Edinburgh!! July 14, 2013

Yes-- I know..  I'm late with the blog.  This is what happens when you get to come home and collapse.  Sorry Sally! I have tons of notes... and only a few days left that need to be blogged.

We wake up in our CHILLY Edinburgh apt, to the news of Cory Monteith’s death – I see it about 7am – which is about 1am back home, and realize that a lot of people won’t see it until they wake up in the morning.  It’s weird when people like that die, it’s not like you know them on any level, but it still effects you.  I’ve been a fan of Lea Michelle since before Glee (Spring Awakening) and always rooted for her – thinking of her today. 

Overnight I heard the revelers down at the Grassmarket – at one point it sounded like the entire population of the grassmarket was singing Champagne Supernova (all of the lyrics, not just the chorus, in total unison).  It was kind of a cool vibe to just hear that wafting up through your windows.  But it’s not the song that I expect the people of Scotland to just all know and sing in unison.  Now if it had been, “And I would walk 500 miles….”, but it wasn’t.  We find that most of the music around here is American music, all the music we’re hearing on the radio and even the “oldies” stations, it’s all American oldies, it just surprising how pervasive it is.  There will be the occasional song that we don’t know, but it’s pretty rare – and it just gets weirder when the muzak played in the stores are popular rock tunes… played on bagpipes.. I kinda like it.

We still have like every piece of clothing that any of us brought to wash, and it’s not going to work to hang them all up to dry, so we try to figure out the washing machine – seems to be our quest in most places.  This one is supposed to be a combination washer and dryer, and we think that we’re putting it on the setting where once it’s done washing it should go straight to a drying cycle – but it sounds awfully watery in there when it’s in the drying cycle (swear we hear water sloshing around), and when it’s done the clothes are very hot and very moist and steamy.   But we find that if we just abandon the idea of the combination, do a short wash, and then put it just on a separate dry cycle that we actually have dry clothes.  We had done some laundry last night and then hung it around the apt and off the balcony.  The wind is strong enough out there that there’s a good chance we could lose clothes to the streets below…

Our other concern is that Brittany has lost her fruit.  Sounds a bit like she’s lost her marbles – but it’s actual fruit that she’s looking for.  Some nectarines and some grapes that she is very sure that she put in her backpack, at the very least she’s sure that she took the bag out of the car and upstairs – but she says that she has looked everywhere, looked in the backpack multiple times, every pocket, every possible place in the apartment and now she’s in that manic phase where you are just nutty because you can’t think of anyplace else to look and you’re starting to question whether the fruit ever really existed.  We look everywhere; we look in the car, in every bag and flat surface.  No fruit.

We head out, and again, just amazed that out our front door is this amazing square, the Grassmarket area; it is just a nice atmosphere.  There is a large cobblestone pedestrian area, and it just has a very European feel – like Germany.  It’s also one of the stops on the hopper bus, so we’re 50 feet away from the hop on bus, and that’s how we’re going to start the day.  We’re going to venture out and try the green bus today (not the very popular and ubiquitous red bus), because the reviews say that they’re better and they have a live tour guide.  I prefer live to the head-phoned canned tour info. 

See the red building (1st floor) - that's our building, top floor, rear, facing the castle..



A view of the large plaza - you can see why it feels so festive

While we’re waiting for the bus we see a man eating breakfast outside, in a kilt.  There is really nothing better than seeing random guys in kilts.  We need to start this practice in the states.  Dana says he probably wore that to church. It is Sunday, but they have big backpacks and so I don’t think that church was their destination.  I sure will miss seeing men just casually eating breakfast or walking by in kilts.  Our bus arrives, and immediately we’re lectured by our driver that he didn’t even have to stop for us, that they don’t “just stop” at every stop, we have to flag them down to let them know that we want on – he made it very clear how lucky we were that he was so nice (cough).  Ok well considering this is us buying a ticket, we didn’t know that we needed to flag people down because we haven’t been on the bus yet to know that – but pointing out that logic to him will probably escape him, and just make the process longer, so we just smile and nod and thank him for letting us know and thank you so much for like stopping, and picking up customers….  We also learn that when we’re on the bus if we want to get off at a stop we have to let someone know in due time or they won’t stop.  We’re questioning our decision to take the green bus.  They don’t even identify the stops – like “we’re coming up on stop number 3, if anyone is interested..” – they don’t even say when we’ve passed a stop, they just drive around and based on our surroundings we have to guess whether this might have been a stop or if we just missed a potential stop.  So, I’m guessing, and the bus is stopped (I thought at a stop) so I get up to tell the tour guide that we want off (like we were told to), and I’m sternly disciplined to stay seated and not approach her for my own safety… ah… so how exactly are we supposed to get off this bus again?  We kind of miss the red bus and their clearly stated stops, and like stopping…

