Day Seven: A midnight stroll

Midnight isn't really accurate, it was more like 10:30pm, but close enough. I snuck up Bull's close (connecting my apartment to the Mile) and headed up towards the castle. Turns out night photography is a bitch without a tripod. If you remember, I had issues packing, and my tripod was one of the casualties.

First stop was St. Giles cathedral:

Memorial outside Edinburgh City Chambers:

Bank of Scotland (thanks Alan!!):

And the castle:

It wasn't nearly that bright and I'm surprised it wasn't more blurry considering my hands shake like I'm going through withdrawals sometimes.

This may be the last set of pictures for awhile since it is supposed to rain for the next week. Maybe I will pull it out for social events, we'll see. :-)

Let's take a walk

Today started off pretty lazy, it is Sunday after all and I had to give up another hour of my life. The threat of sunshine and nice weather pulled me out of my shell and I decided to take a quick loop around Old Town to take pictures (I hope you are ready for a ton of pictures).

First let's start with my part of town (gawd, I love saying that).

Looking out from the side door of the apartment complex. That's the crags in the background. 

Looking out the front of the apartment complex: Our Dynamic Earth (a fantastically cool science museum) and the crags.

My apartment complex on the left and Parliament on the right. See how close I am??

Parliament: so much prettier on the inside (or from above). I wave to Diarmid every time I walk by. :-)

The Park. My posh apartment complex. Squatter's Rights!!!!!

So that's my awesome and spectacular neighborhood. I'm.never.leaving. Ok, so maybe I will, but it will be against my will.

Then I meandered up to the Royal Mile:

Proof I was on the Royal Mile....along with a bunch of other tourists.

This mile is what made me fall in love with this city in the first place (The clouds kept coming and going, as is kinda their thing, so some of the pictures had great lighting and others not so much.):

St. Giles Cathedral

Looking towards Holyrood and the Firth of Forth.

Looking towards the castle (be patient, you'll see it in a sec.).

Tolbooth Kirk, though now it is apparently the office for all things festival. 

I managed to purchase another photo from a guy that I bought a picture off of back in 2008. He does great work and I was so excited to see his stuff there again.

This will go nicely with my other Arthur's Seat picture. His are way better than mine. :-) Photo is of the crags and the city.

That was all the shopping I managed. I kept walking up towards the castle. Here I just stopped for pictures. I didn't go inside. Another day.

The Edinburgh Castle. 

View south from the castle.

Side shot. 

View of Arthur's Seat from the castle.

Looking over the edge into the Grassmarket (loads of pubs here). 

Looking North towards Princes Street and the gardens. 

I was *finally* getting the nerve to ask this adorablesauce couple to take my picture (you know, for proof) and someone beat me in asking them. So I chickened out. lol I'm.an.idiot.

Another amazing Royal Mile shot. Who couldn't LOVE this place??

Then it was time to head towards New Town, so I picked a close (a small pathway leading away/to the Mile) and walked towards Princes Street and Waverley Station.

Lady Stair's Close. It's the writer's close...

because there's a writer's museum and because they have these awesome carvings in the stones. "My roots in the Soil of Alba." - fionn maccolla (1906-1975?)

"Auld Reakie wale o ilka town." - Robert Ferguson (1756-1794?)

This close comes out right by the National Gallery and provides some very nice views of the castle.

And of course the statues...everywhere statues...so scary!! (Watch the Doctor Who episode of Blink to understand the fear.)

And this jerk had a sword to boot....I had to walk down the hill backwards.

View over Waverley Station, the gardens, Scott Monument, and the Balmoral.

The gardens, Waverley, and the two bridges leading to/from the Old Town. 

Had a peek down Princes Street:

Always construction....

all the time.

And of course Jenners.

This needs a slight explanation. See, I met some friends for dinner and drinks last night and they said to meet them at House of Fraser on Princes Street. No problem, I say. Long story short, I went to the wrong HoF and made them walk an extra 15 minutes to get me. Yes, I'm.an.idiot. Luckily they are good friends and didn't hold it against me. :-)

OH, and we went to this awesome tappas place! The food was delish. AND we managed to stay there longer than an hour and 45 minutes (OH THE HORROR!!!). Haha, inside joke. :-) Then drinks at The Inside Bar (I think that's the name of it). Good times with good friends!!

Back to today. My walk continued towards the Scott Monument.

The gardens are just starting to bloom and they are already gorgeous. Can't imagine what they are like in a couple more weeks. 

Another castle shot in between the Galleries.

Sir Walter Scott, sitting peacefully. He's very patient for pictures.  

One final parting shot. 

