I have walked past the Scott Monument many times, often without thinking that it is there. And when I notice it, it is usually because I look for it to see if I got off on the right bus stop.
Every time I move to a new town or a country, my plan is to see everything that it is possible to see. I want to climb all the mountains, visit all the museums, admire the colours and smell of the flowers in the parks, see the nice beaches and go crazy with my camera. However, as soon as I get used to live somwhere, it doesn´t take long before I think: I will stay here for a long time, so I have plenty of time to visit all these exciting places another day. Most of the times it is not untill there are only a few days left of my stay that I realise that I haven´t seen half of what the city offers. The only exception is when I was living in St.Petersburg, Russia many years ago and wore out at least two pair of shoes because I was walking around the city all the time, trying to see as much as possible. I even visited the Museum of Bread.
Last semester was more busy than I had imagined, and when Christmas came I realised that I hadn´t really seen much of Edinburgh. This semester I have decided to do something about it. I started with the Scott monument, which is situated next to the train station in the middle of the city. The monument, which was built as a tribute to the famous Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, is located next to the train station.
It usually cost 8 GBP to access both the museum and climb up to the top, but as there is a concession for student, I got it for 6 pounds.
Then I started to climb up the stairs. The staircase was narrow, and it was kind of scary when a couple came climbing down while I was on my way up. I held on to the wall for my bare life, and tried not to think about what would happen if I fell down.
Before I entered the monument I thought that the museum was located on the ground level, but it turned out that I had to do a lot of climbing before I reached the museum.
The glass ceilings and the carvings inside the tiny museum were beautiful. The museum had phones (such as the one on the picture), where you could amongst others could learn about some of Sir Walter Scott´s characters and even listen to music that was created by composers inspired by his writings. The music turned out to be so loud that I had to hold the handset on an arms length, and to my disappointment, on of the phones did not work. Still, I learned more about Sir Walter Scott and realised that I should begin to read some of his books. I also learned about the architect behind it, George Meikle Kemp, who died before he got to finish his masterpiece. According to the brochure I was handed when I entered the museum, the fog was very thick when Kemp was walking home from a business meeting, which led him to fall into a canal and drown.
After visiting the museum I continued to climb up the stairs, which became even narrower closer to the top. If my rucksak had been any bigger, I would not had have been able to press myself through the narrow opening that led to the he top floor.
The view from the monument was absolutely breathtaking, even though the weather seemed to reflect the mood of many Brits after the Parliament voted no to Theresa Mays Brexit deal (I went to visit the monument the day after the vote was held in the House of Commons).
After a while the clouds started to disappear after a while, and let the sun shine through.
It was a bit scary to look down. It was quite windy, as it tend to be when I finally decide to go sightseeing, so I made sure that I did not have any loose parts on me, such as the lense cap, that could be taken by the wind and land on someones head.
The wind actually changed my hairstyle.
Then it was time to climb down again. When I climbed towards the top I had a lot of small breakes to enjoy the view, take pictures and see the museum. But, when I climbed down again I walked pretty fast without stopping. As a result, I got a bit dizzy, and when I reached the ground floor, my body was not able to walk straight for the last two meters. Though, it did not seem as the men in the museum´s box office noticed. One of them asked me what I thought of my visit, while I walked past him.
– The view was great, I replied, while I tried not to stumble outside the entrance of the monument.
Ina N. Moe 