Oh boy, Edinburgh!

We made it out of the EU into the UK! I’m pumped to be in an English speaking land again. It just makes my life easier. I can get a real haircut and stuff. We stayed in Edinburgh in the Leith docks area, just like Trainspotting! Unlike Trainspotting the area we were in was super hip and gentrified, so we were not feeling any presence of depressing drug-e lives. In fact, if I lived in Edinburgh I could totally see myself living in the Leith area. It’s full of hip bars and cafes and it has gorgeous walking trails.

Fun bit about Scotland, my parents visited! My folks came and hung out with me for almost 3 weeks. It was lovely to share a bit of my current life with them and explore this great city and country with them.

Alright, I’m going to do a list of highlights from our month in Edinburgh and boy, there are many! Hold onto your pants ’cause Ima blow you away with all the pictures!

1. I’ve touched on this one a bit already, but I really loved our neighbourhood. I totally recommend staying in Leith if you ever visit Edinburgh. There are many buses to go downtown to the historic areas or about a 30 min walk to the historic city centre. Bonus: Leith is so much cheaper than renting downtown!

This church was on our block. John thought the bunting made it look sad, but I thought it looked magical.

Our favourite pub was the Teuchters Landing. They serve all the food they can in these adorable mugs and the food is delicious! Also beer! All the beer is delicious.

We had the most adorable market in our neighbourhood. It opened every Saturday and had delicious mead, cheese, olives, bread, coffee, and beer! Probably other delicious things that we didn’t try.

John found his “place.”

(click here for the panorama if the embedded one doesn’t work, or to see it full screen)

Another fav bar was The King’s Wark. It has an incredible gin and tonic list, great decor, and amazing chowder or skink as they call it.

The Teuchters Landing also has a mug o’ sweets for dessert! Just the best!

2. I’m in love with the downtown/Royal Mile area of Edinburgh. The Royal Mile is full of tourist shops, but it’s also full of character and really cool old shit from the “ye’ olden” era.

OMG dat Castle!

One of many ye’ olden churches I went in.

Killer view of Holyrood Park.

The famous St. Giles Cathedral. The inside is full of incredible stained glass windows, but I had to pay money to take photos and I’m cheap so I didn’t. You’ll just have to trust me that they are beautiful. Or check the internet.

We found a cute teeny tiny board game cafe! We played a couple games and purchased a new lil’ game to travel with us called Lords of Scotland. Seemed appropriate.

3. My parents visit! It was so lovely to drag these two around Edinburgh and Scotland for a few weeks.

I even made them go on a sweet double decker bus with me.

My Dad would not buy this hat. My sad face didn’t even work on him, it’s like I don’t even have any daughter powers.

Rub the lucky toe!

Since my longterm life goal is to be Tom Cruise in Cocktail, we took a cocktail making class!

I am now this.

I am so pro. Actual bar star.

4. Edinburgh Castle! Such a huge and cool place. It’s the centre of Edinburgh and dominates the skyline.

#castleselfie

The gates.

Cannon.

I think this is William Wallace.

or maybe this one?

(click here for the panorama if the embedded one doesn’t work, or to see it full screen)

Is this one William Wallace?

or is this one William Wallace?

(click here for the panorama if the embedded one doesn’t work, or to see it full screen)

5. Really cool graveyards! awww yeah old dead things!

6. We went on a cool Ghost tour. It was spoopy! I loved the story telling and I kinda loved the cheap jump scare they did, but John hated the jumpy scare. Our guide took us through some of the underground while telling us about how brutal people were in the middle ages. The tour finished with a spooky story about the in house poltergeist and a masked man jumped out at us in the dark tunnel. I may have clawed my poor fathers arm.

I see an entity behind us!

My Dad might be possessed. (sorry Dad but I really liked this photo of Mom and I)

7. Not an Edinburgh highlight, but a Scotland one, we went to Glasgow! We went to Glasgow to visit Jess and John and they took us around town to see all the things.