Location from Work in Progress by Kat Mackenzie
The tour's starting point and final destination — a city of rain-slicked cobblestones and literary ghosts where Alice's journey begins and ends differently than she planned.
Edinburgh smells like rain on old stone and fresh coffee from basement cafes. The city moves at two speeds — tourists photographing the Royal Mile and locals cutting through closes with the efficiency of people who've memorized the shortcuts. In summer there's light until nearly midnight; the rest of the year, the city wraps itself in atmospheric darkness that makes every pub window glow like an invitation. For Alice, Edinburgh is the bookend — the place where she steps off a plane feeling broken and the place where, three weeks later, she makes the decision that changes everything. The city's literary history is in its bones: Burns, Scott, Stevenson, Rowling, Rankin. It's where the tour starts and where the real story begins.
Grey stone buildings climbing steep hills, castle looming on volcanic rock overhead, medieval closes dropping away into shadow. Spires and chimney pots against a sky that can't decide between dramatic and just wet. The kind of city that looks like it was designed to be read about.
Also known as: Edinburgh, Auld Reekie