Visiting Edinburgh Part 1

If you were thinking that this post might never arrive, I was with you a little bit! But I've realized that if I don't just put the pictures together and write about our time in Edinburgh than I might never do it, so I'm finally doing it.

Anyway, on to our trip. As I said earlier this month, it has been 3 years since we moved home from Scotland, and I've been reflecting on that a lot lately, and shared some of my thoughts in this post. Though we love our new life, we regularly and fondly think back to our time back in Edinburgh, so when the opportunity presented itself for us to visit last year after our trip to Heidelburgh, we were right on board. We would be in Edinburgh for 3 days, and the only mandatory part of our agenda was a public lecture that Chris was giving at New College one afternoon. We decided that we wanted our trip to have as few commitments as possible so that we had ample time to roam the city and do or see whatever we felt like. And that is exactly what we did.

We chose our hotel based on it's close proximity to our favorite weekly breakfast date, the incredible coffee shop Chocolate Soup. We went there every morning, ordered our favorite old drinks and pastries, read the free paper and just soaked it all up. It was a perfect start.

We both realized pretty quickly (when planning the trip, and had this affirmed when we arrived), that all that we really wanted from our trip was to re-live some of the small pieces of our old life that we really missed. So after breakfast we wandered around the city. We headed up to New College, where Chris had studied, because we wanted to see some of his friends who were up there working, and because we wanted to walk back through a building that had been an important part of our time there.

So that's what we did.

I had conflicted feelings about taking pictures while we were out everywhere.

We have a better camera than when we lived there before so a part of me wanted to document some of the places that we loved so much in a higher quality.

Also, since we'd been away for a while I wanted to get a few shots of things that I had never thought to take pictures of while we still lived there.

However, having my camera out all the time and snapping pictures on the streets made me feel like a tourist even though I still felt like a local. Honestly, as soon as we started walking around we both felt like we had been transported back in time and did still live there. So having my camera out and being in awe of everything was kind of strange and I didn't like it.

I ended up taking pictures on the first walk on our first day, and once on the second day, and other than that left it tucked safely away in the hotel room.

For lunch we made our way down one of our favorite streets to the best pizza shop in town and another one of our weekly loves,

Mamma's Pizzeria.

We have lots of fun memories of this restaurant and brought everyone who came to visit us to Mammas, so it was a necessary stop.

Again, we got our usual, ate it happily, and once again discussed how strange it was to feel as though nothing had changed.

After lunch we headed up to the City Center,

past our first flat,

and down to Princes Street Gardens to soak up the beautiful weather and scenery.

We stopped in a few of our favorite shops across the street, and then headed back to our hotel. On our way, we passed one of my favorite hair salons that had a sign out saying they had openings right then, so I decided to run in for a haircut and Chris went back to the hotel for a nap.

If you're thinking "you went and got a haircut?" I know, it may seem a little odd. But one of the great things about Edinburgh was that there were so many students in the city and so many places that wanted their business, that you could often find incredible deals like the one. Basically, if this salon had some openings right then (I can't remember what they were called now, standby, I think?), then you could get a haircut for half off. But it was a really upscale salon, where they started you off with a scalp massage and pads over your eyes, served you cappuccino or wine while you were getting a trim, and HALF OFF of your appointment meant you still paid less than at a cheap place!! So even with the exchange rate, I still paid less for this upscale hair cut than I would have at home. Score!! It also kind of made me feel like, "Oh it's just a normal day in Edinburgh, we went for a walk this morning and then I'm getting a haircut this afternoon." :)

That night we had reservations at this incredible restaurant that we always wanted to go to, but were saving for a very special occasion and never made it, the Witchery.

The Witchery is located right beside the Edinburgh castle, and it has a beautiful gothic/romantic atmosphere, and incredible food. It was wonderful. In light of us having a day doing things that felt pleasantly normal and common, it was a nice reminder that this was a special occasion for us. Chris' Templeton Award was a result of the research and writing that he had done in Edinburgh, so it felt just right to celebrate this honor at the best restaurant in Edinburgh.

It was a great day.