'William Wallace was watching'- my trip to Edinburgh

Howdy!
I just returned from Edinburgh last night and it was so friggin' cold that it should have been renamed Edin-brrrrrr....a poor pun, I'm sorry. I woke up in the middle of the night last night with my light on and my kindle still in my hand, I must have been very tired, it freaked me out a bit, I slept like a dead person until 10 this morning and this whole day has proceeded to fly by, I can't catch a breath at all! Anyway, this is not the purpose of my entry today.

This review comes from INFINITY AND BEYOND!

That leads me to this. The Al Capone of the review world. My 'unique' perspective on all things Edinburgh and this weekend. I'm sure there will be many blogs written about Edinburgh, many photos shared, as it was PACKED FULL of tourists from every which country in the world. It is one of my true pleasures in life to try and work out where people are from, by a wonderful thing called observation. Well, what can I say? I had a blast! I seen a lot of things. All of them interesting. A lot of them funny. It was great to be back with my sister again, we hadn't seen each other since my last trip to the North of Scotland, so it was glorious to catch up!

After meeting at the train station, where we dressed almost identically unintentionally, we sojourned into the city for a breakfast. That first Flat White (best coffee EVER!) was blissful after the ridiculously early start we'd both had that morning. I had some gorgeous granola and yoghurt and compote which fuelled me for the morning. I heard my first pipes of the stay once we breached the centre of the city and that part, I'm glad to say, is certainly not a myth. Every which way you turned there was another piper hiding in a crevice. I never thought I'd hear the Highland Fling so very often in such quick succession. There was a bit of a legendary piper who attempted to play what sounded like the Foo Fighters- it was GLORIOUS!

Girls just wanna....WELD?

We headed off to the National Museum of Scotland which was reaaaaallllly good, seriously the best museum I've been to! There was just SO MUCH, all in one place: history, science, geography, food, art, fashion, modernity- *pause for breath* and lots of things to play with and try on- ALWAYS A PLUS! here I am, learning about welding, learning about ship building, learning that I really suit having a hat that'll literally cover up my face...

We spent several giddy hours playing with the museum and learning lots (because learning is fun!) and it was a heck of a nice change from sitting in the house doing not much of anything. After all of these revels, it was time for lunch. We feasted in a lovely vegetarian deli called Hendersons where I had a lovely cheese and potato and brocolli pie and my sister learnt the joys of being able to finally try a wee bit of someone else's food and it wouldn't be meat. After this, we went to leave our bags in the hotel, after briefly stopping for a 99 at an ice cream van, because Saturday was blissfully warm-ish weather. The hotel room was loooooovely, really comfy, and the bathroom was very spacious and white and I had visions of a man dressed as an angel singing 'Beauty School Dropout' emerging from the harrowed doorway.

Our room....with an eskimo in the corner.

We proceeded to lie like beached whales on the bed for a while, relishing finally ditching our back packs and being freeeee. Enjoying a beverage made with our mini room kettle and the generously provided Viennese Swirls, we watched 'Come Dine With Me' and chilled. After reading some hotel recommendations, we headed out for dinner in an Indian Tapas-style restaurant were we indulged in a huge garlic naan, poppadoms, lentils, samosas etc. We were STUFFED and rolled our way back to the hotel heavier ladies. It seemed, the only way to soothe our stuffed bellies....was to put up our gilet hoods and pretend to be eskimos.

Tough snow to you, sir

 What did you say, sir? That's a bit weird? Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn! We had a blast pulling faces and hiding behind doors and generally acting a little bit foolish. We filmed crime scene photos and shower paparazzi shots and my sister hid in the wardrobe and behind a curtain and tried to scare me. 

After all of these shenanigans, we retired to bed, where we tried to watch 'The Proposal' and feel asleep before it got too far (although some of us survived longer than others *cough*)


As the sun rose over the Edinburgh city-side...Escape to the Country, eat your heart out... we proceeded to the dining room in the hotel for a delightful binge eat. I had yoghurt and pastries and cooked breakfast- even a SQUARE sausage!- but still did not try haggis or black pudding, although they were both on offer for my perusal. There were even free refills of coffee- one of life's true pleasures! 

That's the castle...up there behind my huge head!

Of course, there's lots to see in Edinburgh so we jolly well got our move on.  We went to see the castle but it cost a fortune to get inside so we just took a picture and left again. We proceeded to go to the Musuem of Surgery where my sister, the dentist, fell in love. Her eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning and someone had commented on her Youtube video of her riding a pony to the sound of 'I Love Horses'. She revelled over all of the tools and all of the old techniques and poured over things in jars while I tried to control my absolute terror of dummies re-enacting medical scenarios (a fear which has haunted me since my first visit as a 6 year old to the Underground Hospital in Jersey).

We finished our trip with one last lunch out, this time in the gorgeous David Bann restaurant. I feasted on more vegetarian dishes, this time with humus and bread and pear and passionfruit tarts and perfectly cooked celeriac and puff pastry. It was all delicious! We parted ways at the train station and made our lonely way homes. A train journey in which I tried unsuccessfully to strike up conversation with a handsome boy, nearly missed my stop, and told a taxi driver he was 'awful young' for being a taxi driver (I swear my fare was lower than usual!) When we shall meet again Edinburgh, I do not know.  Someday I'll look out of my little thatched cottage window and I'll know, oh yes I'll know, that this is not goodbye but a see you later! Edinburgh, you've been a blast!

QOTR