OMG its a Snow Day - Part 2: Snowpocalypse 2018

Exactly a year ago today this little walk around I am posting now happened. It's quite the contrast from today which is so warm it feels like spring. Its been the hottest February/March on record. Its quite sad really as I was hoping for more days like this one. So on with the story:

A few days ago you may remember I posted about the big snowstorm in the UK (Scotland specifically). I also mentioned that I got a second snow day as my employers decided it was still unsafe to travel.

So naturally I went out again to get a few more shots.. this time I went to one of my usual haunts in the city centre.. Greyfriars Cemetery (seewhatididthere?). What do i do in cemeteries? Well one of my jobs is ghost tours, which is popular here as Edinburgh is super haunted.

I also came here because .. well graveyards are pretty in the snow and this one is super awesome, old and filled with more history than you can shake a fist at.. One day I will do a series on it and its history.. because there are just. so. many. stories. to tell!

Suffice it to say, this place inspired harry potter (many names from the books can be found here) as well as charles dickens' Scrooge. There's an active poltergeist is residence, a well known people buried in the ground such as Adam Smith who wrote the wealth of nations (the foundation of modern economics and free trade economics) and James Hutton the father of Geology. Well enough of that, we'll save it for another day.. lets go frolic in the snow!

The one thing about these ~500 year old cemeteries is that it does look straight out of a fantasy story or something.. and the snow just enhances that so much. Snow is like god's frosting (if you believe in that sort of thing). It makes everything wonderful and delicious.

My favourite lamppost. I know.. so sad .. but I love the design.. it reminds me of old timey britain and Mary Poppins and stuff. They're beautiful at night too when lit up .. and I have photographed it many times but have never gotten a shot of it that I liked or did it justice.. I mean how hard can it be?!?! very .. as it turns out :/

Ok there is so much going on in this picture you wouldn't believe.. the building all the way at the back behind the gate, I have posted about before .. its george heriot's school, is pretty much a castle and inspiration for hogwarts and an expensive private school. The wall with the archway .. that's the flodden wall (see the sign?). It is the ancient city defence wall built to keep the English out. Fun story, the scots heard the english were coming to invade so they though 'ok we have time to prepare' so they started building the wall... the english came.. they invaded.. they conquered.. then 50 years later the wall was completed! oops. Not to mention school children regularly (including myself) climb over it .. MOCKING the city's ancient defenses.

Greyfriar's kirk.. (kirk is scots for church). It used to be a friary before it became a church and the monks wore grey tunics .. hence the name.. now its a church.

This. This is the covenanters prison .. one day I'll tell you all about it .. worlds first concentration camp which housed the convenanters, people who rebelled against the king after signing the national covenant which basically said 'FU we'll worship god the way we always have and not in your poxy 'church of england'. There's also a poltergeist living in there wooOOOOooooOOOOoooo!

Pretty right? Right now I am not even noticing how wet and cold me feet are!

Thats the school again in the background and the big structure directly in front is the tomb of noted Architect William Adam who, in his younger days went to Italy (this was in the 16 - 1700s) to study their architecture and brought the style back to Scotland.

And here is a little hut that I am pretty sure used to belong to the keeper in the olden days .. but now its our office for the ghost tours. its quaint but has no heating and since about 6 months ago no working toilet. yay. Its ok .. there's a pub next door and I tend to hang out there instead .. its warm.. they have booze .. and a working toilet .. the three key things you need to survive a harsh winter! ;)

OK enough screwing around in the cemetery, its time to explore other places.. after I left I wandered out to a nearby park called 'the meadows' and who should I run into by pure chance? My best friend, my brother from another mother! How cool! i hadn't seen him in months! This was an unacceptable state of affairs, so he kindly indulged me as I took a few more photos before going to a pub for lunch. Turns out he just discovered that this one place nearby makes amazing burgers. Its called 'The Devil's Advocate' and the burgers they make were indeed amazing.

So I took a snap in the park.. I wanted to get a slightly more atmospheric shot of just the trees and the snow .. it would have been super cool and moody but turns out kids like to play in the snow (who knew?!).

Ah .. good old mcewan hall.. This is the building I graduated from university in. It's been used in movies, tv shows, I had breakdancing class in there once, as well as a final exam..

..and I watched my college girlfriend graduate in there a year after me (which was also the year JK Rowling received an honorary degree - so everyone was a little star struck).

Anyway, by this point my feet were soaked, and I had a real hunger for a burger and a beer. So off we went.. and just as we get to the pub I see this light which I posted previously so you should recognised it my dear loyal followers ;) (hi mom!).

Obviously I stopped to take a picture.. its so cool.. it looks like the ice queen sneezed on it or something.

So snow day 2: snowpocalypse was a little less dramatic than the name suggested but it was wonder, the city is beautiful and what better way to end the day than with a refreshing pint of IPA [its a type of beer] and a medium rare burger .. YUM.

All pictures shot with Canon 5D MKii and a Zeiss 50mm 1.4 lens

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