Amazing facts about Edinburgh


Did you know Edinburgh is a city full of secrets, anecdotes and curious aspects? This is the page where you can find all this interesting information that normally does not appear in travel guides. 
Enjoy it! 
¿Sabías que Edimburgo es una ciudad llena de secretos, anécdotas y curiosidades? Esta es la página donde puedes encontrar toda esta interesante información que normalmente no aparece en las guías de viajes. 
¡Disfrútala!  
Bobby´s collar is kept in the Museum of Edinburgh, located in the Royal Mile. You can also see the bowl where the famous dog used to eat. Greyfriars´ neighbours took care of Bobby while he was watching over his owner´s grave.
El collar de Bobby se guarda en el Museo de Edimburgo, situado en la Milla Real. También se puede ver el bowl donde el famoso perro solía comer. Los vecinos de Greyfriars cuidaron a Bobby mientras éste velaba en la tumba de su dueño.


New Year´s celebration is known as Hogmanay, an expression derived from Gaelic which roughly means "new morning". Hogmanay brings more than 80.000 visitors every year to the city.

La celebración del Año Nuevo es conocida como Hogmanay, una expression derivada del gaélico que significa "nueva mañana". El Hogmanay trae a la ciudad cada año a más de 80.000 visitantes.  


Dolly, the first cloned mammal in history, was born in the outskirts of Edinburgh and nowadays the sheep is exhibited in the National Museum of Scotland. 
Dolly, el primer mamífero clonado, nació en las afueras de Edimburgo y hoy en día la oveja se exhibe en el Museo Nacional de Escocia.

The Christmas tree on the Mound used to be a present by the people of Hordaland, a city in Norway. 

El árbol de Navidad de The Mound solía ser un regalo de los habitantes de la ciudad de Hordaland, en Noruega. 


In 2009 Robert Burns was voted as The Greatest Scot and all Scotland remembers him on 25 January.

En 2009 Roberts Burns fue votado como el escocés más importante de todos los tiempos y toda Escocia le recuerda cada 25 de Enero.  




During Burn´s Night is a tradition to read his poems and eat the national Scottish dish: Haggis served with neeps and tatties.
Durante la Noche de Burns es tradición leer sus poemas y comer el plato nacional escocés: Haggis con puré de nabos y patata. 



 


 The Scott Monument is 61.11m high and there are 287 steps to the top. It is one of the highest monuments erected to a writer (Sir Walter Scott)
El Scott Monument mide 61.11 metros de alto y hay un total de 287 escalones hata la cima. Es uno de los monumentos más altos eregidos a un escritor (Sir Walter Scott)




A former prison stood on the Heart of Midlothian. Spitting on this mosaic when you walk through the Royal Mile is a tradition. One of the legends says that doing that, you will return one day to Edinburgh.
 Una antigua prisión se alzaba en el mismo lugar que hoy ocupa el corazón de Midlothian. Escupir en este mosaico cuando paseas por la Royal Mile es una tradición. Una de las leyendas dice que todo aquel que lo hace, volverá algún día a Edimburgo. 




The Elephant House is considered the birthplace of Harry Potter´s novels. Her author, J.K Rowling used to write in this coffee shop while she didn´t have a job.
The Elephant House es considerado el lugar de nacimiento de las novelas de Harry Potter. Su autora, J.K. Rowling solía escribir en esta cafetería mientras no tenía trabajo.


In January 2007, J.K Rowling left a note in a room at the Balmoral Hotel to announce that she had finished the last Harry Potter´s book there. Now is one of the richest persons in the world.
 En enero de 2007, J.K Rowling dejó una nota en una habitación del hotel Balmoral para anunciar que había terminado el último libro de Harry Potter allí. Ahora es una de las personas más ricas del mundo.



Waverley Station and its Bridge are the only examples in the world named after a novel by a writer (Walter Scott)
La Estación y el Puente de Waverly son los únicos ejemplos del mundo que fueron nombrados después de la novela de un escritor (Walter Scott)

The Mound was formed 200 years ago from all the earth excavated as the New Town was being built.
The Mound se formó hace 200 años a partir de toda la tierra excavada para construir la parte nueva de la ciudad.



"The One o’clock Gun" is fired  from the castle since 1861, as a tradition from the days when it was a time signal for ships in the Firth of Forth and the port of Leith 
"El cañón de la 1" en punto es disparado desde el castillo desde 1861, una tradición que se remonta a los días en que se utilizaba de señal para los barcos en el fiordo de Forth y en el puerto de Leith. 


The Gun is timed to coincide perfectly with the Time-Ball, a large white ball which is raised above the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill, and drops at exactly 1.00pm. 
El disparo coincide con la bola del tiempo, la cual está colocada encima del Nelson Monument, una torre que se alza en Calton Hill. Dicha bola baja exactamente a la 1.00pm. 

