A City of Sudden Vistas

I was very excited to go back to Edinburgh. I hadn't been back since I moved back after studying abroad there.

I am in love with this city. I missed Edinburgh a lot and I loved being there, but I especially missed living there. I missed the Gothic sandstone buildings, the overcast skies, and misty air. I missed the hustle and bustle of a lively gray Scottish city. I missed the beauty of Edinburgh. I missed Nando's and outstanding breakfasts and mochas that used real cream. But I also missed my awesome roommates, coming home to my flat overlooking Hillside Gardens each evening, going out to pubs with friends, my morning walk to Parliament, and living and being in a city that is so uniquely beautiful. Edinburgh is one of the few places in my life from day one felt like home.

“This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again,” Alexander McCall Smith

This trip to Edinburgh was very indulgent in nostalgia. I had two goals: revisit all the things I missed and see some places I did not see while I lived there. Visiting Edinburgh was way overdue and I was excited to go back.


Beautiful view on the descent into Edinburgh Airport!



I was furious because the weather was beautiful the whole time I was there. Chilly, yes. But I desperately wanted rain. It rained the entire time I lived in Edinburgh. Every day. Even days the sun feebly peeked out, it rained. Sometimes it even rained when it was sunny. Coming form drought filled California, I missed the rain. It was clear and sunny the whole time.



Once I got to the city I had lunch at The Pasty Shop in Waverley Train Station. It sells scalding hot turnovers. I got a creamy chicken, corn, and potato pasty and ate it on my walk to the hostel. My hostel was in Grassmarket, an area of Edinburgh that I was not very familiar with. For dinner I got Nando's from the same Nando's Julianne, Oriel, and I ate at before the Ed Sheeran concert we went to at Usher Hall. Nando's is great, it's so spicy it makes your taste buds burn and fall off and your nose sweat, but it's delicious.

 The hostel I stayed in was awesome. Everyone I met in the hostel was a solo traveler looking to make friends. I stayed in a four person dorm and befriended two of the other girls, one from Switzerland and one from Australia. The hostel had a restaurant and a bar and ran events every night. It would have been perfect had I been traveling in a city I had never been to and was looking for company to explore the city with. What I really wanted out of my trip to Edinburgh was a very selfish trip. I wanted to walk where I wanted when I wanted and take my time. Having lived there for four months, I was very comfortable in the city and did not mind being by myself. I did take part in some of the hostel activities, however, to get the full hostel backpacker solo traveler experience. 

The first night I was there the hostel ran a pub crawl. It began with 'bar olympics' at the sister hostel down the street. There were about thirty of us at the bar. The first game we played was an incredibly unhygienic box game. It started with an empty cardboard box and you had to pick it up with your mouth without falling over. You couldn't touch your hands or knees to the ground. Each round a bit of cardboard got torn off the box so it got smaller and smaller. 

 Here is a picture in case you didn't believe me

I was left in the top ten before I fell over. Eventually they had to do it with a piece of paper. Not enough people got out so the last round was with a penny. So people were basically licking the floor. I was thankful I had gotten out several rounds before that. 

I befriended an American doing a four month bus tour of Europe and a German from Munich. 

I was talking to the German boy and he told me, "I thought you were German at first. You look German. But now I see the Americanness." 

I laughed. "What gave it away?" I asked. 

"Germans stand very calmly. We do not move much. You move around too much when you talk. You fidget." He was very nice. He was looking to move to Edinburgh. 

I then met two UCSB Tri Delts who were studying abroad in Paris. We hit it off right away talking about UCSB. We taught everyone how to play flip cup. After that people wanted to play beer pong, but there were no ping pong balls. So they played with bottlecaps and coins and it was just about as much of a disaster as you would expect. We then went to two more pubs and then a club. By the time we got to the club I was exhausted and just wanted to go back to the hostel. I had to stick it out though because I didn't want to walk all the way back by myself because we were in a part of Edinburgh that was not as safe as the areas I frequented when I lived there.