 

Anyway – whether it was bad form or not, the fact that we wanted off at what we thought was the next stop was communicated, and we get off at the Scott Monument.  It’s a tribute to Sir Walter Scott and has representations of his popular characters around the outside.  It was recommended to walk up it and see the views of the city – Britt and Patti say that it’s not in them.. Dana and I pay the 4 pounds and head up while the others sit below.  It isn’t long before I was wishing I had joined them.  There is barely room for us going up, yikes.  It’s the narrowest thing we’ve encountered so far, ever (like even Tower of Pisa, or Blarney Castle) – and Dana even goes up to the second level with even narrower stairs.  No way – I’m staying here and waiting for her.  Nothing will make you feel more like a fat girl than having to climb a stone spiral staircase while having to share it with the people who are coming down – especially when they give you that “ugly fat American” sneer as you make yourself as small as possible and they don’t bother to do the same.  Dana didn’t know that I didn’t go up and spent a little bit of time looking for me at the top, which meant she took forever to come down.   When she got back, I steeled myself for the trip back down the narrow passage way and hoped that we could get down before we had to meet people coming up.   It was a total of 287 steps – and we got a certificate saying that we completed it.  Now we just need a frame.. not.  I am glad that we went up, despite the bit of cringing that had to happen to do it; beautiful up there.

Dana at the very top!

 

The benches where Patti and Brittany sat - they're on the 5th bench from the bottom right (the empty bench is the 1st bench)

When we meet up with the others at the bottom, they’re excited to tell us that they met a couple of Deaf ladies from London!  (You can imagine how excited Brittany was!) AND - they’re still here! Sitting on the bench right next to us – Patti and Brittany were sitting in the bench and saw the two ladies walk by and spot the bench tap the other and sign “cool” (fanning themselves) – very “Deaf” looking… so they watched for another second and they knew they were signing BSL (British Sign Language – and to my non-signing friends, yes, they have a different sign language than us). Britt just had to say hi.  So she approaches and signs, “Are you deaf?”  - “Yes!”.. she tells them that we’re hearing, and there are some communication delays, but they get each other.  The thing that always amazes me is that Deaf people have an accent from the country they are from – and they had an English accent.  Some signs they’re still not sure what they meant (a 1-handed “temporary” may mean BSL?).  But they were able to communicate that Patti's parents are deaf.. and they thought that our sign for father was mother – but Britt and Patti corrected them.  They asked if we were from New York City (a lot of people over here think that all Americans are or should be from NYC) – they ask when we were going back to America (looks similar to our sign for America), where we’re sleeping…  they signed London with just one finger (we use an “L” – when you use on finger it looks like our universal sign for “crazy”) – and then they signed what looked like our sign for “lesbian” – we have to ask around to see that that means, we never figured it out…  Then when we came back down and Patti and Brittany are explaining all of this, we see that they’re still there, and they’re looking over at us on occasion too (just as curious about us as we are about them) and as we leave we say goodbye and I talk to them briefly.  They tell us to have a good time (thumbs up, clock hands on the palm)..  It’s so cool to not know the language exactly, but get it somehow anyway.

