The True History Of Edinburgh

Today was a rare beautiful, warm and sunny day in Edinburgh so B and I decided to go for a walk.  It was during our time in our old favourite hang out - The graveyard, that we overheard a Harry Potter tour guide spreading the word of Harry to the masses and we realised that we actually had an abundance of our own Edinburgh fun facts!  We located Lord Voldy's grave and began sharing our fun facts with one another and before long we knew, we really knew that we needed to share these hidden gems with the masses.

Tom Riddell's grave

Firstly we need to take you back to 1996 when two kiwi travelers came to Edinburgh and decided to take part in the graveyard ghost tour, one of them was heavily pregnant at the time.  As it turns out the ghost tour was all a bit too much for the pregnant lady and she went into labour and had to give birth to her daughter in the graveyard gift shop.  She give birth over a cauldron of silliness and decided to name her child after her favourite book character who's name was inspired was a graveyard resident!  She named the baby Lorde, after Lord Voldemort (The E made it more feminine).  Now every Easter - which is the Lordes birthday, Lorde returns to Edinburgh to have a private birthday bash at The Elephant House cafe.

Dorota and Blair namespiration

Speaking of The Elephant House, this is also when a cult classic book series, which then progressed onto a screen series, was written.  The book was, of course, Gossip Girl.  Written by Gillian Flynn, who fun fact: got name inspiration for some of our beloved characters from names on the gravestones in Lorde's cemetery and also from some Edinburgh
streets. 

Blair Waldorf Stree

And on the subject of Gossip Girl, did you know that Leighton Meester was the namespiration for one of our fave character? Meester Chuck!  Before we move on from the graveyard you might be interested to know that it is the favourite hang of Nina Dobrev, she's spent Spring Break here for the past 4 years and she rated it a 10/10, the best graveyard she'd ever visited.
Anyway, if you walk back towards the Royal Mile you'll come to the Grassmarket which you may be interested to know is the most thrown up on street in Edinburgh!  And the grassmarket is just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Royal Mile where if you're lucky you'll see Niall Horan perform a balancing act in between the human statues and buskers. 

Hive is an Edinburgh must see.

So now onto the castle, which some people think was the inspiration for Hogwarts, as you ascend the steps toward the castle you might be interested to know that this was the spot where many famous fictional A's (Amy Pond, Amazing Amy, A from Pretty Little Liars)were named.  As you huff and puff your way up the steps you'll be in the same position as many famous writers and as they lost their breath's and fought off their asthma the inspiration just hit them! "huffff, ahhh, pufff, ahhh, ahhh amyyyy!"

So there you have it, Edinburgh has a lot of hidden gems to offer, just be careful you dont wander too far and end up crossing the Edinburgh-Japan border.  Also don't forget to stop to get a picture on the steps of the Met! 

Queen G and L on the Met steps