The next day my hostelmate and I decided to do the hostel's free walking tour of Edinburgh. I was hoping to do some of the touristy stuff I hadn't seen before in Edinburgh. It was unfortunately a very short tour and difficult to see and hear the guide. I had been to most of the sites before. I just love being in Edinburgh. And it's such an amazing, beautiful city you can't really get sick of looking at it. The architecture is so unique and beautiful that the whole city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


Necessary daily caffeine next to Edinburgh Castle



Before I had gotten to Edinburgh, I made a list on my phone of all the things I wanted to do and see while I was there. It was a mix of new and old sights and restaurants. One of the places I had meant to go the whole time I lived in Edinburgh but never made it to was Calton Hill. Now having been there I am shocked that I never went in the four months I was in Edinburgh. It is right at the end of Princes Street and not difficult to get to at all. I walked around the base of it one way or the other every day to get to work or downtown because my flat was on the far side of Calton Hill. The views from Calton Hill from every side are spectacular. I went there multiple times this trip. 

I'm standing on the National Monument in the previous two pictures. The city ran out of money to complete it so left it unfinished. I think it looks great how it is. It's huge and fun to climb on.

Once the walking tour ended, the majority of the group left to hike Arthur's Seat right then. Instead, I suggested the next item on list of things I meant to do while in Edinburgh but never got around to: climbing the Scott Monument. It's a tall, pointy, Gothic monument on Princes Street that stands out in Edinburgh's skyline and is a useful point of reference. 

I went with two other people from the hostel who were also on the walking tour. We paid four pounds at the base and climbed a narrow and steep twisty cement staircase. There was a museum on each of the four floors. Each floor had a better view of the city.

Old Town

The Balmoral Hotel and Calton Hill

This is what the Scott Monument looks like from the ground.

 

I love this store and I missed it. My roommates and I used to shop here all the time. There aren't any in the US yet and you can't order it online and ship it either. It's like the British version of Forever 21. The clothes are trendy and cheap. Both in quality and in price. The clothes don't last very long, but damn you look good before all the buttons fall off.


Victoria Street

One of the girls I met at the hostel offered to share her dinner with me. The dinner consisted of splitting the above. She was on a super budget trip and had taken buses from city to city. My trip had been a bit more extravagant. "I feel like I'm back in college!" I joked. 

This is the bar/lounge at the hostel. I made lots of friends simply because I had included a deck of cards on my packing list.

The British are not known for their cuisine. In fact, even though I was only in the UK for a week, the greasy, heavy food made me feel sluggish. I missed some of my old favorite restaurants though. One of the main things I missed was breakfast. Man, do the British do breakfast well. Coffee or tea, eggs, beans, toast, potatoes, and grilled tomatoes. It's delicious.

In the wise words of Leslie Knope, "Why would anybody ever eat anything besides breakfast food?"

My second full day in Edinburgh I spent alone. I decided to spend the day just walking around one of my favorite cities in the world. I wanted to start the day off with one of my favorite Scottish meal: breakfast. I walked from my hostel to George's Street and found a restaurant that was open and serving breakfast. I was the only one there and enjoyed my breakfast at a leisurely pace. 

I then spent the next several hours walking with no breaks. There was so much I wanted to see before it got dark and I kept spontaneously adding additional things I wanted to see to my list. I started by walking down Princes Street, down Leith Walk, down London Road, to Hillside Crescent, where my old apartment was. I continued my walk to the grocery store I used to shop at, Sainsbury's, and bought a Cadbury bar and a water to sustain me. I then walked the way I walked every morning over Abbey Mount to Parliament. Edinburgh is a very, very pretty city and I love walking around it. 

Parliament is right at the base of Arthur's Seat. I've hiked Arthur's Seat a few times before. I walked up a little ways. Even though I was in a dress and tights the hike was not too strenuous and I decided to just keep going. I ended up hiking Arthur's Seat in my Converse.

One of the downsides about traveling alone was having no one to take your picture doing cool stuff. Most of the time I would just ask other tourists who looked like they run slower than me (in case they tried to steal my camera). It’s a very high bar for people who move more slowly than me however, so I usually wasn’t too picky. The only problem is most tourists aren’t professional photographers so I have a nice collection of blurry photos and photos that either don’t include me or don’t include the landmark I want in the background. If I didn’t like it, I’d wait a bit, then ask a different tourist. It was a very arduous process.

If there wasn’t anyone around to take my picture, I would resort to using the ten second self timer on my camera or take a selfie on my iPod. This also had mixed results. And because I have no shame, I included a few of those for your viewing pleasure.

The day was so clear and pleasant I even was able to take my coat off in November in Scotland. I was quite shocked.

