Waking up in a hostel is not one of the most pleasant
feelings I’ve ever experienced. 4/10: would not recommend. And then to top off my
wonderful hostel morning, I went to breakfast where I was fed what some would consider food: poorly baked beans, soggy toast and milk. Highly nutritious. I always wondered what my Scotsman ancestors lived off of. So after we got going for the day we had a wonderful tour around
Edinburgh by a former BYU student currently doing his doctorate degree at the
University of Edinburgh. It was random, but it was fun to get shown around by a fellow American. Then
we all went up to the Edinburgh Castle walked around the castle and saw all
sorts of Scottish things. It was beautiful up there! You could see the whole
city. We took a lot of pictures. After we finished at the tower we went to into
town and went shopping around for some souvenirs. It was really fun in these
shops because they had some of my favorite things: shortbread, Celtic jewelry,
and a lot of Macdonald family stuff. So I bought a scarf and considered buying
my father a kilt, but then decided that would be a bad idea. I don’t want to
subject anyone to the sight of my father in a kilt. Sorry pops. 
Once we were done shopping we decided to hike this volcano that everyone had talked about. Where you supposedly get a 360 degree view of the whole city. I was STOKED, but one of our friends was unfortunately in a 5 pound boot because she had torn her ankle in a running accident when we were in the French Loir Valley. But, she's a trooper and said she could climb it. Unfortunately, no one had told us the hike constituted 2 different mountain climbs. And I guess we took a wrong turn because we hiked up a very rocky, steep incline for about a half an hour just to find out that we have yet another mountain to hike once we had descended that one. But long story short, we basically carried Kylie up the mountain. To say I was sore that night would be an understatement.
After our fun little mountain climb we didn’t know what else
to do, really because everything closes around 5 o’clock. So I
decided to go on a ghost tour with 2 of my friends through the catacombs underneath the city. It was one of the funnest things I’ve done this entire
trip! Our guide gave us some history and background on the city of Edinburgh
and then took us to the vaults to show us the scarier history of it. They had a
room full of old torture devices that the owner had creepishly gathered
throughout his lifetime, which was just gross. I got a little nauseous during
that part. But then he actually took us into the vaults and told us some scary
stories about them. There was one vault that was locked up and had a bunch of
weird worship stuff in it and I honestly thought it was a room for satanic
rituals so I didn’t want to look in it. But our guide told us it was a room
that a society of Wickens rent out and worship in a few times a year.
Apparently they used to occupy a room 2 vaults down but they said there was
such bad energy and demons there that they had to move. They tried telling the
owner that he shouldn’t let anyone in that room because it isn’t safe, but the
man owns a ghost tour, so of course he kept it open. So the Wickens, to make it
safer, made a circle of stones to contain the negative energy.
Then he asked us if anyone would want to go in the circle and gave a bunch of stories of things that happen to people who go in the circle. He was saying that most of them email the company later and say that they saw shadows or felt presences when they returned to their hotel rooms at night. Then one girl who was staying in my room went in the circle. Stupid girl. I don’t like that stuff so I wasn’t going to mess with it. Then it got even worse because he took us into a room that was completely dark except for his flashlight and he told us about how in that vault it has a connecting vault that is blocked off because it’s structurally unsound. But since it’s blocked off you can still see the top of the other vault over the board that had been nailed in the doorway. He told us that people sometimes see the ghost of a woman up there with long dark hair and wearing all white with her hands over her face and they always ask if it’s an actress up there because she looks so real. But one time a man was in there by himself checking the vaults as he was locking up and saw the woman at the top of the doorway and stopped and stared at her, then she moved her hands and let out a blood curdling scream so he ran out of there as fast as he could. Then the next day he got a call that his sister had died in a car accident and he found out that it was a banshee. And as he said, the banshee will show itself to you and scream when someone close to you is about to die. And then he turns off the flashlight. So naturally we are all staring up at the doorway the whole time hoping not to see anything and then he turns off the light and we start screaming and sprinting towards the door. It was so scary, but so much fun! And in all honesty, it was really scary down there and just felt kind of weird. It was one of the funnest nights I’ve had so far.
Then he asked us if anyone would want to go in the circle and gave a bunch of stories of things that happen to people who go in the circle. He was saying that most of them email the company later and say that they saw shadows or felt presences when they returned to their hotel rooms at night. Then one girl who was staying in my room went in the circle. Stupid girl. I don’t like that stuff so I wasn’t going to mess with it. Then it got even worse because he took us into a room that was completely dark except for his flashlight and he told us about how in that vault it has a connecting vault that is blocked off because it’s structurally unsound. But since it’s blocked off you can still see the top of the other vault over the board that had been nailed in the doorway. He told us that people sometimes see the ghost of a woman up there with long dark hair and wearing all white with her hands over her face and they always ask if it’s an actress up there because she looks so real. But one time a man was in there by himself checking the vaults as he was locking up and saw the woman at the top of the doorway and stopped and stared at her, then she moved her hands and let out a blood curdling scream so he ran out of there as fast as he could. Then the next day he got a call that his sister had died in a car accident and he found out that it was a banshee. And as he said, the banshee will show itself to you and scream when someone close to you is about to die. And then he turns off the flashlight. So naturally we are all staring up at the doorway the whole time hoping not to see anything and then he turns off the light and we start screaming and sprinting towards the door. It was so scary, but so much fun! And in all honesty, it was really scary down there and just felt kind of weird. It was one of the funnest nights I’ve had so far.
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