Hostels and Scottish culture

Greetings people at home,

So, our first week in Edinburgh is almost to at an end. There are some highlights and some low lights as well. But overall it has been amazing.

Since our last post we have done some exploring of the city, and some flat hunting. During one said flat hunt we were half an hour early for the viewing so went a few doors down to the closest pub. We walked in to a small pub with two older men there. The older gentleman behind the bar was very welcoming. He gave us our Guinness’s free plus a hospitable shot of scotch, which by watching the other guy drink his scotch, we didn’t in fact “shoot” it but sipped it savouringly. After our “Cheers like” experience we went to view the flat near by which we loved. Flat hunting has proved to be a little more difficult then anticipated, mostly because we found out that flats get taken off the market very quickly and almost all renting is done through agencies which require a whole bunch of things. Namely, full time employment. Which put us in a bit of a chicken or the egg situation because to find a job we need a bank account, to get a bank account we need a permanent address… but to get the permanent address we need a job.. see what I mean. HOWEVER the fairies are at work and after seeing the flat next to this awesome pub about 10 mins walk from the city center, gorgeous windows full size bedrooms and a huge bathtub (you have no idea how rare this flat was… you don’t get many decent options around here) The agency that was letting the flat made a special request to the landlord, who agreed to let it to us with a double deposit, a guarantor (thank you mom!) and a reference letter from a past landlord (thank you Mark! Fun note- Mark put in the letter that I was a very clean tenant J) PLUS a credit check phew- well they are just doing the check now and we should hear for certain in the next day or two if we can move in. We have a couple of back up plans which we acquired through talking with some people here at the hostel. Which brings me to the excitement of the weekend.

After the flat viewing on Thursday we went back to awesome “Cheers” Pub where we met the regulars and experienced the height of Scottish hospitality. We left at 3am- don’t exactly remember the walk back to the hostel, but I do remember watching Christopher zig zag the whole way and thinking I need to make sure he doesn’t stumble in the street all the while wondering if I had the reflexes to stop him if he did. We had the opportunity to try various Scotch’s and whiskeys as well as cider and Guinness. We partook in Quiz night where one of the questions were about Canadian geography and embarrassed ourselves royally by having no clue what the answer was. “What is the largest lake in Canada that resides completely in Canada” any takers??? – No google cheaters!

Friday we needed to move hostels as the original one we were staying at didn’t have any extended availability. So after waking up in a haze we booked a hostel near by and had a lot of fun hauling our bags to the other hostel. It took us two very painful trips to get everything there and up three flights of stairs. The new hostel proved to be a peaceful and quiet until around 7:00 where it started humming or rumbling really. We found out the entire Dublin Commerce class which consisted of 180 students was taking over the hostel in Edinburgh for the weekend. This seemed like fun at first. Christopher and I went back to our Pub and had a great night listening to really great band and came back to our hostel only to be woken up 30 mins later by crazy banging on the door. These guys were banging and shouting for a good five minutes. Figuring they were trying to get a hold of some one else in the group, I ignored it, until he screamed he would piss through the mail slot if we didn’t open up, so I got out of bed with not the greatest of intentions, opened the door and told him what I would do to him if he thought twice about sticking his (insert profanity here) through the mail slot. He obviously 8000 sheets to the wind thought this was rude and amusing, he proceeded to express his feelings through a little mooning and I shut the door and went back to my room. Of course still- a group of students together and add a little away-from-home excitement and everything starts rolling down hills. He pounded the door some more and finally one of his friends from another room let him in. So now this one stupid Irish boy decided he didn’t like my attitude and wanted to retaliate… anyway to avoid any rated R content I ended up having to call the cops which by the way if anyone is in the UK the cops are 999, but 911 got me through eventually. Two very nice, young and cute cops showed up at 5 am, and were also followed by the hostel in house receptionist who wanted to take care of things without the cops, which was fine by me. However it turns out this group of guys did more then harass me they did about 1000 pounds worth of damage in they’re own dorms and were disrupting everyone around. This was a very eventful night which ended in the morning with the hostel refunding our stay for us. What did we think in the morning? That those stereo types of roughhousing Irishmen… so far so true, I guess we’ll find out in more detail next year when we go there. Everyone else seemed nice enough; one guy claimed that if he wasn’t passed out we would have gotten really pissed. The school reps came and spoke to me and apologized in person and offered to take care of our stay but the hostel had already done that.

Saturday proved to be tame in comparison. The group was spoken to and I think they were told to stay off our floor because when speaking to reception on Sunday they had disturbed another floor and threw the huge dining room table out of the third floor window. Retards-  ANYWAY

Sunday Christopher and I walked around the city, and it just seems everything is more beautiful then the next. We found some job openings and as soon as we have a address we shouldn’t have any trouble finding work.  We went to the National Portrait gallery which has free admissions and is IN-CR-ED-IA-BLE we didn’t even finish half of it because there so much to read and see. I kept getting the feeling that Christopher was getting a little impatient with me reading every description. But I haven’t seen any art gallery like it! They give detailed history and corresponding events to each portrait and how they are important, and where they come from and even the artist’s background… ahhhh so wonderful. Can’t wait to go back and we haven’t even hit the other museums. Stone of Destiny here I come!! The whole city though seems like you’re in a museum. We tried all day to find a specific Scotch we were recommended at our Pub and it doesn’t seem anywhere sells it but were told it was a Scotch that is distilled in Edinburgh and has the highest concentration of Malt something or other - my understanding dropped there. Either way it’s a great Scotch that is apparently decently priced so the hunt is still on.  We hope to find it and toast our new flat with it.

 To wrap up this post-Turns out Christopher isn’t the easy-gong-passive travelling companion I once thought… this guys a tyrant! Until we get jobs he won’t let me shop or even get a drink with our meals! I drew the line at the no beers though; I mean someone has to bring sanity into this partnership.

Other then that, I have actually met someone who eats faster then I do! It has been the oddest thing. I’m not used to be watched while I’M the last one to finish a meal. Also really funny, I found out that the tiniest spiciness give Christopher instant violent hiccups – l o l really hilarious to watch.

Little Scottish or UK observation. No one here seems to know how to end a conversation… every phone call I have or encounter there is always this awkward pause and each person talking over the other… very strange. Christopher and I have discussed this matter at length and think it’s because everyone, and we mean EVERYONE here leaves or ends with “Cheers” so we’re going to try and take that up so as to avoid this constant awkwardness. We’ll keep you informed on our integration into the UK culture

Sorry again about these long posts. I’m thinking about writing more often so they’re no as long. We’ll see. But writing to you all out there is really nice; make us not miss you as much.

We’ll write soon hopefully with news on our apartment and employment.

Cheers!