I fell in love.
I fell in love with the air, earth, wind, rolling hills and sun of Edinburgh, Scotland. And I can't wait to tell you all about it.
I'm thinking the easiest way to bring you through my travels this past week is to go chronologically through each day and break it down almost like into chapters.
Capiche? C'est va? Oui?
Cool.
Let's jump right in, shall we?!
Getting to Edinburgh:
I like Subways.
I know, it's a weird thing to like. But I do. I really, really do.
You know why?
Because, you figure out how to ride one subway and you pretty much have them all figured out.
Subways and me? We speak the same language. Even in French.
...What?
Anyway. I took my train into Paris and arrived in Gare de Lyon at about 6:30 in the morning. I then had to get on the Metro and get off at the Porte Maillot stop and then walk a little ways until I reached the shuttle bus that would bring me to the Paris-Beauvais Airport, which is about an hours drive outside the city.
Being an innately punctual individual, and also having left myself a generous time cushion, I arrived at Beauvais a whopping three and a half hours before I needed to.
And let me tell you, if there's one place you don't want to be stuck for three and a half hours it's Beauvais airport.
This place needs a serious facelift. Hell, I've been in bus terminals nicer than this place.
But at long last my flight was called and I finally was able to go through security. Not without a sufficient pat down by security of course though.
I don't know if I have an asterisk beside my name or what, but I swear, 9 times out of 10 I'll always get pulled aside to receive a personal pat-down by grumpy, overweight female security guard who's face is usually set in a permanent frown.
Some girls just have all the luck, I know.
I don't know what it is. Do I have a chip in my arm like Jason Bourne that causes the metal detector to go off every time? I just don't know...
Mom? Are you not telling me something here? I need answers.
Anywho, I finally boarded the plane and within moments I was asleep. Waking up at 4:00am will do that to a person.
And literally within the blink of an eye I was being shaken awake by the flight attendant to inform me that we were landing and I needed to shut off my iPod and wipe the drool off my face.
Just kidding on that last part.
But I'm sure she was thinking it...
I was so excited. I couldn't believe that in just moments I was about to be on Scottish soil. The same soil my ancestors waved goodbye to as the ventured towards the New World, many, many moons ago.
And what was even better was that there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining brilliantly on that February afternoon, which was very atypical of Scotland that time of year. I couldn't believe my luck. I couldn't wait to start exploring.
Settling in to my accommodations:
There are many things I love about Edinburgh, but one of them is how easy it is to navigate through the city.
I hate to toot my own horn here, but I actually do have a pretty good natural sense of direction (not as good as my friend Alana's, but still pretty darn good!) but even for those individuals who don't have the best internal compass it would still be easy for them to navigate through Edinburgh.
It was the strangest thing, I seriously felt that the minute I got out of the airport I felt like I was home, and I knew where I should be going. I had to catch this one bus at the airport that would bring me to the city center, and it was a breeze to buy tickets and just hop on.
AND THESE PEOPLE SPOKE ENGLISH.
Never, ever, has hearing English ever sounded so sweet to my ears.
So I hopped on the bus and settled in my seat for a 30 minute drive into the city's center.
It felt like I was in New Hampshire again, and it was such a lovely feeling. I saw rolling green pastures, quaint country homes and cows.
COWS! Oh, how I've missed seeing cows. You all know by now how much I love these gentle creatures.
But eventually, as we neared the city's center (on the left-hand side of the road, mind you) the pastures started to fade into cobblestone and the people started to outnumber the cows.
Wait a second, when did I enter such a metropolitan area? This was so cool! One second I was in the country side and the next second it looked like I was on Newbury St. in Boston.
Finally the bus driver called my stop at Waverley Circle and I grabbed my bag and hopped off.
"Thank you sir! Have a good one!"
"Cheers!"
Cheers! Oh, this is just too much. I was already smitten.
I got off the bus and my breath was instantly taken away by the sheer sights around me. To my left, this steep hill filled with buildings leading up to the Edinburgh Castle, and to my right this lovely city across the bridge.
After taking a couple moments to let it soak in that I was really here -- really in Edinburgh -- I grabbed my itinerary out of my bag and thumbed to the page that had the directions on how to get to my hostel from the train station.
True to Edinburgh fashion, it was an absolute cinch to get there.
Here are some pictures I snapped on the way to my hostel:
It's when I turned the corner on to this street, Victoria St., that I literally was stopped in my tracks at it's sheer beauty.
I couldn't believe the way the sun was hitting the buildings and the streets, freshly wet with rain -- it was incredible! This picture honestly doesn't even give it justice.
And what was great was that my hostel was just at the foot of the hill.
