This weekend I was lucky enough to visit Edinburgh, Scotland! I took a little trip all on my own and, though it was initially terrifying, it was also liberating and exciting and a beautiful city to visit.
The first night I got there, I checked into my hostel and proudly meandered around the city for awhile until I got hungry and settled into an authentic Scottish pub for a deliciously non-Italian dinner - a burger and fries. I am not in the least bit sorry. It was scrumptious. I then topped it off with a large cafe mocha from Starbucks, and hung around to hear a beautiful Scottish man play his guitar on the street corner for a while. All in all, a wonderful night!
My hostel, inside and out!
The next morning, I woke up bright and early to catch my train from Edinburgh to the tiny town of Alnmouth, Scotland (AKA The Middle of Nowhere). From Alnmouth, I trekked up a small mountain to the bus stop, where I had to wait three quarters of an hour before my bus would arrive to take me to Alnwick, where I was planning to visit the castle that Harry Potter was filmed in. This forty-five minutes would lead to an inordinate amount of selfies on my camera, as well as some really judgmental looks from the gardener across the street. The fact that there are that many selfies on my camera is something I'm actually a little bit sorry for.
When the bus did finally arrive, it brought me right where I needed to go, and I spent a fantastic few hours in the early afternoon wandering around the beautiful castle grounds and exploring the state rooms before having a quaint little picnic surrounded by approximately 100 school children with adorable Scottish accents. However, after I hiked back down to the town of Alnwick, it began to downpour rain within about twenty minutes.
Not having a lot of options, I decided to go back to Alnmouth and hopefully catch a train back to Edinburgh, where I knew there was an abundance of things to do. Alnmouth, of course, had beautiful weather despite being a mere 4 miles away from the castle. The man at the ticket booth in the train station, however, was not sympathetic to my plight and casually informed me that I couldn't just hop on the next train to Edinburgh because I had a "reserved seat" on the 7:11 train, and would just have to wait another five and a half hours for it to arrive. He did, however, inform me that I could hike down to the town of Alnmouth itself. Alnmouth was approximately a mile and a half away, and though the walk was beautiful, the 'town' revealed itself to be one strip about two city blocks long of tearooms and B&Bs. I eventually found a tiny little cafe called The Dandelion, where I could use the spotty WiFi, drink espresso, listen to the rain that eventually hit the town, and read my new copy of J.K. Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy," which I picked up in town earlier that day. All in all, the day had its ups and downs, filled with excitement over castles, dismay over the sudden rainy weather, and a deep contentment as I sat and read in a baby cafe in the middle of nowhere. It was wonderful!
This morning, I knew my flight left at 12:45 so I didn't have much time, but I did enough room in the agenda to grab a muffin for breakfast, hike around Edinburgh for a while and drink a quick cup of coffee with a friend I met at the hostel. It was the perfect way to end the trip!
Now, I'm home, contentedly gorging on pasta and happy to have reliable internet with which to talk to my friends from home. Scotland will one day be merely a gorgeous memory of a weekend, but it will always be one of the best places I've visited!
