For the Christmas/New Year break, I went to Scotland. While I am not averse to spending my birthday alone, and indeed, relish a solitary period of reflection, Christmas is a different affair. Usually there is a lot of lively activity with the family, that tampers off into a sleepy evening in quiet company, grazing on leftovers more than eating an actual dinner. I am not used to being alone at Christmas – even the quiet has company then.
So I arranged to bother a friend, K, who has been living in Scotland. I supposed she would probably be in the same predicament, with many of her new friends probably as busy as we would be if we hadn’t decided to switch hemispheres. I was able to gain a few extra days off work, though I had a very busy restart because of that. So I spent five days in Edinburgh with my friend to start.
Monuments and attractions included:
- Princes Street and Gardens – we went to the Christmas markets here my first evening! I tried chestnuts first the first time, purely because of “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” and I was unimpressed (so it goes…). There were also Christmas lights down in the gardens, including a delightful and artful fox.
- walking Old Town and New Town – I find the idea of calling an area ‘New Town’ so funny. It can only ever be true for so long. And as an Australian… well, everything here is old by our standards.
- The Royal Mile – technically it is slightly longer than the modern mile, but is apparently one Scottish mile long- a measurement no longer in use. Not being adjusted to miles, it makes no difference to me – it is 1.8km long, or about five and a half Eiffel Towers long (this is my new unit of measurement that does, in fact, work very well in my brain). It stretches from Edinburgh Castle down to Holyrood Palace.
- Edinburgh Botanic Gardens – so many squirrels! And also red-breasted robins! These are the sorts of delight that would go on my top 3 list but is too hard to guarantee. For this trip, I told K my top priorities were tress and cows, and everything else was optional. Both were well fulfilled, but the squirrels and different birds were an extra delight.
- Arthur’s Seat – the tallest hill in Edinburgh, which the city has wrapped itself around and gives wonderful views. The miracle of the day was that we did not get blown off the top and my boots held up! It was so incredibly windy and balance was a real concern during the trek up, but it was lovely. (More on Arthur’s Seat later.)
- Leith Waterway (and a great hot chocolate) – it was nice just to be back at the ocean and to enjoy some seagulls.I have had a new-found appreciation for seagulls on this side of the planet. They have a different look to them and, of course, they always mean there’s a large body of water nearby, which I enjoy.
- The Writer’s Museum – this one has been on my list since I discovered it’s existence at about fifteen. It’s a museum dedicated to Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns, and Walter Scott. Edinburgh also has the Sir Walter Scott monument on Princes Street – somehow only the second largest monument/memorial dedicated to a writer in the world which is mind-blowing (new bucket list item will now have to be to go see the largest writer’s monument in the world, located in Havana, Cuba).
- Edinburgh Castle – we didn’t try early enough for daytime castle tickets, so that delight will have to wait for another time. But we did go to a special light shows in the evening, which took us around the grounds.
- Calton Hill – the fake Parthenon, technically “The National Monument”… but it’s a fake Parthenon, okay? And half-built as K tells me they ran out of money. Also the Nelson Monument which is just opposite- a memorial tower for an old Admiral, with a very castle-era look about it. [Nelson Monument on left, National Monument on right:]
- Greyfriars Kirkyard – I think I visit more cemeteries than most people. I think of trips with various members of my family and we duck into cemeteries as a point of interest, for names and epitaphs, and to see if there might be any relatives in the area based on the family names. I like to go to find names to use in stories (I keep various name lists sourced from various locations), but this one is not entirely appropriate for that, as you’ll find lots of the names from this cemetery featured in the Harry Potter books. My habit is not original, you see. But it is an interesting cemetery because there is a memorial there to a dog – Bobby. There is not one singular story it seems, but the general idea is that when his master died, the loyal dog proceeded to guard his grave for the 14 years before he died and was buried in the same cemetery. There is a statue to the famous dog near one of the entrances.
- I also did some shopping for a new waterproof jacket (my old one is now just a regular jacket sadly) and some waterproof shoes. The Scots have a great need to be serious about this kind of merchandise and it is easier for me to get into the details in English rather than in French. And too many books. I was restrained initially, but by the end of the trip, I had bought five.
In terms of iconic Scottish experiences: I tried haggis for the first time, at a burger place along the Royal Mile. It mostly seems to me like salty ground beef? I didn’t hate it, but I wouldn’t make it part of my regular palate. We also took several double-decker buses, though this is more of a UK experience, and one that is spreading to other countries and transport (for example, I have taken a double-decker train both in Sydney, and around France). I have also tried the Scottish equivalent of fudge which is a very rich block of sugar called tablet. In a classic tourist move, I bought a scarf in my modern family tartan, and also a broach with the family crest of it, although I have an image depiction of both in my family history book back in Australia. And we saw several busking bagpipers!
The real delight of Edinburgh is in how interwoven nature is with the broader city. How you go from a major shopping street to be spilled out to a palace, and then just beyond that, the largest hill in town with surrounding national park – this is Arthur’s Seat and the smaller Salisbury Crags. This is probably the most magical place in the city, with a short side path off the main trail to an old ruin. There are a plethora of legends surrounding the hill – and that is the wealth of Scotland. Everything is a story. Legends have been dreamed and dreamed again. Is it the old site of a giant’s castle? Is it a dragon that has laid down to sleep? Is it where Camelot was? Pick your story. There are hundreds.
We also visited some delightful bookshops, and though our days were very busy and the step count kept fairly high most days, the sun would set between 3:30-4pm, so we had more relaxing evenings often to balance out the days.
Amongst all this, K let me used her kitchen and I made mint log one night, and honey biscuits on another – this is my main Christmas activity. I had been watching some Christmas movies in December, and even teaching Christmas-themed lessons… but it never feels like Christmas until the baking.
For Christmas, we made calls home in the morning, and then later used wrapping paper to make decorations for the Christmas tree K had inherited with the flat. The night before I had decorated it with my long Doctor Who scarf, and topped with one of my gloves, but we made it a little more legitimate while we watched a movie. I also belatedly iced my Christmas cookies. One of K’s friends joined us — another Southern Hemisphere stray — and arranged our little lunch feast, and we chatted and played Switch games together. It was a fun day, with plenty of laughter. A good Christmas.
[Two renditions of the tree, mostly just me being silly but I really did enjoy the glove star.]
Christmas was my last proper day in Edinburgh. The story takes us to Glasgow the next day… but I’ll leave that for another time, my friends.
[P.S. I am hopeful that I will start getting gallery pages happening again – I have magically regained for use of the website via the laptop once more! However, even adding these few photos today was a trial, so it may be a little while yet.]