Written on March 1st
"We're leaving ona jet plane, we don't know when we'll be back again (low tenor) LEAVING on a jet plane...." hasn't everyone wanted to do that? Well the day is here! This post is written waiting at the airport for our first flight which is delayed 30 mins, no biggt excpet our netbook is having problems connecting.
We toasted our departure with a Double Rye and Ginger, and a Amaretto Sour... guess whose drink was whose??? :)
We have spent the the last few weeks saying good bye and preparing the best we can, we only had to do one turn around for our laptop mouse, otherwise everything went smoothly.. except I have already lost my travel pillow somewhere between taking it out of my bag during security and realizing it was lost. So that was sucky.
Good news! I know you were all holding your breaths, but I got to bring a second checked bag!! As you will see from the attached pictures it is a mammoth of a bag
Today -
We made it!! Our flight from MOntreal to London was smooth and uneventful, unfortunately neither Christopher or I could sleep, not for a lack of trying, but we had a awesome variety of movies to choose from to keep us occupied. We arrived in Heathrow airport a little tired but mostly excited. We were told that the best way to beat jet lag was to push through the day with coffee and go to bed when the sun went down, unfortunately I think that only works when you have actually slept the night before. BUT we made it through anyway. My first culture shock was when ordering coffee at the airport I asked for cream and milk and the guy behind the counter said "Sorry babe, we don't put cream in coffee in the UK", well, milk it was then.
We spent the waiting time reading our orientation for Edinburgh and eating porridge. Very exciting.
The flight from London to Edinburgh was short and gorgeous. Christopher had the window seat and was very fascinated. I sat next to this women who gave me a run down of the Edinburgh culture and tips on the citys workings. I took notes. The last thing she said to me was "Don't be deceived by the sun, its really cold out there" The first thing Christopher and I said to each other when leaving the airport was "Oh my God its so WARM!" The travelling fairies and Gods were on our side. Our welcome to the city was with warm weather and sunshine, everything was booming. I felt as if we were watching a movie. Now the REALLY eventful part was picking up all our bags and taking the bus from the airport to the city center. You have seen the pictures.... good thing the bus driver was nice! The drive from the airport to the city center was exactly what you think Scotland would look like. Stone fences, fields, farms, really old stone houses, it was un real.
Getting to the city centre we had to take a taxi with all our bags. So after unloading all our bags on the street corner in front of our to-be accommodations, we couldn't actually get in to the hostel... so Christopher waited on the curb with all our bags while I ran down the street like an idiot finding a pay phone, I found the pay phone (no it wasn't the cool British red booths) I had to go find out how much a call was, realize I didn't have the change for it, go to a shop near by buy a bottle of water to break a bill (or "note" as its called here) go back to the phone booth, realize the coins I had were to big go BACK to the store to ask for change, jay walk quickly across the street to get to the phone again only to figure out the phone is broken.... Welcome to Edinburgh!
However the travelling fairies were with us, because when I went back to tell Christopher, the women who handles the bookings was walking in the building. so we lugged all our bags (okay okay all MY bags) in the building. After we settled in we went out to explore! We walked around the city and stopped in a Waverly Station and had a fresh baguette sandwich, bri fresh basil and tomato's... mmm warmed, it was delicious. We sat on a bench at the gorgeous station and people watched for a while. I then paid 30p to pee. After filling our tummies we walked to the apartment (sorry "flat) that we were going to be seeing the next morning. Great walk... we couldn't get over just how amazing the whole city is. Together we figured out its Old Montreal times 20 plus add about 8 castles mixed in. At this point we were exhausted. We hadn't slept for about 30 hours so we got our PJ's on, put water in our hot water bottles and get comfy to watch a movie. Turns out, Christopher was the hero of the hour! We packed the extra travelling pillow we had! So I was not without a place to rest my head. :) Christopher fell asleep and I just couldn't get comfortable. At about 10 pm Edinburgh time, Christopher woke up and said "Want to go get a beer?" and I knew I had made the right choice in a travelling companion. We go up and expected to walk into a cold night air, and realized its warmer outside then in the actual place we were staying! We walked down the main street to the Royal Mile (the oldest street in Edinburgh where most of the museums are, and ends with Edinburgh Castle at the top) found a Pub called "The Tass" and walked in because of music playing. We walked into this old Scottish Pub and were greeted with this wonderful scene and sound of traditional Scottish music. Just a group of people sitting around the table with about 5 different instruments and a casual deep Scottish voice singing along. Man it was incredible. As were went to the bar and ordered our first European Guinness it struck me that this was exactly what you would think a pub experience would be in Edinburgh. We finished our beer and hunted for food, which we ended up have a Falafel and chatted with this really nice Lebanese ex-sailor. We then ended our night with a pub across the street from our hostel called "The Brass Monkey" apparently there are a few in the Edinburgh, and I know why, great music, awesome settings and we got some ordering tips from the barmaid. Which are "DO NOT TIP" they always know when amaericans are ordering because of how they tip, they think its funny apparently to tip at every drink. If you spend alot of time at the bar and buy alot of rounds its common to buy a drink for the bartender, but that's it.
SO we left the pub and found no trouble sleeping the night. We woke up early to walk in the traditional Scottish weather to a flat viewing which we were stood up by, but we have other viewings today. We will keep everyone posted I know your all on the edge of your seat. BUT for now Christopher and I leave you as we go a tour Edinburgh Castle. We will post photos tonight.
Wow this post was long.
We love you all and miss you terribly! No time to minus all the "so"'s in this post, so sorry!
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