Something that’s been true of me for a while is my love of cemeteries. And I don’t mean that in some sort of creepy and ominous way. I like the calm they provide, and I often find them very beautiful.
It’s especially magical to go to one in the middle of a city — to step inside and be able to escape the business of the foot and vehicle traffic, even if only for a brief period of time.
Which leads to my main point — I finally visited a graveyard on Saturday. It’s called “Greyfriars Kirkyard”. To sum up what it’s named for (to my knowledge): once upon a time there was a puppy called Bobby, who was the dog of a man on the Edinburgh City Police night watch force. When his owner died, he was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, and as the story goes, the dog guarded the grave all by himself every day for fourteen years, until he too died.
There’s now a statue just outside of the graveyard depicting the dog, and inside one can see his grave. It’s very bittersweet.
But that’s not all this graveyard is known for! It is just about a block and a half from The Elephant House (which, as I mentioned in my previous post is where JK Rowling began to write the Harry Potter book series). After her tea/food/whatever at the café, she would come over and wander in the graveyard, and it is where she got the names of some of her characters —
— in my first visit (I plan to go back again, multiple times) I found the Riddells (Riddle in the books), including a Thomas, a Hopkirk, and a Mcgonagall. I’ve been told the Potters are in there, as well as others.
It’s lovely to see what I can find just within the city. There is so much to explore, I doubt that I will be able to see everything even by the time I leave in May. While it’s anxiety-provoking on some level, it also fills me with wonder. There’s so much to explore, both touristy and otherwise, and it’s nice. I still need to work on getting more and more comfortable with wandering places on my own, but I’m getting there.
I stopped by a pharmacy on my way back to my flat yesterday and spent some money on myself (something else I’m working on! Letting myself spend money on things that aren’t food!). I got some nail polish remover, some new nail polish, and a semi-tinted lip-balm whose container reads “Keep Calm and Play”, which, while perhaps cheeky and cheesy, is a helpful reminder for me in my time abroad and otherwise. :)
That’s all for now!
Love,
Emily