Welcome to my travel blog!
We left Canada on October 3rd. This portion was a pain in the ass. Our original flight was a direct flight from our city to Edinburgh, but alas, they changed it. It went from a 7 pm direct to a 2 pm flight with a layover in Halifax. On paper, it doesn't feel that different, but hoo-boy did the 2 pm make a difference for us. We went to a show the night before that Ollie was playing and we had planned to pack the morning of the 3rd and we had errands to run. We ended up staying up till 2 am after learning about the change at 10 pm. Thank the gods for my parents who drove us, picked up our house sitter, and did a work related delivery for Ashley. My dad also transfered us vouchers for the WestJet lounge. I had some mocktails, while the others had beer and whiskey sours at 10 am (no judgement, time isn't real in airports).
We left the the lounge earlier than we had to due to being at a different gate and I panicked that we may have had to go through security again. We didn't and we had to sit in the waiting area for longer than we really needed to. The first flight was mid, like most flights. I have some ear issues so I'm always kind of afraid of flights. I get a really fun thing where my teeth will feel like they're being pushed out of my skull not infrequently. Thankfully it didn't happen this time.
We got some tacos in Halifax at the airport and then back on the flight. I hate sleeping on flights but I did get some sleep with the help of melatonin.
Edinburgh airport was not as pretty as some of the Canadian airports, but it functions and has cafes so I'm content. It also has a tram that is easy to find and take into the city. I love trains so this was an exciting introduction. We got off at Princes Street and began the walk up the hill to our hostel in the old part of the city. It was a beautiful walk that was less than 20 minutes but with our small suitcases was still rough. It was just steep and our bags were heavy for our tired and jetlagged bodies. There was a park near the stop we got off at that was beautiful. We also passed one of their national museum locations. Walking into the old part of the city was incredible. As Canadians, our country as the state we know it as (Indigenous people have lived and thrived in the land now called Canada for time immemorable) is very young. The new part of the city had buildings older than our consitution. It is incredible to see buildings older than even the European settlement of my country.
We were, again, very tired but also determined to sleep normally. We dropped our bags off at the hostel (Castle Rock Hostel) and then headed into what we eventually learned was the New Town. My point about the buildings being older than Canada's constitution played a role here. It's so wild how old these even "new" buildings are. Old Town was also much more kept old, whereas new and newer builds were more abundant this side. We mostly just wandered, enjoying the sights.
We got brunch at Society Bar & Kitchen. We really enjoyed their food. I had their Turkish eggs. I love Turkish eggs. They seem to be very popular and came up later while we looked for restuarants during our stay, but we had just walked past the restuarant and thought their menu looked yummy. It was.
Some of my favourite buildings I saw the first day. The first building was the Sir Walter Scott Monument. It's a gothic style building that is absolutely massive and incredible.
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We went out to Dean Village, which really wasn't too far from where we started. The old villages architecture was beautiful. I enjoyed the Tudor style architecture of some of the buildings. The river Leith is really lovely and they have built a beautiful walkway along it that takes you to their Modern Art museums.
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After we looked about
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