We walked down Prince street for shopping (people told us great shopping there!) – but again it’s not what we're looking for.  It’s the American shops – that’s so funny to us that they think we want that.. and a little frustrating.  We’re not sure how else to tell them that we want local shop owners with just quirky/kitschy local stuff.  We decide to head to the royal mile toward the Edinburgh castle and the whiskey distillery.   We wanted to do the tour of the distillery, forget that we don’t really like whiskey – we thought it would be cool and we’re promised a souvenir at the end..we love a tour that includes a souvenir!  We have to wait a bit, there’s an entry time on our ticket, so we go and check out the gift shop.  It’s just whiskey – no shirts or anything.  Again we want to talk to them about marketing.   It’s our time for the tour, and the first part of the tour is like a bad amusement park ride.  We ride in a barrel, all Tunnel of Love-like while the ghost of somebody who makes whiskey tells us the tale of whiskey.  Extra cheesy.

Patti and Dana in their barrel...

Our ghostly host... ooooooo

Yeast bubbles.... yup.

 

 

 

 

 I’m a little disappointed with this part (at one point we go through a tunnel with white lights on the walls, and they blink to represent the yeast reaction.. oooooo… special effects), and then I see that it’s ending and there is a place where we’re getting off the barrels.  The end?  This is it?  Hmmm.. but this is when it gets good!  We wait in a room for a minute and then are led into another room that has a table in the shape of a U, and there are whiskey glasses set out in front of each seat.  They teach us all about what it means to be a single malt or a blended whiskey and what each region of Scotland produces for flavor profiles.  It’s really interesting.  And then we get a taste it.  We have to decide which region we want to sample, or if we like we can get a blend.  There are 5 dots on the table in front of us and we chose by putting our glass on the color of dot that matches the region of whiskey we want.  I tell the others that we should all pick a different region (there are 4) – except that there is one that makes a “smokey” flavor and we really don’t want to try that.  But others are said to be fruity or lemony, or vanilla (I find all of this hard to believe because in the end it’s just going to burn like whiskey and not really taste like any of this stuff).. but we try to get a variety so we can sample each. 

 

We’re told that we get to keep our glasses (they’re really cool – like a cross between a wine glass and a brandy snifter) – but not to drink until we get into the next room where they’re going to teach us how to taste it.  Much like wine tasting, you swirl and sniff, and do that a few times because they explain the first time you’ll just get alcohol smell, but the third and fourth times you’ll get the fruits and ingredients from the region.  I just get alcohol.. it smells like alcohol, really strong alcohol that burns my nose… my throat tightens at the smell… oh man, I can’t wait for Brittany to try this! 

 

Our guide is still telling us about how we can smell all these different layers, and then once we’ve done that we can go ahead and take a drink.  We do… WHOA. It’s whiskey.  And we try sips of all the different kinds… and it’s whiskey.  There is a pitcher of water on the table and the guide explains that adding a touch of water does something fancy to the flavor – Patti really likes it.  I add about equal amounts of water (not the right way to do it), and drink it.  I also end up just filling the glass with water again to just clear the taste out.  I have to say that our guide is a tiny bit horrified at our reaction to the whiskey – everyone else seems to be doing it right and savoring all the notes and flavor profiles of the regions, and we’re just making faces and talking about how our throats burn.  I explain that we don’t really drink whiskey (really?) and that we just thought this would be fun.  And it is.  Hey, cool free glass.  C’mon.

Yummmm... more please??

Like all good tours, this exits into the gift shop that we had been in before, and as we walk past the wall of whiskey, Dana spots big bottles of the MacKay whiskey, and while Brittany doesn’t want to buy them, we definitely take the photo opp.  It’s the same brand of whiskey that she found in Glasgow in the teeny tiny bottles.  She wants to take some whiskey home for others to try, and she finds a sample pack.  We learn that we can’t really take much of it home, and it’s illegal to ship it, so we don’t have many options anyway.  As Brittany is checking out she mentions the MacKay whiskey to the guy checking her out, and he does that thing where everyone in Scotland loves the MacKays.. his boss, the guy who runs this place is a MacKay.  Well, of course he is.  Damn MacKays.