Then I made my way over the bridge and back to my part of town to pick up dinner: Chicken Tikki Pasanda, Nan, and HFCS-free Dr Pepper.

Dinner. Yummy!! (and slightly messy)

I also managed to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban while writing postcards, which I will mail tomorrow...assuming I have your address.

I'm never this productive at home, but then again, I haven't exactly gotten 'work' done. Maybe tomorrow...maybe. :-)

Amazing pictures

Well amazing might be a stretch, but these came out much better than I expected considering I paid 5 pounds for the phone.

Looking over the park and Waverley station (the Balmoral is on the left). 

Scott Monument and Princes Street (the Balmoral is now on the right).

Big thanks to Mommabear for sending these pics to me...or sending me the link to the website, blah blah blah. She has the patience of a saint either way. :-)

Day Three: New and Old Friends

What a great day! I wasn't thrilled about forcing myself to wake up since I had a rough sleep day yesterday. But that all turned around very quickly.

First let me start with a kinda scary moment, not scary like my life was in danger, but scary like I'm an idiot. There have been several switches in the apartment that I just don't know what they do and being a typical scaredy-cat, I haven't tried any of them. Well this morning I wanted a light to shine on my awesomesauce breakfast.

I attempted a sausage omelet, but it turned into a cheese omelet (and only one piece of giant toast today). 

See why I wanted to see what I was eating. Delish! Anyway, in the course of turning the lights on I flipped a switch that made this happen:

Yes, a switch made that happen. Imagine my surprise! It's supposed to look like this:

See, it's open!

I'm not sure if there is anyone living below me, but after that noise I bet they're moving out. Well, that and I manage to make a ton of noise, like dropping my phone on the floor, at all times of the day and night. Those poor people.

Well the day turned around after I finally left the apartment and met up with Diarmid. I met him through a friend, though I would now call him my friend. :-) He works at Parliament, which happens to be the building next to mine (I'll post pics of that when I take them sometime). He took a bunch of time out of his very busy day to show me around and give me a very exclusive tour. It was a total blast! The building is so much cooler on the inside than the outside. And there was even an extra excursion outside the Parliament building. Diarmid is a superb tour guide! I am looking forward to more gems that he will hopefully introduce me to.

He dropped me off on the Royal Mile - always dangerous for me. I meandered up, purchased a bunch of postcards (which I plan on filling out tomorrow), and then went home for lunch. Lunch was just a ham sandwich and an apple.

Then I met up with my friend Ryan who just got his membership to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and was anxious to use it. I was nice enough to volunteer to help him use it (gawd, I'm such a good friend). We started at the Queen's St. store where we had beer and wine (haha, I know). Then we wandered down to the Vaults store, after picking up his roommate Adam. We ate dinner and had more drinks there.

Yummy chicken cordon bleu and check out those chips, they're huge!

Dinner, drinks, and good company. What a great way to end a great day!

I took a couple of pictures of the town at sunset (GORGEOUS by the way), but I made the mistake of taking them with the stupid phone I got here and now I can't seem to get the pictures off the phone. Blerg. Anyway, there will be other opportunities for me to take pictures I'm sure.

Now if only it would rain so I could get some work done. ;-)

Day Two: Sleep and Arthur's Seat

Another day to catch up on sleep. The meeting last night lasted til past midnight, plus I took some Zyrtec, which always knocks me out. Anyway, I won't mention what time I woke up, let's just say I needed the sleep. When I did manage to get up, I made a nice little breakfast.

Sausage and egg whites, toast, banana, and orang-mango juice. 

This really fueled me up for my hike up Arthur's Seat. 

See how high up it is? I needed fuel.

This hike reminded me that I need to go back to the gym. Sheesh! My legs are hurting, but there is no beating fresh air and a magnificent view! It was the perfectly wrong time to climb up (for pictures I mean), the sun was in a bad place for decent pictures.

Sun through the vegetation.

It was a beautiful view, regardless of what the picture shows.

There were paths all over the place.

The hike down was much easier and just as beautiful. Did I mention the weather was perfect? I was wearing a t-shirt on the way up and put my fleece on for the way down.

Duck pond along the way.

Looking out towards the firth of Forth.

Who wouldn't want to live here?

I had to make a stop at Tesco on the way home. It is just up one block from the apartment, and a short block at that. It's very convenient (maybe too convenient). Then back 'home' for dinner and chilling out. May try to go to bed early tonight so as not to waste the day away. 

Wonder what I should do tomorrow? Any suggestions? I'm hoping that the weather is nice again. If it rains, I have no excuse not to work on my dissertation, so I'm praying for sunshine. :-)