Monday, June 16, 2008
Edinburgh, Day 2
First I would like to apologize for my writing. The Air Force has ruined my creative writing skills since I haven’t written anything but bullet and medal citation style in the past four years. This morning I tried the traditional British breakfast with eggs, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, potato cakes, toast and baked beans. Baked beans for breakfast is a whole new concept for me…I didn’t know it was allowed. It sounds like something I would eat for breakfast when I was a poor college student and there was nothing left to eat except a can of bean in the cabinet. Also tried haggis, a type of meat patty, which I’m sure is some type of sheep intestine or stomach. It was not bad, but the thought of not knowing what I ate reminded me of the day I had chitlens at a festival not knowing what it was. Mystery meat can never be a good thing even if it looks like meatloaf. The B&B we are at is somewhat different than we expected. There is no common area except for the dinning room. Even there they have individual tables set up for two or four. Bed and breakfasts are a fairly new industry in the US, but from our experiences from staying at inns and interviewing innkeepers around the US we seem to have gotten the whole hospitality of the B&B down. Tim and I enjoyed the one large dinning table at the bed and breakfast on our honeymoon. It forced us to talk with other couples about life and tours we went on the day before. I always look at the whole traveling experience as an opportunity to relax and learn from others. The house was set up so the dinning room was up front and the rooms in the hallway and up stairs. The innkeepers seemed to stay shut away in the much larger backside of the house. There was no access for us to walk around in the beautiful garden in the back yard. Also, the room was cramped and much smaller than the little 12x12 bedrooms builder are making now days, with no sense of décor. So this forced us to get out doors. We took the bus down the Royal Mile to look for the Edinburgh Castle. As we were walking up the hill to what we thought was a castle, we stopped and asked a lady on the road if we were going the right way. She said the castle was on the other side of town and this was just a watchtower with a great view of the city. I guess everything medieval looks like a castle to us. So we continued to hike up to the top of the hill and took some scenic pictures. Then we troughed through the far side of town to see the castle. By this time my feet were killing me. In attempt to not stand out like an American, I decided not to wear tennis shoe. I have worn these shoes all day long and they have time and time again proven to be comfortable except in Edinburgh. We finally made it to the castle to realize that not only was the hill getting up there steep but so was the cost of the ticket to get in. We decided not to burn a whole in the leather of our wallet like I did with the leather of my shoes. Instead we ate sandwiches at a pub for lunch. Then we went on a wild goose chase to find Avis to pick up our car rental. It seemed nearly impossible to find because it was hidden in a back alley. We opted for the automatic with GPS. This was the smartest choice we made since the roads are not easy to navigate and remembering what side of the road to drive on is hard enough. The driving is crazy here. The roads are narrow and everyone parks on the sides of the roads where there is not enough room left for driving. Also you have to move with the flow of traffic or you will get run over. Tim drove as I embraced myself and clutched the door of the car. With all the intensity I was feeling, the baby began doing flips inside my stomach. At least she didn’t see what I was seeing. I wished I was inside my mother's womb with amniotic fluid protecting me. But Tim did good driving as TomTom navigated us back to the B&B. I changed into my Nikes as comfort was priority over fashion at this point. No one here wears sneakers but it didn’t feel so bad after I saw the rest of their outfits. I thought Europe had all the fashion but I stand corrected. Don’t get me wrong they didn’t look like they were headed to the local Wal-mart, but it was still not anything I wanted to replicate with my wardrobe. Hollywood has the world beat on fashion. Did I say the weather was in the 60’s. I used Tim’s converter on his cell phone and it is 50F. So when it gets that cold I don’t care anymore. You may see me wear the same pair of jeans and 3 sweaters over and over again. I brought a lot of cute maternity skirts and shirts that will never get worn here.
After and hour of rest at the B&B we used our day pass and took the bus back into town. We were on a quest for to find an art shop that had a painting that we really liked. Tim and I started collecting artwork on our honeymoon. We got two pieces of art that reminded us of downtown Savannah and one of our honeymoon bed and breakfast. Here we got a modern art piece of a map of downtown Edinburgh. I was also able to find a jewelry store that had Scottish charms. I collect charms for my bracelet every time I go to a new country, live in a new state or make it through a life-changing event that I don’t want to forget. This time I got bagpipes. We decided to slow down on the food spending and ate at Subway for supper. Amazingly enough, when I asked for vinegar on my sandwich the guy looked at me like I was stupid. I was pretty sure the British put vinegar on everything including fries. So why would they not have vinegar at Subway? That is the only time I do eat vinegar on my food. We walked a few blocks down and found a wall to sit on while we ate, as there were no tables in Subway. After supper we went on a literary pub-crawl tour that Tim booked online. This was recommended on Rick Steve’s website. The tour guide took us from pub to pub and told us tales of famous Scottish writers who hung out at these specific pubs to do a lot of thinking and drinking for their next novel or poem. And of course at every pub time was given for everyone to buy and finish a beer. After that we called it a night and headed back to the inn before it got dark.
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