The Armchair Traveller

At the beginning of May there is a long weekend in the UK and deciding to make use of it I booked myself some train tickets to visit my friend Kirsty in Edinburgh. It is a 5 hour train ride across the UK to get to Edinburgh so armed with food supplies, my iPod, and my book I settled in to my seat on the Friday afternoon and off we went. Five hours later, after passing fields full of rapeseed flowers, sheep, and horses, random people dancing on the platform at Newcastle Station, hills out one window and the sea out the other as we neared Edinburgh, I had finished my book and I was in Edinburgh!

I was greeted at the station by the smiling face of my friend and off we walked towards her flat which was to be my home base for the three days I was visiting. We cooked some food and had a chilled out evening catching up on each others news.

Saturday morning I woke up early and started reading a new book while I waited to hear my friend wake up in the next room. Eventually we got ourselves up and running for the day and finally left the house at about 11:30am. I suggested we started the day with an activity that Kirsty had not done yet which I thought would be a good way to get an overall picture of Edinburgh – a Bus Tour.  Starting near the train station and the Scott Monument the tour wound its way around the city taking in the Castle, the Scottish Parliament building, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the large hill called Arthur’s Seat. The bus tour was one of these ‘hop on, hop off’ tour buses so we did a complete loop first to get a feel for what was around (and with the headsets on, get a bit of Edinburgh history), and then decided to go a bit further and hop off near the castle and start exploring the city on foot.

I found the tourists in Edinburgh quite easy to spot – mostly because they often felt a need to make themselves look ridiculous wearing souvenir items such as Scottish tartan pompom hats with red wigs attached (see photo below)

I did enjoy going into the souvenir shops and seeing what random things I could pick up to send back to my family in NZ but I could not bring myself to buy one of these crazy hats, they are just too mental!

Up at Edinburgh castle I wandered around the outside but decided I didn’t really want to go into the castle interior, I thought my money could be more wisely spent than seeing the inside of yet another historic building, I suppose I just wasn’t in the mood for it on this trip. So I took in the view as the castle is on top of a high hill and looks out over most of Edinburgh and across to the seaside suburb of Leith.

After the castle we walked down a road called the Royal Mile which led us to the Scottish parliament buildings and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Where we sat down in a park and soaked up the sun and just relaxed. Eventually it started to feel cold and when we looked at the time it was after 6pm! We had a wander around the outside of the Our Dynamic Earth building which is very impressive (especially with Arthur’s Seat as it’s backdrop), and then we went in search of dinner, coming across a lovely little Mexican place on the Royal Mile. We then ended up going to the pub for a drink and then back to the flat for dessert and a DVD, a good end to a good day.

Sunday was an even slower day than Saturday, we didn’t leave the house until 1pm!! Today we decided to visit the seaside so we walked down to Leith and explored the area around there. We went to a large shopping mall called Ocean Terminal which is where the Royal Yacht Britannia is moored so we had a look at the outside of that as well. It was so windy down here by the water and I loved it!! There is something quite refreshing about a wind loaded with sea salt that really wakes you up and clears your head! I could have spent all afternoon just staring out to the choppy water and getting blown-away by the wind but it got too cold so we went in search of a warm place to have fish and chips for late lunch early dinner. We found a cute little jazz-themed pub and had a delicious meal. We then made our way back to the flat for a quiet night in with a couple of DVDs.

Monday was my last day in Edinburgh and Kirsty had to work in the morning. So I got up when she did and sorted my bags out to get ready to leave. I then went for a walk around town and found a nice cafe to have some breakfast in along the Royal Mile, where I sat in a window seat and just enjoyed watching the world go by.

I loved how hilly Edinburgh is, I had forgotten what hills were like because London is just so flat and having come from Wellington which is a very hilly city as well there is just something nice about a hilly landscape. I was however unprepared for the pain in my leg muscles after all the hill walking, which was a sure sign that I was completely out of practice and clearly have spent too much time in FLAT London!

Kirsty finished work at 1pm and we met up for lunch and then headed towards the train station for my journey back to London. I had a really relaxing time in Edinburgh and really enjoyed catching up with my friend. All in all a great long weekend.

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