Edinburgh Part II

The past few days have been a bit of a blur due to my introduction into Scottish drinking.

I am still so amazed at the whole Flat system they have set up for living here.. it's incredible. They have definitely managed to make use of their space here.

Marchmont Street Corner

All the buildings have these lovely pointy tops that are so repetitive its so pretty. And behind every teeny street side door there is an entire apartment system hidden behind.

Spiral staircase up to Gill's Flat

As Gillian studied for, and then wrote, her last exam I went off to find myself a cellphone. Wandering down Princes street was an absolute zoo due to the masses of people here for the festival. I found a phone even more middle ages than my first ever cellphone and then wandered off to take some photos.

Scott's Monument

Princes street faces the Edinburgh Castle and is extremely picturesque. I spent a solid portion of my afternoon just taking pictures and people watching.

Edinburgh Castle

Finding my way to the University and then finding the building where Gillian's exam was did indeed take the hour I allotted myself. But the campus is super nice, and there was a lot of interesting people to watch.

Cockburn Street.

The street above is fabulous, but to my disappointment is pronounced Coburn.

I met up with Gillian and we wandered down Rose Street where we had a pint before going to her friend Judith's sushi restaurant for dinner.

Rose Street, with Edinburgh Castle in the background

After dinner at apparently the only sushi place in Edinburgh with a Japanese chef, we met up with Ola, Gillian's polish friend for some drinks.  We went to The Standing Order, which was a weird bar, mostly because it was so light inside and everyone is standing around on this nice carpet. We drank some Pimms (a gin based lemonade and herb drink) and then headed home to get ready.

The Meadows

After playing some drinking games with the flatmates we headed to Teviot where we somehow managed to spend 6 pounds on a drink... Which in my head was normal until I realized they were pounds and not dollars. Leaving there we went to 'Doctors' which was just some small Scottish pub for some more pints. There Gill and I turned into typical hunter kleptos and stole a bunch of sweet pint glasses. On the way home we walked to the 24 hour food store and bought a ton of Flumps, which I later grossed everybody out with by putting them in a bacon sandwich. Delicious by the way.

After sleeping most of the next day, we went to meet some of Gillian's friends, Ben and Jack. She tried to warn me to how vulgar they are, and having spent time in the field and on drilling sites, I would have assumed I'd be prepared. That assumption was really wrong. Nice boys, but yes, very vulgar. We all headed out to Karma, which apparently is a super dirty bar, but I loved it since it reminded me of Phils. As we walked in the door Ben bought a 28 pound round of drinks which I thought was absurd.

Gill, Myself and Jack. Classy Group.

Overall the night was really good, with both the Backstreet Boys and Shania Twain coming on and Gill and I dancing up a storm.

After moving Gillian's excessively heavy suitcases to her flat we went for dinner and a movie at the cinema and I was very grateful for a sober night in.

Lettuce

We tried to buy some lettuce for salad and ended up buying some sort of lettuce plant. Food here is weird.

I am extremely impressed Gillian and I have managed to stay civil!

Edinburgh!

I made it!

An attempt to arrive at the airport very tired to adjust my body clock was proven successful as I headbobbed for a few hours waiting for my delayed flight to Scotland. I was sleep deprived enough to sleep almost all of my flight with my mouth hanging wide open, to the jealousy of the large English woman seated next to me. Arriving in Glasgow at 7:30am local time, 12:30am Calgary time I convinced myself it was indeed morning and caught a shuttle to the bus station. After getting off at the wrong stop (Buchanan Galleries is not the Buchanan Bus Station.. but said by an automated Scottish woman they do sound the same) I wandered around until finally stumbling upon the bus station.

Clock Statue outside the Buchanan Bus Station in Glasgow

I tried to stay awake and take in the views of the Scottish countryside on the bus, but being tired combined with my tendencies to fall asleep on any moving vehicle resulted in my passing out for the entirety of the ride. Getting off the bus in Edinburgh I followed Gillian's specific instructions to find St. Andrews Square where I could get a taxi to her flat, but somehow I ended up exiting the bus station from a different door, which allowed me to get completely lost and I got to walk around looking like a typical confused tourist. I was in awe of the architecture and the never ending tenements on each street and my photo snapping did nothing to help my poor tourist look. However, Edinburgh in August is full of tourists here for the Fringe Festival so I didn't feel completely out of place.

York Place

After dropping my stuff in Gillian's flat, we hopped ourselves up on coffee and did a walking tour of the city. Since the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is on, the city is pretty busy and we were given pamphlets for different shows every few steps, there's all these painted people standing around and lots of traditionally dressed Scottish men playing bagpipes. 

The Royal Mile

Bagpipe Player

We then visited the Edinburgh Castle, which is somewhat less attractive due to the stadium set up for the Scottish Tattoo, but still a wicked castle nonetheless.

Edinburgh Castle

A walk up to Calton Hill left me feeling out of shape and lazy, but the views were amazing, and the statues were equally awesome. The National Monument, constructed as a memorial for those who died in the Napoleonic War was my favourite of the bunch. It is meant to be a replica of the Parthenon, but funding never came through, and the monument was never finished.

The National Monument

The views of the city from up here were pretty sweet.. I couldn't get over how many nice buildings there are in this city.

North Bridge

After being touristy we hit up Pound Land, which is much less gangsta than I would have hoped, and bought cheap food and household goods. We made our way back to the flat and I met Gillian's 'flatmates' James and Rory.

Overall, first day in Edinburgh was absolutely fantastic. I love Scottish accents, cool buildings, statues and double decker buses. It is just as I imagined it would be.

Typical Edinburgh