Scotland: On Edinburgh

Hey guys. I am officially back from the grand land of the United Kingdom. And by that I mean Great Britain. (For those unaware, the United Kingdom {or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as it's actually called} is the political entity and Great Britain is the island containing Wales, England, and Scotland.)
The next blog posts will be a mixture of my experiences over Spring Break and the regular novel-esque posts I usually have. I apologize if you're not all that interested.
Anyways, the first post I'd like to write is on the first place I went: Edinburgh (pronounced Edin-burro, with a soft "o" at the end). First, a little history. Edinburgh was the capital of Scotland, when it was independent. Scotland joined with England, surprisingly peacefully, in... 1717? Oh, 1707, Wikipedia tells me. Edinburgh is ridiculously old, with many of the original buildings still standing. Edinburgh has been called the "Athens of the North" because of it's amazing university, mainly its medical department. Many people came from all over Europe to attend the medical center as it was one of the few to allow the dissection of human bodies, which will be relevant later.
Edinburgh was amazingly beautiful. The edifices were magnificent. My favorite place was no doubt the Grass Market, called such because it was the place where grass-feeding animals were sold, bought, and traded throughout its history. However, it was also the sight of public executions, always a subject that has fascinated me. There is a large pedestal at one end of the market to mark the part where the executions took place. Just beside that is the Last Drop bar, a place where criminals were allowed to have their last drink. Ah, those Scots. Always the alcoholics.
The executed bodies were the ones that were used for dissection at the university. However, the school only got one body a year, which was problematic, obviously. This led to the all-too-common body snatching. Edinburgh has a stupefying history of body snatchers, the two most famous probably being the Williams Burke and Hare. However, these two were murderers, not body snatchers. They didn't dig up corpses to sell, they killed people who stayed in their inn. Common misconception.
All in all, I'd have to say that after my experiences in Edinburgh, I'd say that's where my loyalties lay. I am a bona fide Edinburgher.