Bobby, Sir George, Mr. Boots, & Friends

After this trip, I now know this to be true:  "What you don't know can't hurt you."

I have never seen ghosts nor experienced anything close to the paranormal (and I'm not complaining :)). However, I do have a wild imagination and I tend to torture myself for weeks after watching horror movies.

This does not apply to all horror movies, though. To scare me, a movie has to have certain criteria 1) it must have human ghosts and 2) it must be close to home.  Case in point? I have never and will never watch Sukob or Feng Hsui alone (they're Filipino horror movies)  :)

Since I now live alone, I have resorted to staying away from horror movies and I was doing perfectly fine.

Until I went to Edinburgh.

Our hostel was right across Greyfriar's Kirkyard so when I read about Greyfriars Bobby, the dog that stayed by his master's grave for 14 years, I dragged Aoisoba to go to Greyfriar's every morning.  I even cried when I first saw Bobby's tomb.:)

The graveyard was hauntingly beautiful and it reminded me of the graveyard scene in Phantom of the Opera.  I really felt like singing "Wishing you were somehow Here Again" while walking there. :P I even took lots of pictures. I must say I was pretty brave!

Then Aoisoba said that she wanted to join the Ghost Tour. She has joined ghost tours in every city she's gone to so I said okay.  When we were inquiring with Mercat, the lady asked us to choose between the FUN tour that ends in a bar and the SERIOUS tour that ends in a graveyard.

  I have never joined ghost tours before so when Aoisoba said "Let's take the fun tour" I thought she meant you're-a-newbie-so-fine-I'll-settle-for-the-fun-one.  I said "No, no, let's take the serious tour." She said "Are you sure?" I said "Yes!"

We went to the designated meeting place along Royal Mile at 9:30 pm and there were at least 20 other people waiting for the tour to start. Whew, we were not alone!

Our tour guide brought us to "The Vaults" which was a series of underground rooms under the bridge. She was putting much effort into scaring us that it became less scary.  In the vaults, I was even looking all around the room. It was creepy, alright, but as long as we weren't at the very front or the very back of the group, and as long as the guide's candle did not go out, I was fine.

Turns out there was such a strong paranormal activity in that place that BBC even investigated and made a documentary out of it. What have we gotten ourselves into?? :0

When we got back to the hostel, I started reading Aoisoba's book about the Horrible History of Edinburgh.  I became curious about the former judge who was buried right in Greyfriars who seems to be responsible for the most notorious poltergeist activities ever experienced in the UK.  I see the graveyard from our room window every night!  The City of The Dead Graveyard Tour covers that and I don't know how or why we decided to join that tour but we did.

I have read about how people who went in there fainted or came out bruised and battered so I was terrified upon entering the unlit graveyard.

  When we went into the locked area called the Covenanter's Prison, I was holding on to Aoi's arm for dear life!  We were led inside the "Black Mausoleum" and there weren't many of us this time so it was way more scary.

I honestly didn't see or feel anything weird but there was a built up hype because of all the stories we were told and and all the warnings we got (e.g watch out for cold spots, if you feel anything, run!). I was nervous as hell!  

It was pitch black inside the Black Mausoleum and I was covering my face with my scarf as if that would help me avoid any kind of attention. haha. Some people would burst into giggles to ease the tension once in a while but you could tell they were equally petrified.

In the end, just when the guide was saying she can feel something weird that night, a guy jumps out from the door to scare the hell out of us! People screamed in unison and pulled each other towards the back! I didn't scream, I just cursed at the guy. haha. But we all came out laughing afterwards.  That tour is NOT for the fainthearted.

After that, I wouldn't let Aoisoba leave me alone in the room even when she needed to go to the bathroom.

When I got home, I wanted to throw away the boots I used because they were still muddy from the cemetery. :D There could still be cemetery particles under there.

I know I'm crazy right now but this will pass, I promise. It was a one-of-a-kind adventure.

I don't even know if I can do it again. :)

I had no idea that Edinburgh took pride on their ghosts and have multitudes of Ghost Tours to offer. There's even this Mary King's Cross Ghost Tour that we didn't get to join anymore but that's okay because I don't like little-girl-ghosts. You can add that to my list.

If you are brave and you want a different kind of fun, go for the Ghost Tours. Just make sure you don't have a heart ailment, and make sure you are wearing comfortable shoes because you might need to run, you'll never know. :p