Why, oh why didn’t I get up at 7:30 instead of 7:00? WHY?! It’s not like I didn’t have time this morning before catching the shuttle to Malpensa Airport. Whatever… when I got there I went to the check-in counter, got my ticket, and was thankfully allowed to take two carry-ons instead of just one. Score.
After going through security and all that fun airport stuff, I got myself a much needed cornetta con crema and a caffè latte, and because my plane didn’t board ‘till 10:45, I got to chill at the bar with my Italian travel mates.
The plane ride wasn’t that bad at all – listening to music and sleeping kills a two hour plane ride pretty quickly. Before I knew it we were flying over Edinburgh – and what a pretty sight it was! Scotland from an areal view is awesome – you’ve got really lush green rolling hills and fields everywhere briefly interrupted by a giant rock-type-hill thing. Cool stuff, for sure.
Going through customs was only slightly intimidating… I filled out my customs card and got questioned by the customs official. He was scary, I’ll leave it at that – despite all those cool Scottish words and ways of speaking. For a moment, I seriously didn’t know if he’d let me into the country, haha, but I got through.
The bus ride from the airport to the city center was so much fun! Needless to say I laughed a little bit when I saw signs that said “Drive on the left” when we left the airport. So how does one describe Edinburgh? I don’t know how I imagined Scotland to look, but I guess it looked “more English” than I supposed when I rode the bus from the airport to Waverly Station. There’s big stone buildings everywhere, rod-iron fences, and pretty little gardens everywhere. And it’s SO much bigger than Florence, I didn’t know what to do with myself.
I was supposed to meet my parents at a little caffè in Waverly Station, but after waiting for forty-five minutes with no sign of them, I took a cab to the apartment they’re renting for ₤4-something, put my bags down, still didn’t find them, and took the number eight bus back to Waverly. Here, my camera bag and I got a sandwich and a caffè latte, sat down on a bench and waited. I finally did find my parents a little while later, got a week-long Edinburgh bus pass, and returned to the apartments.
After getting all of the necessary things settled in, we went out in search for a wee bit of food and managed to find a butcher and a small grocery store that had lots of fresh veggies and some other necessary things.
Instead of cooking dinner, though, we went out to down-town Edinburgh and found a pub/restaurant to feast at. I had the fish and chips that I had been craving and a Carona – can’t get any better than that for your first night out in Scotland!
And the fact that the weather was awesome and there were live performers out playing bagpipes and guitars equals awesome.
After dinner we decided to go take a bus to a place called Trinity. I have no idea why we did, but why not? Right?
Trinity turned out to be this little residential area with really pretty houses that had immaculate gardens. We started to walk back to the apartment because our bus didn’t go any further and explored as we went. It really was a nice sort of suburb of Edinburgh. After this and after we got back to the apartment, I totally passed out in bed – as fun as traveling is, it’s also very tiring! And I must say that this giant double bed is awesome compared to my old twin bed in Italia.
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