definitely not gonna do some whisky tasting hehe) which is just opposite to where we were standing and walked excitedly to start our real ‘theme-based trip of the day’.

Diagon Alley?

Victoria Street

There you go, our first stop of our… (DRUMROLLSSSSSSSS) Harry Potter Tour!!! Ehem, self-guided tour haha. We basically came up with this idea because we can only check-in to our room at 2.00 pm, so we need to do something to kill time. Since my dear travel partner is a Potterhead, we googled for Top Places to Visit in Edinburgh for Harry Potter Fans [theculturetrip.com]. There is a free Harry Potter tour every 3 pm (I am not sure if it runs every day) but we gave that up because we already had other plans for the evening, and we would have to think of doing something else until 2 pm! XD Victoria Street, as shown above is the inspiration for Diagon Alley. We walked along the curvy street and unexpectedly bumped into a Harry Potter shop. 

Another surprise, it is more than just a shop, it is made to look like a museum! (Well, that’s written outside the shop so I suppose it should be XD)

 

Good news, free admission! This is ‘blessings of the day #2: Museum! With free entrance :)’.

Greyfriar’s Kirkyard

(Time for Scottish Lesson 101? Hehe, why not?)

‘Kirk’ is a Scottish word for ‘church’. We didn’t go into the church, we just visited the cemetery, where it is said that Tom Riddle had rest (in peace?). An eerie fact about the graveyard is that it houses the grave of real life aristocrat named Thomas Riddell…(real life Voldermort? errr) During winter time, the Greyfriar’s Kirkyard Museum is open on Thursdays, so we didn’t get the chance to visit the museum as it was closed on that day (we were there on Wednesday). I didn't take a picture because I am afraid that it might seems disrespectful, so we just have a look around the graveyard.

Greyfriars Bobby Memorial Statue

A few steps from the kirkyard at the end of Candlemaker Row, stood a life-size statue of a Skye Terrier dog, the prominent commemorative statue of a loyal dog that guarded the grave of his owner, John Gray. We actually saw a girl jumping in front of the statue and I initially thought that she wanted to pat the dog’s head. But when I read a text panel nearby it is written that touching the dog’s nose is believed to bring good luck, yet it wasn’t advisable because it will damage the statue (you can see the nose is obviously losing its colour though).

The Elephant House

This is a café where it is claimed that J.K. Rowling had finished the first volume of the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (also known as Sorcerer’s Stone [US]) hence the nickname of the cafe, the birthplace of Harry Potter.

George Heriot’s School

From the café we walked to see a school that is located just behind the Greyfriar’s Graveyard (that’s kind of creepy though). This school is said to resemble Hogwarts as some of its features match the description of the magical school in the novel. It is claimed that Rowling also take inspiration from the house system of the school; Castle, Lauriston, Raeburn and Greyfriars, which corresponds to Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Unfortunately we were not allowed to visit the school, I guess it’s because they are still in their term-time? (not sure if they have not started their winter break yet hmm)

Interior view of National Museum of Scotland

11:30 am: National Museum of Scotland

Since the George Heriot’s School was not available for public access, and it was not the time for the Zuhr prayer yet so we decided to visit a museum instead. From the city maps that I got from the Camera Obscura, we found out that the nearest museum is this National Museum, located just opposite the Greyfriar’s Bobby statue that we passed earlier. It is a huge museum, with nine floors including the ground floor and the basement. There are nine sections which include World Cultures, Scotland, Natural World, Science and Technology and Discoveries. As a tourist, I would prefer to explore things about the place itself so we only visited the Scotland section. Yet we still didn’t get to cover the whole section even in two hours! Before we left the museum we went to the top floor ie the 7^th floor which provides the panoramic view of Edinburgh city.

A view of Edinburgh Castle from the roof terrace

It was pretty chilly on the roof terrace. There are also some text panels with images of iconic buildings and monuments that you can see from the roof terrace.

One of the text panels provided

Real-life view of the description on the text panel above

Potterrow

From the museum to our next stop, we have to walk along a street named Potterrow. Are you thinking what I am thinking? If yes, then you might think that it is where Harry Potter got his surname from. But based on what I have read and according to my Potterhead friend, Potter is the surname of the family who used to live in Rowling’s neighbourhood when she was younger. She said that she used to play with a brother and a sister of the Potter family and she had always liked the name, so she borrowed it. I guess it is just a coincidence to have ‘Potter’ in ‘Potterrow’ hence it opened the door of speculation hewhew (But my friend and I do think that Potterrow Port reminded us of the opening scene of the fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, where the dementors attacked Dudley in Little Whinging hmmm)

Edinburgh Central Mosque

At the end of Potterrow road is the city mosque. This mosque also has its own café, but we didn’t try the food at the café though. After performing our prayers we head to the nearest bus stop. We had to take the bus since we were running out of time. It was already 2:00 pm and we need to come back to the city centre before 2:45pm after we check-in. One thing about the bus service in Edinburgh, only cash is accepted and you need exact fares. So spare some small change when you come to Edinburgh! 1.60 pounds for single fare and 4 pounds for a day pass ;)

That marks the end of our Harry Potter tour J I was thinking of writing the entry about the whole day but it seems like it had been overstretched XD I guess I should put my ‘pen’ down now? See you in the next entry soon insya Allah ;)