Edinburgh in November

Some 200 of these 'wynds' or 'closes' ran off the spine of the Royal Mile ridge during medieval times. The walls got to about 10 or 12 stories high, and the walls were close enough to touch. The streets hardly saw the sun. All the way down, people lived in semi-darkness, in air thick with smoke, from desperately trying to warm the very crowded rooms and cellars in which they lived. They poured all manner of wastes including their toilets and dead bodies onto the streets, which were eventually washed down into the lake below (which is where the term 'raining cats and dogs' originated). The resulting predictable infectious illness killed about 75% of them before their first birthday.

After walking all over (and beneath) the old city, my colleagues and I were terrifyingly thin.

So we restocked with veg*n haggis! I could eat that stuff forever... Sadly, all too soon it was time to leave, but I'm sure my stomach will lead me back there, someday.