Abbie Dickinson

OUR TRIP TO EDINBURGH

TRAVELLING DOWN

Last winter, I treated my mum to a trip to Edinburgh for christmas. Its one of our favourite places in the world. I love the architecture, the quaint streets in old town, the history of the place and anyone who knows me knows I have a massive soft spot for the scottish accent.

The journey up was easy, long, but easy. And the route the trains take from Preston to Edinburgh Waverly is just stunning. The only thing that went wrong was lunch, dont be deceived by how yummy that panini looks like we were, I mean come on Virgin, who microwaves a bloody panini?

THE CHRISTMAS MARKETS We had been to Edinburgh before, but never when the christmas markets were up. Better yet the hotel we stayed in, The Old Waverly was just behind the markets and we had a beautuful view of all the stalls and lights from our room.

I personally cant go through a Christmas market without getting an overpriced bockwurst.

Are you noticing that I have an obsession with food yet?

We also stumbled across a Celtic jewellery stall, the same stall they had on the streets of old town last time we were in Edinburgh. A year or two before I had been treated to a gorgeous Celtic ring that I wore everyday, sadly the band had snapped and I was devastated. But when I saw that stall I ran up and searched for that same ring, they didnt have it. Then the next celtic jewellery stall and they didnt have it. Then the next. But thats when a lady told me they have a store, we walked the streets of Edinburgh for 40 minutes (it was probably a 20 minute walk but mine and my mums navigational skills are piss poor) and now I have my baby back on my finger.

THE GHOST BUS TOUR Me and mum always go on ghost tours when we visit historic towns in the UK, probably because we both secretly want to be Yvette Fielding. Although we both know if something even slightly 'paranormal' happened we'd run screaming.

On our first trip to Edinburgh we took a trip on the Ghost Bus. We thought it would be a bit childish but we can both agree when we say it was one of the funniest things weve done. So of course when we returned last year we went straight into town to book onto one of the late tours. We find the humour gets a bit darker when the tours are at 9 and there's less kids on board. I can safely say I will never go to Edinburgh without going on the Ghost Bus Tour, definitely my favourite thing to do in edinburgh- other than eat.

HARRY POTTER Ive always been a big harry potter fan, so has my mum and you can definitely see the influence Edinburgh's gorgous gothic architecture has had over J K Rowling's vision of Hogwarts and the wizarding world of Harry Potter.

So of course I had to get suited up in my slytherin jumper and go to Greyfrier's kirkyard, to search for the graves that Rowling had used as inspiration for the iconic names of her characters.

UNTIL NEXT TIME...