 

We head back outside and there is a street performer acting as William Wallace is outside.  And we think he's a true Scotsman…. He’s flashing his kilt around a bit…  We’re getting hungry, but Dana thinks that we can get into the Edinburgh castle for no charge, the entrance seems to be open.  So we head up there first because it’s just about 100 feet.  We get in the grounds and it’s like walking into a football stadium, there are bleachers set up all around like an arena, and we’re on the “field”.  We learned later, back on the bus, that they set those up every year for a show that runs during the summer, and take them down again in the winter.  It’s a huge installation!  As we get further in, we see ticket gates – and this is a massive and impressive castle – but we’ve been in a lot of castles and we’re hungry, so we opt out of this one and head down the hill to find food.

The stadium on the castle grounds...

 

She's interesting...

The invisible Scottish man

William Wallace... FREEDOM!
 

We check out the menus and find a place that has haggis, and the rest of the crew has “chicken burgers”... which it turns out is not a burger made from chicken, but is a chicken patty sandwich.  The haggis has a whiskey sauce with it and includes the neeps and tatties just like the Inverness haggis.  So I feel good about not getting a backup meal.   This one was really good!  The Inverness haggis is the standard, and this measures up to it.  The waitress is really happy that I ordered it, I can hear her trying to convince others to try it too.  She says that she never liked haggis until she had it here, it’s the best haggis she’s ever had, and I can’t argue.  It’s really good.  Even Dana finally tried it!  No fear!  We got cokes with our meal and it’s served very European, in a can with a glass and no ice.

Our kingdom for some ICE!



Haggis... yum!

A Chicken Burger...

 

After lunch Patti wasn't feeling well and just needs to lie down, so she heads back to the apartment on her own.  But we’re right near the castle and recognize the steps that lead down to our apt – so she just takes the stairs down.  Our apt is right at the bottom of the stairs and we’ve seen the sign that points up and says to the castle – we even thought about walking up them… but later Patti says that it’s like forever stairs..it would have been a lot of work to walk up them to the castle.   Brittany, Dana and I decide that we’re going to walk the full Royal Mile that ends at Scottish Parliament and then catch the bus there and take it all the way around to the Grassmarket stop again.  There are some vendors along the street and we stop in at shops.  Dana gets a cool photograph from a professional selling pictures of castles on the street -- her picture is like a swirl in a babbling brook... he explains that the swirl is because the water was rushing around his legs as he stood in the stream.  Dana doesn't find that as interesting as he does... Brittany finds a cute owl bag, and Dana had just been talking about giving up on finding a Celtic knot ring in Scotland.. when she finds one at a street vendor!  She wanted a double knot, and this is just a single, but it’s the closest thing she’s found and for the price – it’s a steal.  I found a nice leather bound handmade note book with a cool clasp – so we’re all very happy.  We’re on the lookout for this picture of the man in the kilt with it blowing up and exposing a little of his backside.  I bought one at Cawdor Castle just because I found it so humorous that a place of such distinction had this in every one of their 3 gift shops, on 3 different sized cards… and yet had nothing related to MacBeth.  But I’m dwelling…  anyway, since then we haven’t been able to find it anywhere, and Dana has decided that she needs one, she regrets not getting it at Cawdor.

Not sure what was so funny...

We see a shop that is off on a side street and we consider whether we’re going to venture off the “mile” to go in – I tease Dana a little and tell her that if we don’t go that we’ll probably regret it, it probably has that perfect thing that we don’t even know we’re looking for yet… and it doesn’t take much of that to push her over the edge.  The first shop – we would not have regretted missing – just a T-Shirt shop… but we find another shop right across from it and we find the picture that Dana has been looking for.  It’s not on a card, but it on a coaster.  There is a cute young Scottish boy working the counter and Dana asks if they have this on a postcard anywhere – he says that if it’s anywhere it would be downstairs.  So Dana says she’s going down, but to hold one of those coasters for her just in case.  He’s being a little funny with us and tells us that they’re in such high demand that they’ve sold half the stack today, and they may not be around when she comes back up… Dana takes one with her downstairs just in case and he laughs at us a bit.   Downstairs, we don’t find it on any cards, she’s just going to have to live with the coaster – but she does find some other Scotsmen in kilts on a Tshirt that she buys – it will make a nice sleep shirt. 

