Arthur's Seat in pictures

I'm not one for climbing. Not for physical endurance or tests of strength, efforts towards becoming a healthy and finely exercised individual. It's just not my speed, my forté, my raison d'être, if you will. But when I was looking through travel information about Edinburgh, slash when I'd heard from friends about where to go when visiting the city, I realized I'd been neglecting such a huge part of it. And I'm glad I've finally been to Arthur's Seat.

On the way up, I took too many creeper photos of people sitting along the grass at the foot of the hills leading up to Arthur's Seat. No shame.

My friends and I saw two roads diverge in a wood. We took the one that was traveled because we're not adventurous.

If you look toward the left bottom of this photo, you will see a girl named Danielle who at this point on the journey was slightly lagging behind.

You will also see pretty views, the only reprieve to a long and tiring climb up.

And more pretty views, that you will only appreciate if you can catch your breath for a moment at landings as you ascend the jagged rock "stairs" to the top of Arthur's Seat.

But the breathers make everything more easy, and the challenge makes it worthwhile.

Because then you see this.

And you see people. Lots of people.

But also just this.

And on the way down, while it may be almost as treacherous as the climb up, things are looking "up". Punny.

These two roads did not diverge, and we still took the one more often traveled.

Nearing the bottom, things remain just as pretty. Oh, Edinburgh. No more words need be said.

As we walked down from Arthur's Seat, I started being my sarcastic self and telling my friends about how there were two kinds of people in this world. There are the people who watch television and the people who partake in physical fitness. They are two very distinct types of people. They do not overlap (okay, they do, but at this point I was feeling so physically strained and sedentary that I couldn't even imagine myself as a living breathing human being, just a couch potato).

I, understandably, identify with the television watchers. Since we were descending, we were passing hoards of people still making their way up to Arthur's Seat. These two boys passed and heard what I was saying, laughed and took pleasure in my ridiculous commentary. And in the same moment that I thought about how pleased I was to have amused someone I didn't even know, I also thought about the falsehoods in my own statement. Or at least my ability to disprove them in that moment.

Because today, I did ascend Arthur's Seat. And it was wonderful. And I could've watched footage of it on television somewhere, I'm sure. But I didn't. I was an active participant. Maybe those two worlds can come together once in a while.