Last day in Edinburgh

It's monday night and we are back home in Den Bosch. Unfortunately, Sean had to get right back to work the morning after we got home sunday night, so Scotland already starts to feel far away. Luckily we have lots of great memories and pictures to look back upon and keep the holiday feeling alive. Before getting sentimental already, let me tell you about our last day and a half in Edinburgh.

Saturday morning, Sean woke up hours  before the alarm as it was 'very hot' (Seans words, for me it was just fine) in the bedroom. So we got on our feet early and started walking around the city. Edinburgh is a very beautiful, photogenic city. It's laid in the hills, the stonecolour is the same throughout (different kinds of stones though) which gaves the whole city a unified feel, it's touristy but not too much, there's lots of nice boutique stores as well as the big chain stores, lots of churches and monuments, a beautiful park with great views right in the centre, and maybe most beautiful is Edinburgh castle rising out above it all: wherever you are, you can see the castle. All in all, a great place to stroll around.

We did the last bit of souvenir shopping. Sean got himself a nice Scottish vest and a woolen sweater for me. Unfortunately the weather turned grey and rainy in the afternoon. We were attracted by a sign outside a big (to European standards) shopping mall, which promised 'food hall 5th floor'. We expected a nice American style food hall, but after going up all the escalators to the top, the food hall turned out to be barely a cafe, more like a food stand.... wah wah. Instead we went to big Mexican restaurant, and although the service wasn't very good (they forgot our appetizer, forgot to add spicy sauce for Seans main dish and the sweet potatoes for my main dish - summing this up it actually sounds pretty bad) the burrito was actually great so we were happy.

After lunch we strolled around a little more, but we were getting tired from the short night sleep and probably just from the whole active week we've had, so we went back to our chill apartment. Later in the evening we went to a pizza place across the street for a take away dinner. Sean was out to get drinks at the supermarket, and while I was waiting for the pizzas I chatted to a mother and daughter sitting next to me. My initial thought was that she was Polish, but she lived in Scotland and she and her daughter were in Edinburgh for a big concert located at the castle. Then out of the blue, she asked if I'd ever been in Poland, and it turned out she actually had Polish roots, which I was happy to hear because I like to think I'm good at guessing peoples roots. Then it turned out that SHE thought I was from Poland or at least eastern Europe, which I guess I take as a compliment - bit weird though as I usually hear I look typically Dutch.

Our night ended up just watching tv and getting to bed early. Almost asleep, we all of a sudden heard these loud bangs, I was freaking out a bit but when it continued we realized it was fireworks from the concert. The next morning we packed our suitcases one final time and crossed our fingers they were under twenty kilo for the plane. We had a great breakfast at this place called Red Squirl. With about an hour to kill before heading to the airport, we went to the park (called the Princes Street Gardens) as it was a lovely warm and sunny morning. I would have loved to have another day in Edinburgh so I was sad when the time had arrived to leave for the airport.

Luckily our suitcases were right under 20 kilo, so we were good to go. It was super busy at the airport, apparently holiday time for the Scots as well. Once in the plane, it was announced that the computers were down and they had to reboot the plane. All the power went off, which meant no airconditioning for a while. Everybody was already pretty sweaty from the warm weather outside, unfortunately especially the guy next to me (no, not Sean) and with the airconditioning off, the plane turned into a right sauna. Luckily they fixed the computers, but the 1 hour 15 minute flight with the body odor of my neighbour was... plane awful.

I feel like I should end this blog with a summary of our trip, but as I had to make summaries for my study time and time again, I think I'll just end with a short note. We had a great time in Scotland. The landscape is stunning, the people are super nice and frienly, the B&B's are wonderful. We would love to go back as there's so much more to see. Thank you all for reading our blog, hope you guys enjoyed it.
Scotland, till next time!