Tomorrow it's back to school for me -- specifically, back to the Year Two class that I will be teaching for the rest of the school year. More on this later. For now, I'd prefer to dwell on the break for a little bit longer before thinking about the reality of working life again.
It's been a pretty exciting half-term for a couple of reasons:
1. We moved to a wonderful new house that was a huge step up from our previous place, and:
2. Beth was able to get time off work, meaning that the two of us could finally have a good old fashioned adventure together again. Note that this has not happened since we went to London for Halloween, so basically forever ago.
This time around, our adventuring took us to Edinburgh, Scotland. This excursion had been a long time coming. Beth has a friend who lives there, and we had been vaguely discussing a visit pretty much since we got to the UK.
I'm going to try a bit of a different format to talk about our trip, as I find that going through the whole thing chronologically can be a bit tiresome. So instead, I'm gonna sum everything up under some nice, neat little subheadings. Here we go:
Travelling
- We decided to fly out at night, and arrive to our hostel around midnight. This way, we could check in, have a nice sleep and then have a full day the next morning to explore. I would reccommend this system -- the flight is generally cheaper without having to book it for 8 AM or some other ungodly hour. Yes, it means paying for an extra night's accommodation, but it's worth it, as you don't waste half a day napping off your travel exhaustion.
- Somehow, Beth and I always end up getting stuck beside a really chatty individual when we are travelling and really tired. I mean, it's great that people are friendly. However, when it's 11:30 PM and you're falling asleep on the airport shuttle bus, you're not neccessarily in the mood to explain your whole life story and clarify that bears don't just walk into our houses all the time in Canada and casually eat our food.
- When choosing our hostel, we took many important factors into consideration. Is there an all-female room? Do the beds have outlets beside them to charge our phones? When you step outside, are you immediately looking up at a huge castle perched on top of a massive rock formation? We chose one that fit all of these criteria. It was called, appropriately, Castle Rock hostel. It was pretty much everything that you could want from a hostel: cheap but filling breakfast, nice rooms with lockers for your valuables, several cozy lounges, close to all the touristy things. It pays to read the reviews on Hostelworld.
View from my room. 
Medival Times?
Well. There it is.
The "Groovy Lounge" - When you are staying in a room with multiple other people, you have to account for the fact that sometimes, people are the worst. I was all tucked into my bed on the first night, exhausted, ready for a solid night's sleep. And then it began. It sounded like someone was sucking the last bits of soda out of a McDonalds cup. Or perhaps a baby elephant with a sinus infection attempting to blow its trunk. But it was neither of these things, no, this horrible noise was actually being produced by someone's nose. Look, I know that sometimes people can't help snoring, but this fact didn't make it any less awful. By the second night, I couldn't take it any more and stormed down to reception in the middle of the night to ask if they sold earplugs. I think I must have looked really pissed off, because they just handed me a pair for free. Bless them.
- Edinburgh Castle: When we first tried to go, they were closed due to an IT issue that prevented them from printing tickets. So like the technological geniuses that we are, we followed the castle on Twitter and subscribed to live updates so that we would see when they tweeted about opening again. The castle was, in not so eloquent words: really really cool. I expected it to mostly be an indoor experience, but I was wrong. There were some indoor exhibits, but the coolest part was probably the way that the castle walls seemed to emerge from piles of stone, as if it were a naturally occurring part of the landscape.
- Arthur's Seat: "What a perfect day for a hike!" we thought. "The sun's out, the weather is mild!" we remarked. But as soon as we started making our way up the steep incline of this ancient volcanic peak, the clouds rolled in. The wind began to grow stronger, and we started feeling raindrops. Also, just a note that getting to the top of Arthur's Seat is not just a gentle stroll. We were definitely "feeling the burn" (in the 'my calves are on fire' sense, not in a "voting for Bernie Sanders" kind of way). But it stopped raining almost as soon as we reached the top, and we were rewarded with an incredible view of Edinburgh and the ocean. We then "mountain goat-ed" it down the opposite side to reach The Sheep's Heid Inn: the oldest pub in Edinburgh. Then, like the 21st century girls that we are, we decided against the 40 minute walk back to the hostel and hopped in an Uber instead. Don't judge us.
- The Scotch Whiskey Experience: We were unreasonably excited for this one, and not because we are whiskey connoisseurs. Not even close. However, we are big fans of riding in a giant barrel while the ghost of an old dude teaches us about how whiskey is made. We are also fans of swirling our glasses and pretending to detect hints of banana, when really, it just smells (and tastes) like booze. We never claimed to have refined palates.
- Underground Vaults Tour: This was extremely interesting. Our guide took us beneath the South Bridge, into the damp, cold vaults that were apparently once a hive of activity -- both legal and not. Note that we very specifically sought out a "non-scary" and strictly informative tour because we are babies. No ghost tours for us, thanks.
- The Royal Mile: This is where all the touristy shops live. Want to buy a kilt, or perhaps a stuffed highland cow (or as they call them, "hairy coo")? Fancy some shortbread? Want to hear a bagpipe cover of "Fix You" by Coldplay? This is where you'll find it. Lots of tacky fun. I don't usually buy a lot in the way of souvenirs, but the cool and windy weather encouraged me to buy an Edinburgh bobble hat. I later realized that due to the seam placement, the front of the hat says "EDINB", which is not a word, but the back very clearly says "URGH". Also not a word, but it is a frustrated grunt. I think if I'm having a particularly grumpy day, I'll wear the hat backwards.
Typical sight on the Royal Mile.
Just a casual invisible man.
Why are these so funny and passive aggressive?
URGHHHHHH - Princes Street: The main shopping street with the usual high street type shops, and some cool monuments along the way. But I mostly included this so that I could add photos of the random dog we saw in a Union Jack sweater carrying a flashlight.
Food:
Beth and I have determined that we suck at eating like normal human beings.
- Example 1: Before I left, I found a Buzzfeed list of the best vegan food in Edinburgh, and we planned on hitting up a few of the places. However, I somehow overlooked the fact that going for GIANT JACKET POTATOES for lunch and THE BIGGEST NACHOS EVER for dinner is maybe not the best idea, and definitely does not scream "I am a responsible adult who knows how to eat in moderation". Post-nachos, we waddled back to our hostel rooms and pretended to be "just laying down for a bit" before going to watch a film in the hostel's movie room. We did not leave our beds for the rest of the night.
Vegan curry "medium" potato. It was actually one big potato and one baby one beside it.
We tried. - Example 2: The day after the potato/nacho incident, we decided that we would have breakfast, just grab a light lunch from Sainsburys before hiking Arthur's Seat, and then stop into The Sheep's Heid Inn for a snack before heading back into town and getting a light dinner later. What happened instead was: We had breakfast, grabbed a light lunch from Sainsburys, grabbed some starters and a pint AND a dessert each at the Sheep's Heid Inn, and then decided to try haggis and veggie haggis with all the fixings for dinner before joining our hostel's pub crawl. Tottering up the stairs to our hostel, post-haggis, we realized that we had failed once again to eat responsibly and were a hopeless case.
Veggie "haggis", neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes).
All in all, Edinburgh is a beautiful city with tons of history, lots to do, and even more to eat. Exploring a new city is my favourite, but travel is exhausting. I'm glad that I left myself a weekend to rest and recover before heading back to work, because I've definitely needed it. That being said, I'm off to go do nothing in particular -- and I'm very happy about it.
C.
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