One night, when I didn't have much to do, I ventured to the top of Calton Hill to get some pictures (the one with the tower and moon in the background was on Calton Hill). On my way down, there was a guy who noticed me taking pictures, and stopped to chat. He was really friendly, and he talked about his travels (which were VERY extensive). Our conversation was going pretty well, until he made a rather inappropriate comment out of the blue, and I then decided that I was getting rather chilly and needed to go back. It wasn't until I told someone in the Judo club about the story that I found out Calton Hill is known to be a meeting place for gay men at night, so much that the city decided to chop down all the trees that hid their meeting places. The club had a good laugh at me.
On an entirely different subject, I went to a club called "Frankenstein" (I was going to buy a gift for my brother J from there b/c Frankenstein is his favorite monster), and it was a pretty sweet place. Lots of people dressed up in constumes, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein was constantly playing on several TVs around the bar, lighting disks and Frankestein posters covered the walls, and there were three floors with bars and booths and such. Fun time (though it is very difficult to go to a club by yourself, so I didn't stay too long... just long enough for a beer). I thought my brother would like it (and my friends as well).
One thing that I forgot to mention about the Edinburgh Castle trip, I got to see (but we were allowed to photograph) the crown jewels, the scepter, and the sword for the royalty. It was all pretty beautiful, except the sword was kinda beat up and the sheath was in bad shape. I don't even want to think about how much it all costs!!!
On my last day in Edinburgh, I went to the Royal Museum, which was pretty cool (especially because it was free). They had all sorts of stuff from pre-historic times to modern times, but I found the industrial stuff to be the most interesting I think. The picture to the left was a robot that could spell your input (my name in this case) and arrange all the blocks, then put them all back in the same spot. Not a huge technological feat, but watching the robot's movements was pretty interesting. 
Another cool part of the museum is that I was able to dress up! I felt almost like I had stepped many chapters backward in history... very intense emotional experience. The big exhibit they had though was a Pixar exhibit, which had a lot of information about the story writing, design, and production of their films. A lot of the stuff I already knew about b/c my brother Jimm is in the advertising business and has shown me the process (it really doesn't differ all that much), but the one thing that they had on display that was REALLY cool (again, no pictures allowed) was a giant wheel with about 15 or so figures on a disk that spun around really fast and they played a strobe light on it at the right frequency so the 15 figures appeared to be moving. It was a really intricate piece of animation, then after looking at it play for a while, they stopped to strobe light to show you how it looked in real light, then slowed it down so that you could see the 20 x 15 figures all glued on the giant disk. It was pretty cool. That being said, I spent the rest of my time in Edinburgh reading The Count of Monte Cristo in the park just below the castle and enjoying my day. The book is fantastic for any readers out there... I recommend it (I'm reading the 500-page abridged version, but I've heard the full version is better). I went to the airport, then flew to Dublin, where I will begin my next entry.
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