My parents and I had decided to take a train somewhere this morning and supposed that we would find out exactly where to go once we got to the train station. At quarter to 9:00 we asked an info guy at the tracks where he thought we should go, so he recommended Sterling or North Berwick. We chose North Berwick and got tickets then hopped on the train give minutes later on platform 11.
North Berwick is a neat little town about 40 minutes train ride south east of Edinburgh with a neat little down-town and beautiful beaches. After arriving we walked down to the town center to find a good place to have breakfast and found something called Buttercup Caffè. I think I was the only person in there under the age of 35 which was rather funny. My breakfast at the Buttercup Caffè was amazing! A fresh scone with fruit in it topped with butter, jam, and homemade cream – who could beat that?
Our next adventure was to hike Law Hill just south of the town. This thing was a beast to climb but was absolutely gorgeous! It was definitely a great opportunity to take some color and black and white film and digital photos – and this opportunity slowed down the hike quite a bit. Whatever.
On our way up we ran into a group of hiking Scots, all kicking out asses despite their age – and all of them were so nice! At the top was an arch supposedly made of two whale bones and a little ruined look-out building. It was gorgeous up there – on one side you saw the town and on the other there were all of these rolling farm fields… some with cows!
After taking even more photos we went back down and walked to the towns little harbor. It was super pretty: little red buildings, sailboats on the water, a really nice beach, and a blue sky. Can’t get much better than that. From here we walked down the beach a ways and had lunch by a golf course on some rocks. Pears, cheese, and bread is always tasty without a doubt.
Dying to see some castles, we walked westward along the beach for a good distance. For some reason, it seemed to take forever – and with good reason… we walked three or four miles away from town. The body of water we walked towards is called Yellowcraig – Dirleton Castle is just south of it.
To get to the castle from the beach we walked a lovely trail through woods, fields, and neighborhoods. And once you got to the castle, you knew it. The entrance was a very well-kept part that met a giant wall made of stone. We walked in and my parents got a three-day pass so we could to into any castle in Scotland we pleased. It was a really good deal considering what we’re able to see!
Dirleton Castle is beautiful and is luckily not overrun by tourists and shops. It was really neat to see because all of the rooms were left “as is” – nothing fancy was going on inside, just lovely, old, unfurnished rooms that people used to wander through years and years ago. There was even a pigeon house that was used for people to collect pigeon poop to use in a recipe for gun powder – yum. And I guess the gardens on the castle grounds have to most plentiful variety of herbs in the world, which is pretty cool.
Speaking of plants, there were a few trees towards the exit called Monkey Puzzle Trees. They're some of the weirdest plants I've ever seen and were named with the idea of a monkey being able to climb it but not being able to get back down. Its leaves have spikes that point upwards on the tips and they're quite sharp!
From here we caught a bus back to North Berwick and got on a train somewhere around six. But first, I got some proper ships at a fish and chip shop and they were absolutely perfect - just what I had been looking for since I've been in Scotland!
Once we got back to the apartment in Edinburgh, we started dinner: steak and vegetables. It was really good considering the fact that I haven't had steak in almost forever. By the time we finished dinner, we were all exhausted from running around today, so we watching some BBC news and some clips on YouTube, then went to bed.
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