Edinburgh

My humble attempt at travel writing:

Things to do // see //eat //experience

Brass Monkey - funky (rhyme intended) bar slash cinema with a Tila Tequila Shot-at-Love-style communal bed for movie showings, book reading, or nap taking. Try the Caledonian beer - the Scots are capable stewards in more than one beverage department. 3 o'clock movie showings: get there early to pick your own, before someone else chooses Se7en and ruins your vacay.

Snax Bar - breakfast and lunch and everything else plus probably dinner. 4 breakfast meal choices with interchangeable components. Best and cheapest coffee around (1 £ americano ftw), plus a lot of character and haggis-laden menu items. Around the corner from the Royal Vet school on a street whose name I can't pronounce.

Mario's Bar- a bit of a trek (a 20 min bus ride away in Loanhead, which is famous for...well, this, and Ikea). Huge and delicious pizzas to share (takeaway only) plus the most deep fried varietals this side of the Atlantic from South Carolina (word on the street says ask for a deep fried mars bar).

Teviot (University of Edinburgh's Student Union Building) - beautiful, outside and in. Huge, with many nooks and crannies (and, I guess, 6 bars, though I only saw evidence of two). Get in before 6 if you're not a student, or if you're there after, make friends with one and enter as a guest. Cheap-ish beer, good food (hint: Large Library Bar nachos), and pool tables to boot. Enjoy the Library Bar for something more tonal, well-lit and calm; or the sports bar for a lively atmosphere - especially if the Scots are playing rugby.

Peckhams and Rye - 49 S Clerk St. Avoid the Royal Mile Whisky Shops and come here (not least because they also have a wide array of quality beers and wine, plus Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - not common around these parts). A great selection of whisky and passionate employees who make certain employees at certain whisky shops on the Royal Mile seem like reluctant amateurs.

Arthur's Seat - To get a view like this in most cities, you'd have to pay. Here in Edinburgh, though, they just charge you a bit of effort and some calories. Definitely worth the calf-tensing journey up.

Old Scottish Parliament - Behind the Kirk of St Giles stands a statue. Behind the statue, and beneath the last archway on the right, lies the place where the Scottish Parliament used to meet. Now (I think) it's but a law court - but it's preserved stained glass, an ornate ceiling, and the tradition of promenading (lawyers pacing up and down the rectangular room discussing cases so that bystanders can't hear). Worth it, not least of all because it's free, a few steps off the Royal Mile, and relatively unknown.