I think in a Scottish accent sometimes.

Today has been most excellent.

I started the day off right, with a small couple hour hike in Holyrood Park, where I saw columnar basalts, loads of COLUMNAR BASALTS!  It was volcanigasmic.  

I hiked around, took some photos, and headed up to Arthur's Seat - a massive (well...260 metres...) piece of extinct volcano, part of the same volcanic system that created the crag that the castle sits upon.  I took the easy path up and got covered in mud.

On the way down, my level of stupidity increased.  I decided to forge my own way down the cliff.  And I did.  And I made it to the bottom, after having to practically rock climb down icy, muddy, slippery sections of broken, fragmented basalts.  Somehow, I didn't slip.  Somehow, I didn't die.  But it was awesome nonetheless. 

I spent the rest of my day chillin' in the kitchen at the hostel, helping to make pancakes for International Pancake Day (which is today, and apparently has something remotely to do with Lent, which starts tomorrow) and then I went on a whiskey tasting tour. 

My backpack is now heavier due to excess amounts of alcohol.  Delicious, nutritious alcohol.  Benriach, single malt Speyside whiskey, 12 year. 

The whiskey tour itself was a wee bit cheesy, having spent the first ten minutes going down a virtual tour of a distillery in an automated cart shaped like a whiskey barrel.  The rest got better, as we learned how to take whiskey notes, and using aromas in sealed jars, taught us about the types of smells each whiskey region in Scotland has - two of which, I was allergic to, so I couldn't actually smell the last jar because my nose was stuffed.  Yeah, highland whiskey apparently smells like perfume.  I really wish I would have been warned before I smelled it.  My nose was stuffed almost instantaneously.  Anyhow, because I sometimes have more balls than brains, I went for the Islay whiskey, because the guide said it was the peatiest, woodiest, strongest whiskey out of the ones we were allowed to try.  And I tried it.  And I can say with pride that I did not cough, nor choke on it.  However, I don't think I had any tastebuds left at the end, and it burnt going all the way down my throat - which apparently is raw, I found out.  I didn't know this until I tried the whiskey. 

The room we tried the whiskey in was amazing.  Encased in the room we were in, was wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor glass cases, which held the world's largest collection of whiskey, the oldest of which dating back to 1897.

After the tour, I went into the shop and bought the above forementioned whiskey - but not before I went down into the whiskey bar to taste it.  Had a nice chat with the bartender.  I love Scottish people. 

I'm pretty upset to be leaving Edinburgh tomorrow, to be honest.  I don't want to go - I love it here.