Going to Edinburgh

On Friday, September 4, I set off for Edinburgh to visit Chrissy and her fiancé, Jamie. I traveled to Edinburgh last year to visit them, and met up with my sister while there, so I had done a lot of the touristy things (Camera Obscura, Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, etc.). They just moved into a new flat in Portobello, right near the Firth of Forth (the sea, more or less). This explains the lack of internet, and consequently, the lack of posts for the last week or so. The train trip was a short hop to York, then a change for the train to Edinburgh. Much of the track that I was supposed to be riding on had been flooded the prior day, so I was naturally a bit worried about significant delays, but it had all been taken care of before I had to board my train, thankfully. The train to York was only about an hour, but it had been delayed by about 30 minutes (which meant there was no way I would make my connection), and we were constrained to the first three cars of the train. While this wouldn’t have been a huge deal had I had an overnight bag, with two large suitcases, it meant I basically had to stand for most of the trip. Not a huge deal, though, just a little annoying. After finding a new train from York to Edinburgh I was on my way, only about 20 minutes behind schedule. Luckily, there was room for my luggage, and seats on this train, so I was able to dive into my book The Botany of Desire (sounds sexy, but it’s just pop-science).

The trip was relatively uneventful, save for some slow going over a bit of high water, and I arrived in the station to find Chrissy and Jamie waiting for me. We took a cab back to their flat and promptly set about catching up, drinking wine, and eating a home-cooked meal. They have a guest room/office in their new flat, so I was able to crash in my own room. Bonus. Oh, I should mention that after I set my things down, we went to go look at a new kitten they are getting. While the kitten was supposed to be picked up on the 25th, it’s mother died, so we’re getting the cat today! Bring on the Zyrtec!

During the day, on Saturday, we went to look for new furniture for their apartment and did a bit of shopping. Sunday, we went to the IKEA to do some major furniture shopping. God, I love IKEA. I never fail to get excited and overwhelmed, no matter how often I go there. That night, we went and watched fireworks from a room at the University. The fireworks capped off the Edinburgh International Festival, which unfortunately, I just missed, but the fireworks were set to music, which was pretty cool. Afterwards, we went to a pub and met up with some of her friends from the linguistics program, whereupon I had the game of cricket explained to me. None of it still makes sense, but at least I have an introduction.

Chrissy and I went into the city center on Monday to go to the bank and deposit my wad of cash, do some milling about, and have a bit of a late lunch. We finally got to some Internet when we went over to the university, which was like being hooked up to an IV drip. Much of the time we’ve just been hanging out, which has been a really nice vacation. Since I now have a bank account, and everything seems to be going along with my housing (we’ll see on Tuesday), I’m much more relaxed now than I was before I left.