J  We head back upstairs to check out and our Scottish boy is chuckling at us a bit, and we’re making him blush a little talking about our love for the kilts and the cute naked bum that is under them.  He accuses us of having a bum obsession.  I tell him the story of finding it at Cawdor and finding no MacBeth stuff, and then explain that I’m a McBeth, with surprisingly no McBeth love in Scotland (just tons of McKay love).  He thinks that there’s something to it – that because of the dark history of the name that people down play MacBeth – he says that he’s in a small acting troupe right now and they do a parody of MacBeth… so now it’s not only a lack of love, it’s mockery.  Hmmm.  He’s a cutie – we want one like him to take home with us.    

We continue to walk down the mile and hit more little stores.  One is owned by an Indian family, and the guy is super friendly (like everyone here), he chats us up and says that he’s lived here his whole life, just so weird to hear a full Scottish brogue out of him.  As we walk along the mile we see signs for different “closes” – it’s a big thing here, they’re little courtyards that shoot off the main road, little secret places – each one is completely different; would love to just explore them all.  We get down to the end of the mile and manage to find a bus that actually stopped without us flagging them down and ride back to the apt.  On the bus ride back we hear the explanation of how to measure the length of a kilt – you measure it as you kneel.  When you kneel it should just barely touch the floor.  King George IV visited Scotland and measured incorrectly – his kilt was much too short “for modesty” and continued to ride up.  There is a statue of him in town that depicts his likeness, with his kilt too short (it should be at the knees, so you shouldn’t see the knees).

Just a few of the closes...

We get off at our stop and decide to go into the candy store across the street for some ice cream.  Brittany has been looking for the light whippy type of icecream that she had in London, and this looks like it might be close.  We go in (hot again) and the guy starts to serve Dana a cone, but halfway through the swirl, the machine stops.  He’s out of ice cream!  Dang!  But instead of just throwing away half a cone, he lets Dana have what he had, no charge. 

We head upstairs and we struggle getting the door unlocked… we can’t in, and Patti can’t even let us in from the inside!   We figure out later that the reason we couldn’t get the door unlocked was because it was already unlocked – Patti got back and didn’t lock it behind her.  So when we got there it was actually unlocked and we were locking it in order to get in.   Just another of our fun times with British doors and keys.   We get more laundry done since this is the last time we’ll have to do laundry, but Dana and Patti only have 2 more sleeps before they’re home – Brittany and I have a week because of our additional stop in NYC.  We try to pack up as we get our clothes dry, and then we chill for a second; take in the cool cross breezes of Edinburgh and catch Patti up on our day.  We head down for dinner, and as we leave, we lock the door. 

All the restaurants in the Grassmarket have lots of outdoor seating – except that just as we’re arriving it’s time for them to close all of that for some reason, and so we have to sit inside.  We’re not huge fans of that since as we’ve said, it’s so much warmer inside, so NICE outside.  But we deal.  I know that if I tell you that I got the haggis, you’ll be shocked.  But I got the haggis; our last night in Scotland, and my last chance for haggis.  Patti gets some awesome mac and cheese with some white cheddar, Dana gets the weirdest Ceaser salad ever.  It has some kind of mayonnaise on it, and contains anchovies…worst salad of the trip.  And Brittany gets some good ole bangers and mash.  We top that off with some yummy Berry and lime Bulmers and Patti has a Tennents beer again.   Brittany gets a T-Shirt as a souvenir..

Mac and cheese

Dana's salad

Bangers and mash..

My last haggis... sadness..

Some random Edinburgh pics...

Even I didn't try these potato chips...

 

It’s our last night in Scotland…tomorrow we have a long drive down to Stratford-Upon-Avon, for our last full day in the UK.  We’ve had a great time here in Scotland, I think it was my favorite of the 4 countries. It’s the kilts.

The castle at night from our window

 

Our totals for the day… 12,664 steps, 50 stairs, 5.22 miles