The National Monument commemorates the Scottish soldiers who died during the Napoleonic wars. Its design is based on the Parthenon in Athens but, in 1829 the funds to build it ran out and never was completed. 
El Monumento Nacional recuerda a los soldados escoceses que murieron en las guerras napoleónicas. Su diseño está basado en el Partenón de Atenas pero, en 1829 se acabaron los fondos para su construcción y nunca fue completado.


The Lion of Scotland, by Ronald Rae, was moved from Holyrood  Park to St Andrew Square in 2010. The granite carving weights 20 tones.  

El León de Escocia, de Ronald Rae, fue trasladado de Holyrrod Park hasta la plaza de St Andrew en 2010. La escultura de granito pesa 20 toneladas. 

The giraffes located at the door of the Omni Centre are affectionately known as Martha and Gilbert. The piece is called “Dreaming Spires” by the sculptor Helen Denerley. 

A las girafas localizadas en la puerta del Omni Centre se las conoce de manera afectiva como Martha y Gilbert. En realidad, la obra se llama "agujas de ensueño" de la escultora Helen Denerley.



The Edinburgh Festival Fringe dates back to 1947, when eight theatre groups turned up uninvited to perform at the International Festival. In 1959 the Festival Fringe Society was created in response to the success of this growing trend. Today, this is the largest arts festival in the World. 
El Fringe Festival data de 1947, cuando ocho compañías de teatro actuaron sin estar invitadas en el Festival Internacional. En 1959, la sociedad del Fringe fue creada en respuesta al gran éxito que tuvo esta iniciativa. Hoy en día, el Fringe es el festival de artes más grande del mundo.  
The word "Tattoo" is derived from "tap toe", the Dutch for "Last orders". The Military Tattoo is performed every weekday evening and on Saturdays throughout August and has never been cancelled since began in 1950. 
La palabra "Tattoo" deriva del holandés "tap toe" que significa "últimas órdenes". El Military Tattoo se celebra cada tarde entre semana y los sábados durante el mes de Agosto y nunca ha sido cancelado desde sus comienzos en 1950.  

The North Bridge was built in the late 1700s to improve Access from the Old Town to Leith. The first version was short lived when a side wall collapsed, killing five people.  After, the bridge was taken down and rebuilt again as we see it nowadays. It has always had a reputation for being very windy. 
El puente de North bridge fue construido a finales del siglo XVIII para mejorar el acceso del casco antiguo a Leith. La primera versión duró poco ya que una de las paredes laterales se derrumbó, matando a cinco personas. Más tarde, el puente se tiró y volvió a construirse tal y como lo vemos en la actualidad. Siempre ha sido conocido por el viento que hace. 
 
It seems that, after 121 years of work, painting of the Forth Bridge is finally at an end. Since its completion in 1890 is being painted, that is why it has become a byword to describe a never-ending task.
Parece que, después de 121 años de trabajo, se va a acabar de pintar el puente de Forth Bridge. Desde que se terminara de construir en 1890 está siendo pintado, por este motivo ha sido sinónimo para describir algo que nunca se termina. 


The Watchtower next to St. Cuthbert Parish Church, was built in 1827 to keep guard over the graveyard to prevent bodysnatchers, who used to stole corpses to sell them to the College of Medicine. 


La torre de vigilancia próxima a la iglesia de St. Cuthbert, fue construida en 1827 para hacer guardia en el cementario y prevenir la actuación de los ladrones de cuerpos, quienes robaban cadáveres para luego venderlos a la Facultad de Medicina. 


The underground city keeps many legends and ghosts stories such as Annie´s, the little girls who cries in Mary King´s Close or the misogynist poltergeist that lives in the vaults beneath Southbridge.   
  
La ciudad subterránea guarda muchas leyendas e historias de fantasmas como la de Annie, una niña pequeña que llora en el Mary King´s Close o el poltergeist misógino que vive en las criptas situadas debajo de Southbridge. 


In 1899 a tram depot was opened in Tolcross. Edinburgh became the city with the largest cable tramway system in Britain. The name of Tollcross refers to the toll that travellers had to pay to enter this city at this point. 

En 1899 se abrió en Tolcross un depósito de tranvias. Edimburgo se convirtió en la ciudad con el sistema de cableado más largo de Gran Bretaña. El nombre de Tollcross viene del peaje que las personas tenían que pagar en este punto para entrar a la ciudad.  


The Tollcross clock is a symbol of this area of the city. It was installed in 1910 and is identical to the clock tower in Morningside. 

El reloj de Tollcross es todo un símbolo de este área de la ciudad. Fue instalado en 1910 y es idéntico al reloj de Morningside. 




The Queen Mary´s Bath House once was attached to a boundary wall enclosing the King´s Privy Garden. Although this little buidling is known under this name, it is unlikely that the Queen ever bathed there. It was probably a pavilion for private dining.

La casa de baño de la Reina Mary estuvo unida en el pasado a un muro que limitaba el Jardín del Rey. Aunque este pequeño edificio es conocido bajo ese nombre, es poco problable que la Reina se bañara allí. Es posible que fuera utilizado para cenas privadas. 