The hostel I stayed in was actually really nice, and super safe. The interior was super youthful and all the walls were painted very bright and warm colours, a-hem, excuse me, colors, which made it super inviting.
I stayed with three other girls in my room. All three in their early twenties. Two friends from Dublin on vacation in Edinburgh for the week, and the other girl a solo traveler from Canada.
I honestly didn't spend much time at all in my room, as I wanted to be in Edinburgh as much as possible. So as the sun was setting that day as I was settling in to my hostel, I washed my face, brushed my teeth, locked up my valuables and headed out to explore Edinburgh at this lovely time of day before I went to get a bite to eat.
Exploring and Eating
Two of my favorite things.
Like I said, Edinburgh is really easy to navigate around. Especially because it's super hilly, and oh yeah, there's a giant castle in the center. So with the castle at it's center, it makes it really easy to orient yourself and know where you are in relations to the castle.
So that first night I set out to make a loop around the outskirts of the castle.
I honestly started to tear up at times as I was walking. This place is so gosh-darn beautiful. And the time of day made it even more spectacular.
I was sincerely wishing my friend Jess was with me (for many reasons) but especially at this time because she loves the time of day when the sun is setting and dusk is approaching, and I just knew she would be as smitten as me with this city.
Here are some shots I snapped during my walk around the castle!
It's at this time where I stumbled across the restaurant I had researched to eat my first night in Edinburgh.
Perfect. I took that as a sign it was meant to be.
The first thing I ordered?
A glass of Scotch of course!
And a lovely 10 year old single malt Highland Glenmorangie Scotch Whisky did the trick.
This is by far my favorite type of Scotch. These thoughts were later solidified at the Scotch tasting I did the next day, and Highland Scotch continued to be my favorite out of all the regions.
I was the only one at this restaurant this night. (I guess Monday nights aren't a big night to go out in in Edinburgh) So I started shootin' the shit with the waitress and when she asked what I wanted to order, I noticed that there was an option for a surprise meal made by the chef.
I can't resist a good surprise. And the waitress said the chef was phenomenal, and promised me authentic, yummy Scottish fare.
I'm an easy sell when it comes to food, and I was starving, so I couldn't say no. Plus I can't resist a surprise!
Well, I'll tell you, this chef really delivered and then some.
Here's what I had that evening:
(Above) Haggis (traditional Scottish fare: Sheep's organs mixed with onion, suet, spices, stock and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately 3 hours) bon bons, encrusted in barely served over mashed potatoes with a Scotch whisky jus. I'm an adventurous eater, so eating sheep offals didn't deter me. And BOY, where these Haggis Bon Bons yummy!
For my main course, the chef surprised me with two filets of caught-that-day sea bass -- seared to perfection with some sort of mushroom cream sauce over it, over a bed of roasted kale. Um, I'm not sure who told the chef some of my favorite foods, but I'm really glad they did. Sea bass and Kale?! Fahgetaboutit.
I then treated myself to a lovely Cappuccino. It had been a looooong day, and I needed a pick-me-up if I wanted to be attentive for my next activity I had in store. (Jeeze, do I take myself out on a good date or what?)
Plans gone awry
My night had been executed so perfectly and I was right on schedule with my itinerary.
The only snafu I encountered was that my scheduled Cadies and Witchery Tour was all of a sudden cancelled!
I was a little disappointed to say the least. I turned the corner to where the location was, and was met not by a tour guide, but by a sign on the door saying TOUR CANCELLED FOR THIS EVENING DUE TO LACK OF PARTICIPATION.
Bollux.
Come to find out it might of been a good thing that that had happened. I asked the people working at the front desk of my hostel the next day about the tour and they agreed that it might have been actually a good thing it was cancelled, especially since I was traveling alone, because they themselves had been on the tour once and had actually been thoroughly spooked by the end of it.
I don't do spooked.
I'm like a horse that way. You don't wanna spook me. I get irrational.
So this cancellation was probably a good thing.
I also got a chance to explore more of the city at night. Another thing I love about Edinburgh is that I was walking alone at night and never did I ONCE feel unsafe. The part of the city where I was exploring was so incredibly well lit that it felt like I was walking through one giant college campus. It was so stunning.
This was also great because it also served as another little reconnaissance mission for the next days' activities, and I was able to better orient myself on where to go the following day so I wouldn't waste any time.
EFFICIENCY, FOLKS, IT'S ALL ABOUT EFFICIENCY.
So after about another hour and a half of walking, I finally made my way back to my hostel, and even with a cappuccino still fresh in my system, I fell dead asleep the minute my head hit my pillow after a long day of traveling.
I must have fallen asleep with a smile on my face, because that next morning it was still there when I woke up to greet the Edinburgh sunshine that was once again peeking through my window.
No comments:
Post a Comment