Edinburgh II

We met up with sun, friends and a few surprises in Edinburgh this weekend. It went something like this:

A Happy Mistake

In spite of sky-high Festival pricing, I was feeling quite chuffed to have scored us a room in a nice B&B for our night in Edinburgh at the peak tourist season. After a restful train ride and a less restfull hike through a jam-packed city centre, we found ourselves back at Ramsay's B&B in the New Town, where we stayed last December.


Out hostess was surprised to see us. hm. She thumbed through her bookings. Amanda Regier? You're sure you have the right B&B? I insisted she had confirmed with me via email and she went to her computer to double check. Indeed we HAD confirmed over email, for August 3, 2008! yeesh!

As Dean and I ran through possible alternatives (namely, catching a train home since the entire city is booked up) our hostess made a few calls. She returned with news that her upstairs neighbour would let us stay in her room at a reduced rate. How could we say no?!

Thus, said neighbour dropped by after her morning in the garden, full of apologies as she showed us into her beautiful 4-bedroom home. Normally the sole resident, both of her kids were home from uni AND she had out-of-town guests from Australia! So she gave us her own bedroom and shared with her daughter. How's that for accomodating.

A Convenient Coincidence

Getting ready to venture out, we paused to ask our new friend, Lois, if she knew how to get to IKEA, as we had a living room to furnish. With surprise she said, "Well, I actually was planning to go to IKEA today."

Thus, we caught a ride to our favourite cheap furniture mecca and dropped a month's rent on a new sofa, coffee table, desk, cozy chair, curtains and storage boxes! Furthermore, the drive gave us a chance to learn a little more about Lois, as she's had an interesting few years, relocating from a scenic sea-side village to a bustling city where she is an art teacher foraying into the daunting world of mid-life dating. Methinks she will have no problems there.


A Revised Map of Edinburgh

The real reason for our trip was a meet-up with Dean's university roommate, Paul. Paul and his wife Joelle got married shortly after us and this was there one-year anniversary trip (and a means of transporting Paul's grandmother's ashes to Norway, but that's another story).

A pub dinner and drinks, and then a few more drinks got the stories rolling and Joelle and I got a fresh education re: our respective husbands. Forget what the maps say, Memory lane is in Edinburgh. While the boys rollicked down it, we girls grinned and gave each other knowing looks from across our tiny pub table, understanding we'd both be patiently guiding these boys home in few hours. It was a much overdue acquaintance to be made, and a really good one.


Ill-chosen Trousers

The next morning, rested and ready for a promising day of sun, we said our cheery farewells to Lois and met up with our friends under stacks of soup cans (a cheeky promo for the National Gallery's Andy Warhol exhibit).


A shot of caffeine at Starbucks tricked us into thinking it would be a good idea to climb Arthur's Seat, the towering craggy rocks that cast a shadow over parliament and Holyrood House. So after a visit to the castle and a stroll down the Royal Mile, we climbed. Dean and I climbed in our city attire, skinny jeans and grip-less shoes, while our world traveling friends were better equipped. Four farmer-tans later we made it to the top and fought gale-force winds to bring you the following photographic evidence:


The World's End

After the descent, we rounded out our visit with a pub lunch at The World's End. The Sonstebys caught a train to Glasgow and we spent the afternoon shopping, of course. Our loot: a tacky flea-market mug, Cole & Son wallpaper from Habitat and some much needed art from our fave Edinburgh shop.


The rest of the photos can be found on flickr.