During Queen Mary´s reign, The Palace of Holyroodhouse was the scene of some of the most dramatic and tragic events, ending with the murder of her secretary David Rizzio in 1566.

Durante su reinado, el Palacio de Holyroodhouse fue el escenario de algunos de los más dramáticos y trágicos eventos, como el asesinato del secretario de la reina, David Rizzio en 1566. 


Four tonnes of explosives and over 100,000 fireworks are used in the Fireworks Concert that close the Edinburgh International Festival every year. These fireworks are choreagraphed with live music by the Scottish Chamber Orquestra and the concert lasts nearly an hour. 

Cuatro toneladas y unos 100.000 fuegos artificiales son usados durante en concierto que clausura el Festival Internacional de Edimburgo cada año. Los fuegos están coreografiados con la música en directo de la Orquesta Nacional de Escocia y el espectáculo dura casi una hora.

 The waterfall consists of 70 firing units laid out for 36 metres across the Castle. The display descends 40 metres down the Castle Rock.

La cascasda de fuego consiste en 70 vengalas colocadas a lo largo de 36 metros en el Castillo. El fuego

Dreaming in the dream to see a dream

Dreaming is one of the most mysterious and interesting experiences in our lives.

During the Roman Era some dreams were even submitted to the Roman Senate for analysis and dream interpretation. They were thought to be messages from the gods. Dream interpreters even accompanied military leaders into battles and campaigns!

In addition to this, it is also known that many artists have received their creative ideas from their dreams.

But what do we actually know about dreams?

Here are 15 interesting facts about dreams – enjoy and what’s most important, don’t forget to share your dream stories in the comment section!


We Forget 90% of our Dreams

Within 5 minutes of waking half of our dream is forgotten. Within 10, 90% is gone.


Blind People also Dream

People who became blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion.


Everybody Dreams

Every human being dreams (except in cases of extreme psychological disorder). If you think you are not dreaming – you just forget your dreams.


In Our Dreams We Only See Faces That We already Know

Our mind is not inventing faces – in our dreams we see real faces of real people that we have seen during our life but may not know or remember. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces throughout our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.


Not Everybody Dreams in Color

A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. Studies from 1915 through to the 1950s maintained that the majority of dreams were in black and white, but these results began to change in the 1960s. Today only 4.4% of the dreams of under-25 year-olds are in black and white. Recent research has suggested that those changing results may be linked to the switch from black-and-white film and TV to color media.


Dreams are Symbolic

If you dream about some particular subject it is not often that the dream is about that. Dreams speak in a deeply symbolic language. Whatever symbol your dream picks on it is most unlikely to be a symbol for itself.


Emotions in Dreams

The most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety. Negative emotions are more common than positive ones.


You can have four to seven dreams in one night.

On average you can dream anywhere from one or two hours every night.


Animals Dream Too

Studies have been done on many different animals, and they all show the same brain waves during dreaming sleep as humans. Watch a dog sleeping sometime. The paws move like they are running and they make yipping sounds as if they are chasing something in a dream.


Body Paralysis

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a normal stage of sleep characterized by rapid movements of the eyes. REM sleep in adult humans typically occupies 20-25% of total sleep, about 90-120 minutes of a night’s sleep.

During REM sleep the body is paralyzed by a mechanism in the brain in order to prevent the movements which occur in the dream from causing the physical body to move. However, it is possible for this mechanism to be triggered before, during, or after normal sleep while the brain awakens.


Dream interprets external stimuli

Our mind interprets the external stimuli that our senses are bombarded with when we are asleep and make them a part of our dreams. This means that sometimes in our dreams we hear a sound from reality and incorporate it in a way. For example you may be dreaming that you are in a concert while your brother is playing a guitar during your sleep.


Men and Women Dream Differently

Men tend to dream more about other men. Around 70% of the characters in a man’s dream are other men. On the other hand, a woman’s dream contains almost an equal number of men and women. Aside from that, men generally have more aggressive emotions in their dreams than the female lot.


Precognitive Dreams

Precognition, also called future sight, refers to perception that involves the acquisition of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information. Results of several surveys across large population sets indicate that between 18% and 38% of people have experienced at least one precognitive dream and 70% have experienced déjà  vu. The percentage of persons that believe precognitive dreaming is possible is even higher – ranging from 63% to 98%.


If we are snoring, then we cannot be dreaming

This fact is repeated all over the Internet, but I’m a bit suspicious whether it’s really true as I haven’t found any scientific evidence to support it.


We can experience an orgasm in our dream

You can not only have s e x as pleasurable as in your real life while dreaming, but also experience an  o r g a s m  as strong as a real one without any wet results. The sensations felt while lucid dreaming (touch, pleasure and etc..) can be as pleasurable and strong (or I believe even stronger) as the sensations experienced in the real world.



Optical illusions with pencil drawings

Here is some of my favourite optical illusion drawings with pencils.












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