Spring in Swing

Happy April!

Christopher and I are getting into the rhythm of Edinburgh life. Sleeping, eating, walking and drinking-repeat.

St-Patrick’s day we went to a bar called Three Sisters. It is a pub/club. It has a huge court yard with two stages and two outside bars. Then inside are a series of stone tunnels with bars lining the walls and little alcoves of seats and tables. Then after the maze of dungeon like tunnels you end up on an open space with a high ceiling, which seemed to be the dance floor. The place was so crowded because of St=Paddy’s though there wasn't so much dancing as there was shuffling. Turns out because Edinburgh is "Festival City" every event is turned into a festival. So St-Patrick’s day is the ending of "The Ireland Festival" lol. We had a great time bumping into random people. We met up with some fun people from Boston so we had a shared sense of missing our home cities for St-Paddy’s, I watched Christopher get his groove on with a pretty girl named Paige :) and when I went to the bar to ask for my standard St-Patrick’s Day drink: Black Velvet, she looked at me like I had three heads and when I told her it was 1/4 cider and 3/4 Guinness she was disgusted... but she made it for me anyhow. All in all it was a fun night.

We heard back from our interview and we got the jobs!! We are really excited about it. We can't wait to start working. We will be working 40 hours in three days every week which counts for long days but lots of time off as well. We're not sure when our start date is exactly but we should hear shortly, the couple we are working for also own a restaurant in Inverness (main city in the highlands) and they will also need people to open it for the season so we're going to go help with that as well. I can't wait to see the highlands. The job is a catering position; we are part of the core staff which means we travel to every event. Almost all the highland games and festivals in Scotland, did I mention I was excited?

Since we've learned we have the jobs we are trying to take advantage of the time we have off in this city.

Last week we climbed the dormant volcano called "Arthurs Seat" This Mountain takes up half the city view and we were always seeing tiny little dots at the top, so figured if it was common for other people to climb then we can do it as well! So we slapped on some work out clothes (or I did anyway) and then we headed to the mall! While I brought over 15 pairs of shoes if you include sandals, Christopher brought 1... That’s right just one pair of shoes, and this one pair of shoes weren't exactly hiking ready. So we went shopping! We found a decent store that had sales on shoes and Christopher didn't really care what he got, so his wise sister chose a pair of white adidas, looked smart, stylish, practical, AND they were only 16pounds.

We couldn't have chosen a better day for the hike. The sun was out and it was warm enough to not need a jacket (but we brought a rain shell anyway because you never know in Scotland) but the wind was nice to cool you down while sweating. We chose the highest peak for our first try and started the climb... well; the view all the way is amazing, it was the perfect day, clear skies, sun- beautiful. It took us about an hour to get to the top and when we did we were nearly blown over by the wind, seriously, we had to crawl around the top because we were slipping. That didn't stop us from reveling in the view from the top though, we stayed up there for over 30 mins, just enjoying it. The climb down was a bit difficult because the volcanic rock at the top is so smooth and slippery you need to hold on to the ground a bit. We stopped on the way down at St Margret’s chapel which is a ruin of a chapel built in 1426. We stopped there shared a Guinness and took pictures. I also made great friends with this beautiful golden lab named Toby. We played fetch and cuddled, this dog was a stallion! His owner thought I was a bit odd I think but I didn't mind.

The next few days we both felt sore but it was worth it. There is a second lower peak we'll do as soon as I can convince Christopher.

Another thing we accomplished was to finally see the Castle. We are now officially Historical Scotland members. Which means that for 12 months we get unlimited free entry into ALL Historical Scotland sites, 50% off all English heritage sites and 20% the shops of all sites. The membership cost 60pounds for the two of us and just one entry into the castle is 14 pounds, so if we go to the castle twice we've made it worth it. Plus we get a magazine :)

The Castle was magnificent. It’s more of fortress really, and when you go in your more in like a fortress village. They have a couple churches, gardens, dog commentary for all the solders dogs... again the view is amazing. We took our time because we can see it as many times as we want, so on our first time we checked out the crown jewels and the stone of destiny! To get to these precious artifacts you need to walk through about 10 rooms with wax scenes while they give you the history of them and finally you walk into a tiny almost completly dark room where the only light is from the lights in the case. The glass case is in the middle of this tiny room and the scepter, wand, and crown and stone is elevated within. They defiantly use dramatic effect. It really is an fun story too. In 1707 when the Act of the Union passed through which in nutshell is when the Scottish and English parliments crated a treaty that in effect created "Great Britan" -blah anyway since 1707 the "Honors" as they're called were hidden away not to be seen for over hundred years until famous Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott got approval from King George to search Edinburgh Castle for them where it was only rumored to have the honors in hiding. He found them behind a wall in a massive oak chest and has since been on display for the public. Except for a few times being brought out for the monarch but let’s not get into THAT. The Honors consist mostly of a sword that was given to King Alexander by Pope Julius II in the 1400's, the holster..  the crown of course and the stone of destiny... I will never get sick of looking at it. Truly special. Then throw in some antique jewlery with massive diamonds and you have the Scottish Crown jewels! We plan to back to the castle this week.

Last night, after tremendous research Christopher and I found a bottle of Absinthe! We were very excited. The bottle came with a louche spoon which is what the effect is called when you place the slotted spoon over the glass and pour ice water over sugar cubes. The green liquid then turns into a milky opaque. The bottle we got is the only "deluxe" one available in this city which means it is distilled with the real stuff. It smells great especially at 70% alcohol I was surprised. Smells like black licorice and taste not as bad as expected. My tongue was numb but the whole green fairy thing is just a myth. Was an experience though that’s for sure.

Other then these eventful activities we are enjoying spring here. I have gone out in shorts and a T-shirt. We've gone out to the park at the foot of Edinburgh Castle and read, and we walk to the city center usually once a day, we go to the art store, or wander along the Royal Mile, go to the library, there’s so much to do. The tulips are already in full swing and the grass is lush green. Apparently in the height of spring all the cherry blossoms come out and it’s a few weeks of a "snowing" effect while the wind blows the blossoms off the trees. Every day gets better.

Christopher and I have had only one major argument so far which was over the best way to make quiesidiallas. Apprently I wasn't making them how mom makes them. We got over it, I just made them how he likes it, not after losing my temper of course, but thats to be expected once and a while...  We have been enjoying our organic baskets. Every week we get something new, I have been challenging myself to use only whats in our baskets, which produces alot of sauces from scratch and odd recipes,  but Christopher really never complains about my cooking or mocks me when I praise my own handy work :) We are in full vegetarian mode, eating tofu and everything. I am trying to feed Christopher chick peas and other proteine filled foods but it seems I need to find more creative methods, I'll think of something. Fun note, I found clotted cream in the grocery store! After a false start of buying "Double extra thick cream" which I thought was clotted but in fact was not, still delicious, but NOT clotted heaven cream. I found the real stuff at only 1.40 pounds... I love this city. For those of you sorley uninormed people out there who don't know what the glory of clotted cream is, the best way to describe it is a mix between butter and whip cream. The process of making it requires unpasterized milk which of course at home we don't have this so clotted cream therefore is impossible.

Another long post! I'm going to quit now, I'm sure I've forgotten something but this is becoming a novelette.

Check out our imigur account. We apologize for the repeats, we are using the account as a back up for all our photos as well in case something happens to our hard drive.

Cheers!