Edinburgh the photo chronicles

I wanted to share all of my holidays photos with a description like a half assed blog post of some description. Anyway above is one of the few photos we have left of Edinburgh zoo, my photographer, travelling companion otherwise known as my boyfriend was using his Iphone for all of the photos and is a little bit of a perfectionist so although he must have taken over 20 photos in the zoo, only three of them made the cut. Sorry you don't get to see the monkeys or the meercats because they were adorable.

Ah yes how exciting, these two are of me awkwardly posing in the zoo, I guess I need to work on my natural smile.

Below are some pictures from the National Gallery on Princes st. I went in somewhat reluctantly trying to balance my boyfriends desire to look at old paintings and my own desire to not. Anyway we only got a handful pictures, see below. Trust me it looks a lot nicer from the outside unless old depressing art is your thing. Keep your eye out for more shots of me posing awkwardly. Its like a really easy version of wheres wally

Now one of my favourite touristy outings. On the Friday morning we went to Camera Obscura and the world of illusions. It was well worth the money and great fun to boot.

This was on the way in. You look into the mirrored wall and see hundreds of reflections of yourself back very cool.

I don't know what these are called but I got great entertainment from it, the lightening stuff inside reacts to your touch.

I was going for scary here because the big magic ball made me feel a bit like a witch but I don't think I nailed it. I look too innocent.

Ah yes this was cool. You pressed button and it made the pulleys move so the dog played the piano and the cats sang an opera in mews.

And here I am laughing along to the cats singing.

Shadow photography, You make a shape on the green screen and the camera flashes capturing your outline.

The different lights in the ceiling make different colours out of the shadows of the foam shapes, simple but oh so pretty

Just an everyday holiday photo of me posing beside a robot with giant plastic fruit.

Some more of me with the shadows

Yep I'm still going

pinhole camera. You have to stand by this plastic dude hanging from the ceiling and the other person looks through the pinhole and its all upside down. I was a bit nervous because I thought it would move and grab me when I stood in front of it. I let Stephen be guinea pig first because I'm sound like that.

A really cool photo comprised of several of an aerial view of Edinburgh over 100 years ago.

A holographic picture that can only be viewed from a certain angle

This was kind of disorientating. You have to walk through a tunnel across a static bridge but the tunnel itself is moving fast so it feels like the bridge is wobbling all over the place even though it isn't. I was quite dizzy after

Holographic boy george

Pretty cool optical illusion. The floor is angled making you appear bigger or smaller depending on where in the room you stand. Stephen is not really tiny enough to fit in my pocket, I swear.

Me against a backdrop of fibre optic lights that were changing colour. Very soothing. I want some

I think this moved and was cool to look at but I can't quite remember. Isn't it pretty all the same

I am not actually headless. Sorry to spoil the illusion but I climbed in under the table which was mirrored and put my head through the hole. Doesn't it look cool?

Some sort of swirly pattern, who knows why Stephen takes these photos.

Me admiring the view of the city from the roof of camera obscura. Very cool view

Cool mirrored ball that makes it look like your hand is coming out to meet you.

me and the robot again.

This one had a handle you pull and it made the different parts spin round making cool patterns.

I think if you enlarge this you'll see tiny versions of myself and Stephen in the ball.

Another optical illusion picture

The giant magnifying glass makes my head look scary or I might have been trying to look extra scary here

This one doesn't look much better.
Below are some photos of our very brief trip to the Royal Botanical gardens.
It took us a long time to get there, we had an argument about where to get the bus a long the way, the gardens weren't that impressive and the advertised tea room did not exist. They did have three cafes but somehow twinings tea was not what I had in mind when I was lured there.On the plus side Stephen got lots of cool photos in the photo gallery in the main building. Plus some of me doing what I do best, awkwardly posing in front of a landmark of some description

Then that evening we had drinks with the girls and all I have to show for it is a few blurry photos

From left - Stephen, Ryan (his new best friend or Lisa's boyfriend as he's better known) and me

Same only blurrier

Myself and Lisa

an incredibly blurry selfie, considering how many of these we took in college I thought we'd be better at it. From left me, annie, Lisa

Me and Lisa again.

Stephen loves to Photograph scenery, sometimes with me in it, sometimes not so here are some his best Edinburgh shots.

A photo gallery beside the National Gallery. We went back for a better look the next day but it was gone.

I don't know what this place is called, it's across from the museum on the mound. Awesome building if you can ignore the giant fosters posters

fancy statue on the Royal Mile

A fountain in Princes street Gardens

The famous Grey friars bobby. According to my friend Lisa he sat on his masters grave for a few days. Em I think it was longer than that

Festival headquarters on the Royal mile. The hub is right beside it. That's where I had a delicious baked potato with cheese nom.

Another churchy building on the royal mile. Can't say I took note of the names of these places

Apparently on the Royal mile playing a fiddle isn't enough to get you noticed in the crowd which is why you'll find guys like this doing it on a tight rope. Way to find your niche.

A statue on Princes st, looking a bit similar to many other statues we saw.

A view of the castle from Grassmarket, where we were staying. one of the best views in the city

Below is another church on The Royal Mile. Lots of cool gothic architecture to be seen.

A view of the castle from Princes st

Me outside the Elephant house cafe where Jk Rowling wrote Harry Potter, not that they are capitalizing on it or anything

in Stills gallery. Took us ages to find and the entire exhibit was these mirrored ladders. I'm not sure how this is art

Different posters in Stills Gallery

Last but not least are the many photos from the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Prepare for lots of photos of musuemy things plus me being silly. I'm going to be honest and say I don't know what most of the things Stephen took photos of are. So I wont embarrass myself for the most point but feel free to ooh and ah and think me cultured all the same.

Okay so this one was a whale jaw. I don't think it's extinct either the type of whale it came from. Scary stuff

Yup, a giant deer. fortunately these aren't around anymore

Me posing uncomfortably beside a phone box. must work on appearing natural

Ah yes, I was getting bored in the museum until I discovered the interactive stuff. This is the third costume I tried on. I enjoyed this part and I think I look best as a viking