We took a different airline to Scotland, British Midland, and I was pretty pleased because they were very efficient and they didn’t charge me for my extra baggage. I had turned my phone off as soon as I woke up that morning so that I wouldn’t forget to do so when I was on the plane… but we had extra time at the airport and for some reason I felt compelled to call Mom. Good thing I did because the first thing she said to me was that Courtney was at the hospital in labor. I WAS SO UPSET! I mean first of all, I had literally had my phone attached to my hip for the past week and a half and nothing had happened… the second I turn it off the baby’s on his way. And all of that goes without saying that I was extremely disappointed with myself for not being able to be there. When I got off the phone I was definitely emotional… ok, so maybe I cried… but I just kind of had to handle it, because there was nothing I could do but wait for new news. Pete certainly didn’t know what to do with me in that state, in fact he didn’t say anything one way or the other so that just upset me even more.
The flight was smooth and we got on the bus to go into the city centre. Sure enough, Colton Money-making Chamberlain had come during the flight. Ten fingers, ten toes, and the cutest little cry, from what I heard on the phone that is. So it’s a little delayed, but welcome to the world buddy… I can’t wait to meet you!
The woman at the airport who worked for the bus company said that if we took this certain bus we’d only be about a 5-7 minute walk away from the hostel. She forgot to mention that that 5-7 minute walk would be up a nearly VERTICAL HILL. What a twat. I had a 50-pound suitcase, a 10-pound backpack and another 10-pound laptop bag, while Pete had my other suitcase and his own… halfway through the climb I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. I just started laughing and all I could get out of my mouth was, “REALLY?” I was sweating. I might have confused the walk to the hostel with the half marathon I ran that day though… it’s all just running together right now.
Once we were finally at the hostel, we got put into the couple’s room- which I thought was hilarious. We had 2 Australians, 2 Spaniards and a couple of floaters for roommates. The facilities were nice and I felt pretty safe and sound. We set out for a walk and ended up covering a good portion of the city. We stopped by beautiful cemetery and took some neat photos… then just looked around a bit more before we headed back in the direction of the hostel. There as a small pub right by our place called Castle Arms where we ate dinner. IT WAS DELICIOUS. I started off with a big o’l fatty Magner’s, perfectly chilled, and ordered sausage and mash for dinner. The sausage was from a pretty famous butcher in Edinburgh, so they were perfectly seasoned, one with lemon pepper and then the other with rosemary and sage – all on top of a huge pile of mashed potatoes and a rich gravy.
Can you tell I like food? Looking back at this blog, my best descriptions are all about food. OH WELL. We had really tasty chocolate cake and then topped the evening off with some smooth Scotch- I love scotch, scotchety scotch scotch scotch. Slept like a baby the first night.
The next morning we woke up and went to breakfast then headed to the National Gallery – a museum with a decent collection that was free to get in to, so really it was a win/win situation. Afterwards, we headed to Edinburgh Castle where we stayed for about 2 hours.
It wasn’t as big as the Tower of London per say, but there was certainly a lot of history and ground to cover. We saw the oldest building in Edinburgh – St. Margaret’s Chapel – the Honors of Scotland (crown, scepter and sword) and the room where Queen Mary gave birth to the would-be King James. All in all, I liked it. We then set out to find Greyfriar’s Bobby and Kirkyard – a cathedral with a graveyard attached that is apparently famous for being featured in old Disney cartoons, and also for the dog (Bobby) that lingered by its owner’s graveside for more than 14 years. How… exciting?
We ate lunch/dinner, took another long walk around the city and then hung out in the hostel to rest up for the next leg of the trip.
Friday morning we bummed around town… went and saw a few sites like the Scottish Monument, and then did some minor souvenir shopping. We had to head back to the hostel early because we were getting picked up by my friend Neil’s parents. Although I don’t really know Neil that well, when he found out that I was going to be in Edinburgh, he immediately offered to put Pete and I up at his parents’ place in Penicuik – a city outside of Edinburgh. Of course, I took him up on it… I would have been daft not to! So Charlie picked us up around 1:30, and had quite the time putting allllllll our luggage in the boot of his little BMW. We drove around the city for a while and chit chatted, then he drove us out to Roslyn, to visit the Roslyn Chapel that has become ever so famous since the Da Vinci Code book and movie featured it. Pete and I went in and had a look around – it was a pretty old place but still had maintained a lot of the original stonework, carvings and the like. I guess back in the 1950’s, the owners were worried about the condition of the stone inside the church, so someone told them to put a limestone wash over the entire surface. Well, the plan backfired because in the late 1980s, they discovered that the wash had smothered the stone and hasn’t allowed it to properly breathe, or for the building to ventilate itself.
After 30 years of rain the stone had become saturated and the whole structure was in jeopardy of crumbling, so in the mid 1990s they put this huge scaffolding around the roof and building to allow the entire chapel to dry out. It kind of hinders the beauty of the architecture, but on the up side it allows visitors to go up to the roof level and walk around to see everything on the chapel and the surrounding countryside.
After the chapel, Charlie drove us to Penicuik where Neil’s mum Anna was waiting for us. The first thing she said when we walked through the door was “oh come in, come in, would you care for a wee cup of tea?”
Hahaha, I laughed so hard – not only because of how cute the question was, but how THICK her Scottish accent was. I had to ask her to repeat nearly everything for about 5 or 6 minutes, but then I caught on kind of quick. Pete went out in the garden with Charlie and I hung out with Anna for about an hour – we talked about all sorts of things and got on really well right from the start. I had 3 cups of tea and all sorts of sweet biscuits and treats. I told her about my strange love and obsession with grocery stores, and she offered to take me up to the Tesco in town and give me a personal aisle-by-aisle tour… which she did! So funny, but I loved every minute. What can I say, I’m not a hard girl to please!
Later the four of us went to dinner at this cozy little inn near the countryside outside of town. The food was delicious and the company was even better - we were all cracking jokes left and right and I had a wonderful time. Afterwards, we all hopped in the car for a wee ride up into the park… which was beautiful. I don’t know if it was a reservoir or just a park or a lake or what – but what a site.
The hills were a perfect golden green, and the sky was so blue that you could see a crystal clear reflection of the clouds on the glass lake. There were sheep baaaaahing on the hills and men fishing off the bank. The sun was just about to set, so it was really amazing.
When we got home, Charlie put on a sci-fi movie, which he and Pete got pretty into, while Anna and I drank a bunch of wine and just had girl talk, which seemed so much more fun than usual for some reason. We went to bed around midnight or so and the next morning when we woke up she had bacon rolls, tea and orange juice waiting for us. What a sweetie – I mean a real top bird. They drove us to the airport and we said our goodbyes; to be honest I was kind of sad. I mean we only spent an evening with them, but it might have legitimately been my favorite part of the hole trip. There were hugs all around and Pete and I hopped onto the plane to the Emerald Isle….
No comments:
Post a Comment