Last Tuesday (take me back!) Darren and I set of on our little trip away to Edinburgh. We travelled down to Edinburgh by using MegaBus and travelled in style! We had no idea that we would be given free scones, tablet and drinks! I think it's fair to say I scoffed down the scone pretty quickly, leaving a bit of a mess too. 

Once we arrived in Edinburgh about 3 hours later, we tried to make our way to our hotel. As this was a new area for us to be in, we felt Google Maps would be a sensible idea- oh how we were wrong. We ended up having to climb up a set up really steep and tall stairs with a heavy suitcase, oops! After finally getting to the top of these stairs and onto the Royal Mile, realising we were walking the wrong direction, we finally made it to our hotel safe and sound! 

With our suitcase put away and being stocked up on film for the cameras, we went exploring! However, looking back now we should have went organised exploring!

Our exploration started by going into St Giles Chapel. While in there, I didn't take many photographs as I felt really awkward. I just feel like it's one of those places you shouldn't do it? After having a quick look around we headed for lunch and ended up a little cabin/hut (?) in the park beside the National Gallery. With a one stop look into The Works we made our way to find the Grassmarket. 

Again, Google Maps didn't work in our favour while going to Grassmarket as we had to climb another steep hill and walk down a load of steps, which resulted, in true Lauren style, me tripping and falling after getting my foot stuck in a grate. While we had our look around Gassmarket I stopped in the stalls and bought a cute dream catcher bracelet and then headed up to Victoria St where we popped into Red Door Gallery that I was super excited about visiting! After looking into a few other stores, we headed back to the Royal Mile and then down Cockburn St. We ended up visiting a few shops down here and I made a few purchases as well! I have to say that's one of the reasons I loved Edinburgh- all those independent shops! 

After looking around all these independent shops, we headed back to Princess St to have a proper look around the shops. We first went into the The Princess Mall but didn't have much of a look, after having a look down the street we decided just to go back to the Royal Mile and find somewhere for dinner. 

Before we headed for tea, we booked our first Ghost Tour with City of Edinburgh Tours. It's truthful to say that Darren was beyond excited for this. Anyway, for tea we decided to go and try the Filling Station after reviews of it came up several times including here. Our meal was brilliant and we were even able to get free Salted Pretzel with Garlic dip with a voucher we were handed by someone. I also tried one of their cocktails that tasted ah-ma-zing!

After our meal, we headed along to our Ghost Tour. The person that would be taking us on our tour- Grizzles, was really friendly, even if she did bag on the fact that we're Aberdonians! The tour ended up lasting about an hour and a half and while down in The Vaults Darren caught some spooky pictures! The tour ended up being a great way to finish our first night in Edinburgh!