This is the 3rd themed set of photos from Scotland, this time, of Edinburgh. Although Glasgow and Edinburgh aren’t far away from each other (from a Toronto perspective, it’s like driving on the 401 from Mississauga to Pickering), they nevertheless have quite distinctive personalities. I’ll leave Glasgow for my next post. Let’s just say that many Glaswegians tend to regard the Edinburgh accent as “posh” and they say it in a way that isn’t complimentary. (To my ear, it’s all the same.) Edinburgh is the political centre of Scotland. In 2004, it become the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature. John Knox lived there, so it pretty much has Presbyterianism sewn up, too. But, to an outsider like me, what’s most striking about Edinburgh is the tourism. If you have only a few days, it’s hard to pierce the veneer of Scottish kitsch. You know: the shops selling cheap tartans and sporrans and all that crap. It’s like landing in Toronto and having to negotiate the wilderness of shops selling watered down maple syrup and dream catchers. My advice: ditch your map and make a concerted effort to get lost. Seriously.
