a day in the life of an edinbugger {from the archives}

Dad woke us up around 8 am, although the seagulls had done a pretty fair job at that already...why do they sound like dying?
We woke up and find that our room's shower was broken. Not good. So, I quickly pull on some jeans, throw a bit of mascara on and head up to breakfast. Continental breakfasts there aren't quite the same as here, but not too different. We sat in an dining room, which was nicer than your average "hotel" in that this establishment had once been a single-family home.
After breakfast, the hoteliers gave us another room to shower in, which I quickly claimed first rights to. I grabbed my stuff and headed down to it, only to find that in order to get the thing turned on I had to press a switch on the wall of the bedroom...{that only took 20 minutes to figure out...oh, European adventures!} Needless to say, we decided one night at the Piries Hotel was enough.
That settled, we set off on foot to explore the city. First stop, of course, being Starbucks (yes, they really are everywhere) to fuel up on coffee sweetened w/ unnatural aspartame--artificial sweeteners are hard to find, and these sensitive teeth of mine can't handle the real stuff. Starbucks became my American Embassy. Anyway, we made our way through the city, and seemingly intuitively wound up at Edinburgh Castle. A castle, situated in the center of your city, atop a high hill. One of the reasons Edinburgh is my favorite city.

We decided not to see the interior of the Castle just yet, and satisfied ourselves with the outer part; great views of the city, tons of monuments, and of course the iconic red phone booths. We stepped down the hill into a kilt manufacturing business, where I got a MacDonald of Clan Ranald tartan scarf (that's the clan my dad's descended from). Beautiful!

By this point it was lunchtime, so we headed across the Royal Mile (street name) to "The Scotch Whisky Experience" --come now, you know this girl would end up there straight away--and went to their Amber Cafe for some food. Once again, the food was phenomenal!! Out of this world. America; take note. Jordan got the haggis (Traditional food of Scotland; wiki definition: There are many recipes, most of which have in common the following ingredients: sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours.) I tried my fair share, and seriously, folks---it's REALLY good. Melt-in-your-mouth, savoury...don't knock it 'till you've tried it!
As we left the establishment, across the street we saw a man in "Braveheart" attire--blue face paint, swords, and all! He was delightfully friendly, posing for photos. Later we discovered he's a an authentic celeb, having done work as Mel Gibson's double, as well as in other films including "Pirates of the Caribbean 2." Nice!
We then walked back towards the hotel through Prince's Street Gardens, which line the main drag below the Castle. It was gorgeous, full of monuments--including Robert Louis Stevenson's grave (he wrote "Robinson Crusoe"), which is encircled by slender white birch trees, and reads "RLS, a man of letters." The park was also filled with hundreds of bright yellow daffodils in full bloom, their papery blossoms contrasting warmly with the bright green grass.

Although the sun had been filtering generously through the clouds overhead, it was cold enough to get the teeth chattering, so we hit up another 'Bucks before piling into our car for the next leg of the journey. Dad got a parking ticket--the first of 3 over the course of our week. Good job. We decided to head to Glasgow next, but Dad declared the need to make a toilet-stop (not called restrooms there. just toilet.) The first place we found is on the western edge of Edinburgh, and was a large store called ASDA, which on closer inspection, is in fact owned by Wal-Mart, and is indeed very similar to it, only nicer and w/ "nappies" instead of "diapers" on the aisle content board.
We wisely decided to stock up on some produce, water, and chocolate before hitting the road. Will British chocolate be superior to American? I've heard tell it is...Meanwhile, we entered into the countryside where the beauty of the landscape could only be hampered by the nausea-inducing driving of my dad. Though everyone drives crazy here. CRAZY. And not just b/c they're on the other side of the road; that I can handle. (Also; Edinburgh bus drivers are homicidal. Just take a journey there and try not to get hit by one; it's not easy.)

--more to come...one must finish what one starts, non?