I made my way down to Edinburgh for the first 3 days this week. Edinburgh is Scotland's lovely capital & was at the top of my list of places to visit. After leaving early in the morning Monday and arriving around 9am, it quickly became apparent that I would be hurting by the end of the day. Check in time wasn’t until 3pm at the hotel (which was actually a college dorm they rent out during the summer), & I was carrying a backpack I estimate to be 30lbs full of clothes, toiletries, and my work equipment. On top of this I made the decision to not use the buss, making my first day of travels 16 miles total.
You’re probably wondering, “where did you go that took 16 miles of walking?”. The answer is essentially all over. I started by using my extremely technical strategy of seeing a cool building in the distance and walking to it. This led me to a church that I don’t remember the name of and can’t find on google maps. I then made my way to Meh because I thought it was a funny cafe name & the late art was definitely not meh. I then made my way to Dean Village that was quite a pretty view but full of tourists. At this point I thought I should actually figure out where I was going to go & decided on the botanical gardens. They were quite pretty but I think the part I enjoyed most was the lack of people. Here I asked a worker where I should stop for lunch and learned that a lot of places are closed on monday & that the worker used to live in Denver, which I find quite cool.
After finally finding a place for lunch, I made my way to Princes st. While walking I was stopped by a man with a question, “Do you like cheese?”. Being a big cheese fan this piqued my interests, so I answered with a “Yes”. This led to a conversation about choosing between not eating cheese or having to eat a block a day along with clarifying block size and type. I would choose to eat a block of white cheddar every day and he chose mozzarella. The conversation continued with him telling me about the organization he was with, Dogs Trust, where they take care of abandoned and abused dogs.
After listening and discussing plans for my Scotland trip, I made my way to the Royal Mile. I was quickly overwhelmed by how many people were there so I snapped some pictures, went to the Edinburgh Museum, and looked at a couple shops but quickly made my way down the road. From there I saw a big hill and recalled someone recommending I hike Arthur's Seat. The Coloradan kicked in and I started the trek up this hill, while wearing a suit and carrying a 30lb backpack. I made it up a bit sweaty but definitely enjoyed the view of the city. Once I took the view in, I made the 4 mile walk to the hotel, got dinner, and planned out the next day.
The next day was a bit more organized. I got the bus pass & made my way to Lannan for breakfast. Upon arriving 30 minutes before they opened I was greeted by a line already forming. Once I finally made it in 15 minutes after they opened, I got the best pastries I’ve ever had & ate all 3 in one sitting. After sitting for a while since I felt a bit sluggish, I made my way back to the botanical gardens with the plan to sit on a bench and chill for the morning. Instead I ended up going on a tour of the gardens because I noticed a sign that it was going to happen in 10 minutes. This was one of the highlights of the trip, it was a couple from England, the tour guide, and me. The tour felt a little more personal and more friendly due to the low number of people.
Once the tour was completed I quickly made my way to the Royal Mile again, but this time it was for two tours. The first being the Scotch whisky experience where I learned about making whisky & the different regions and their general flavor profiles. This was followed by a tasting of 4 regions. This was overall a great experience and I really enjoyed it. Before my second tour I had dinner that was very good & my habit of saying thank you in sign language rubbed off on the worker who started doing it back to me. The second tour was about part of the previous city that had been built. Mary Kings Close is the specific ally-like underground that we went into. We heard stories of people who lived there and how plague doctors operated in the city. This tour was a good way to finish out the day with a bit of history.
The following day, and my last day in Edinburgh, I went to Books N’ Cup Cafe for a cozy atmosphere and breakfast. From there I made my way by bus an 1.5 hours in the opposite direction of Glasgow to play frisbee golf. There I learned I throw discs a bit better here than at home, ending the course with par. I met with the frisbee golf course manager who used to live in Breckenridge so we ended up talking about Colorado a bit. Once I finished I made my many hour bus and train rides back to my apartment in Newmilns, stopping in Glasgow to get film developed.
I finished out the work week with a bit of rest and my normal routines. Saturday I spent the morning at a cafe in Kilmarnock followed by a walk in Dean Castle Country Park. Then today was my second week trying the church in Newmilns. I was invited over to a very kind family's house for tea & lunch. I really enjoyed talking with them and getting to know them. I ended the day with evening church & a walk. I then went back to the apartment and underestimated how much time it would take to write a blog post & stayed up later than I wanted to.
Note: keep an eye out for a bonus post this week with my film photography from my first 2 film canisters, including what might be my new favorite of my film photos (probably Tuesday).