Day 15: Museums and Hostels

Today I transferred to a new hostel (which is why I'm able to use the internet again). The one I'm in now came very highly recommended by multiple people when I was in London, so when I was booking for Edinburugh I made a point to look it up. Unfortunately it was already booked up for Easter, so I booked a different one for the first 3 days. The first one was well organized, but obviously set up to bring in money. The cost was decent, but then they try to suck all these other fees out of you. The internet one obviously annoyed me the most - 5 pounds per day to use the wi-fi. There was also no common room, but a huge bar where they won't let you hang out unless you're buying things. This new one (Caledonian Backpackers, should anybody ever want a good hostel in Edinburgh) just seems like a much more fun place. All the walls have bright murals painted on them, the lounge has pool tables, board games, a wii, and ample leather furniture to just hang out in. The only drawback is that their wifi is horribly slow, making my planning and updating harder than I'd hoped - at least it's free though.

Anyway, comments on hostels aside, today is a bit slower paced. I went to the Scotland National Museum in the morning. It is smaller than the London museums, and is part museum, part natural history, part science center. While a lot of it is built to appeal to kids I still found it was set up nicely and there was a lot of interesting history and information in it.

(The Millenium Clock / Statue)

(Extinct Giant Deer)
And just to top things up to my 5 picture limit:

(A pigeon, duh)

(A Scottish Nerd Store)
Now spending the evening planning out the rest of my time in Scotland. Have a few ideas kicking around, so there might be some interesting surprises - or maybe not. We'll see.