My parents arrived in Edinburgh about an hour or so after my final exam. I met up with them at their B&B and took them to an Italian restaurant for dinner. I'd been there twice before - once with my Auntie Valerie and Uncle Adrian and once on my birthday. My mum and I both had the lasagna and my dad had spaghetti bolognese - nice, comforting food after their long day! Afterwards I showed them around my house and they met one of my housemates, Emma. They were quite tired from their flight and so they went to bed after that. I stayed up and celebrated the end of exams with my flat and friends playing a game and drinking wine. It was fun to do that right before everyone left for the break.
The next day I took my parents up Arthur's Seat. It was pretty tiring to be honest, especially because it was very cold and VERY windy. We made it up there though and enjoyed the scenery. I think my parents enjoyed being able to see the Firth of Forth from the top.
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| Snow capped mountains |
We stopped for a nice lunch in Elaine's Cuppa Cake which was very quaint with tea pots with knitted tea cozies and Victoria Sponge cake.This revived us and so we headed off down Nicholson to the Royal Mile. We bought me one of my Christmas presents (a Black Watch tartan scarf) and went in lots of tartan/tweed shops. We stopped in at St. Giles Cathedral which was stunning. A girls' choir was practicing and there was a big Christmas tree. We walked up to the top of the Royal Mile to where the castle is. I took lots of photos and we went through the first gate and into the gift shop but couldn't be bothered to pay the extortionate fee to go inside. As Emma says, "it's just like every other castle really". And there are plenty of castles in Britain! After the castle we went down to the Christmas Market to do a little shopping. All three of us went on the carousel which brought back the child in each of us I think! We were thoroughly exhausted at this point as we had walked a long way and were chilled to the bone. We stopped in at Starbucks for a hot chocolate before heading back home. We split up for an hour or two and then met up again for dinner. We tried to go to the Golf Tavern but it was too busy and everywhere else turned us away too so we ended up at the Best Western brasserie. I had the special which was Turkey and all the trimmings followed by Sticky Toffee Pudding, yum!
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| Old College |
The next day we weren't sure what to do as we had covered so much ground the day before. We decided to walk through the Meadows and go to Greyfriar's Kirkyard, the Grassmarket (which my parents loved) and back to Princes Street to finish our Christmas shopping. After that we stopped in at the Museum of Scotland. My mum and I walked around the Scottish history exhibits which were pretty interesting. They had a display on Scots in Canada which was cool. My favourite part though was a video of different people from Scotland talking about their favourite Scottish food, slang and what they think Scots are best known for. That night we had an Indian meal for dinner which was delicious. Apparently there had been construction work outside that day and so they couldn't offer us any water because it was not working. And they brought us a giant naan bread!
We left Edinburgh on Saturday and drove to my Auntie Valerie and Uncle Adrian's house in Yorkshire. We went out to the pub with them and I had butternut squash risotto. Back at the house we had not one but two desserts - an apple strudel and a chocolate cheesecake. My parents and aunt and uncle sipped on whisky in the evening and we sat in front of the fire. Also there was their dog Bryn who I bonded with. My bed that night was super comfy and the duvet was so heavy and warm - it was awesome.
Now we are at Auntie Joanne and Uncle Neil's after another day of driving, the highlight of which was seeing a double rainbow! Catherine was already here having arrived almost a week ago to spend time with the family and to help with preparations for Christmas. I have been enjoying playing with Rosie and Grace the dogs.
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