It was getting late by that point and I had been walking for around five hours. No joke. I decided to watch the sunset from Calton Hill. The hill was packed with people who all had their iPhones out taking pictures of the views. There were a surprising number of people with professional looking telephoto lens cameras as well. Sitting atop Calton Hill watching the sunset with all those people reminded me of evenings in Santa Barbara. I used to run every evening around sunset. I had usually just gotten off work and it was a little cooler in the evenings. I'd usually pause for a few minutes to watch the sunset. The bluffs were always lined with people watching it as well. Some alone, some mid run, and some with friends. It's cool to see people collectively stop to appreciate beautiful events like sunsets together.

It was gorgeous watching the night sky darken over Princes Street. I wandered around Calton Hill, admiring the view from every side as the sunset in the early afternoon.

 

 

 

After a quick dinner at the hostel, I set out to celebrate Bonfire Night with the two girls I had met from the hostel. We set out with the mission of seeing fireworks, but no one really knew where to suggest an organized fireworks event. The last Bonfire Night I spent in Scotland, my roommates and I watched movies in our onesies.

We determined Calton Hill would be our best bet.

I wish I had been better prepared for Bonfire night. It was very cool to witness but it would have been even cooler to partake. There were several groups of people atop Calton Hill. Each individual person had come equipped with their own bottle of wine and package of fireworks. We had arrived empty handed.

It was still fun to watch people light fireworks atop the hill. Some guys kept lighting these Roman Candle type whizzing fireworks that they appeared to have little directional control over. We ended up climbing onto the National Monument and talking with some of the people. We sat up there for awhile overlooking the city. Random individual fireworks would shoot up sporadically from random locations in the city. It was like a pyrotechnic whack-a-mole.







The MSP I worked for while I was in Edinburgh emailed me to see if I was free to meet up. We arranged a time Thursday afternoon. Typical for me, I was running late. I didn't want to show up to the nice Parliament in my muddy Converse, so I wore my only pair of nice shoes I brought and then sprinted down Cowgate in them to make it to Parliament. 

It was really great seeing Stuart again. We got coffee at the Parliament coffee shop and caught up about what we had been up to. We spent time talking about both the recent Scottish Independence Referendum, the recent US election, and Frozen. I was very glad I got a chance to go back to Parliament. I felt very comfortable walking around the building, having spent so much time there a few years ago. Being back there brought back lots of good memories of working with my fellow interns, learning about Scottish politics, and more. I missed walking around the building, getting a mocha from the Parliament coffee stand and drinking it over meetings with my fellow interns, gossiping about politics over baguette corn sandwiches in the cafeteria, sitting in on FMQs and committee meetings, scouring BBC articles, and sitting at my desk overlooking Arthur's Seat. I loved my job at Parliament and it was a huge part of the months I lived in Edinburgh. I'm very glad I got to visit. 

It was dark by the time I left Parliament. I had accumulated so much stuff on my trip so far that I made a trip to Mail Boxes Etc. to send a small box of stuff home. I had planned to do about twice as much stuff as I had time for in Edinburgh. I wanted to spend more time in the city, but first I needed to book my hostel in London as I was leaving the next morning.

I had been booking my trip very last minute as I went along. Most of the time I wasn't quite sure what days I would be where. It was just easier because sometimes I'd change my mind by a day or two or end up going to a different country than originally planned. However, this was also not the best strategy because prices went up sometimes or hostels sold out.

I tried every combination and permutation of hostel settings I could think of, including hostels in neighboring suburbs, expanding my search when even that proved unsuccessful. Every hostel was booked 100% full for Saturday night.

I had not anticipated that would be a problem. I expected expensive, maybe, or low quality maybe, or both. But other than Munich hostels during Oktoberfest and Edinburgh during Fringe Fest, I had never heard of any city running out of hostel beds on a random weekend. Especially in the off season. Hotels were running upwards of 100 pounds a night. At that point I might as well add another city to my list.

I decided that I would be able to figure it out. I messaged Erik back on Facebook letting him know when I planned to arrive and casually mentioned that I was hostelless Saturday night and went out for dinner.

I got Nando's and walked around Edinburgh. By the time I got back to the hostel, Erik had messaged me, offering to let me stay at his and Helle's flat on Saturday night. Relief! I spent the rest of the evening packing.

I find it hard to describe how beautiful Edinburgh is and how much I love the city. I could have used twice as much time in Edinburgh. I probably could have used twice as much time in each place I went to. Even that probably would not have been enough.

Edinburgh is a very pretty city and I highly recommend it to any travelers. Cold, yes. But absolutely worth it.