Day 4: Edinburgh II

Haha Shanti and I are ready for bed, writing side by side. We thought we would let you see Edinburgh through 4 eyes. (funny, we both wear glasses. However, shanti generally doesn't wear hers, so today as we walked the Royal Mile through the historic part of town, I described the details of its beauty to my blind friend. :)

Last night after a lovely dinner at Heller's Kitchen with Alex's dear friend Lucy and her boyfriend Damon, Alex and I took a nighttime walk through Edinburgh. What a spectacular city. I felt as though Sherlock Holmes was about to slink out of any cobblestone alley to give me a brief tutorial on how to fight the crazy scot who was incessantly honking at us, or the angry scot who walked by our car screaming into the dark night with great passion and intensity. I wondered if perhaps he was practicing a monologue. "I would cast him then" remarked Alex. In the end, we think he was just angry, poor chap.

As seems to be the pattern, Alex and I shared the wonders of the night with only a few others. Lights do splendid things for magnificent architecture, with shadows, and highlights, and accents on the arches, balconies, columns, sconces, twists and turns within and beyond the stones and rocks. Ah, there is beauty all around.

Today, after we dropped the ever studious and diligent shanti off at the Internet cafe, Alex, Pete and I began our walk down the same Royal Mile to the very end this time in order to go climb a hill.

But first we found the college of Edinburgh. Beautiful. 

 I know now that when Pete says a"hill" he means "slightly smaller than a mountain." I was not prepared for this hike. Wrong jeans, wrong boots, bum knee. Bring it on.

The first incline was entertained by Pete's passionate rant about the ugly Scottish parliament building. I must say I fully support this rant, and laughed in great harmony with his words. Tragedy really.

This hike turned into a series of ascents. Turns out that this "hill" is called "Arthur's Seat" after King Arthur and so it is a few hills. Naturally we had to climb to the top of the highest one.

  I must say I am very proud of my knee, and grateful for my competitive spirit and optimistic eyes that got me to the end. And grateful to alex and Pete for their patience, and their crazy persistence as well. (all right Kristen, thank you for the Oscar-hike acceptance speech...)







This is alex and pete. I love them. I love Scotland.








Was it worth it? Is the grass GREEN in Scotland? Is the grass and ground spongy Beneath your feet in Scotland? Is the 360 view of Edinburgh gorgeous? Did the view include the Queen's residence, the ocean, all of the old and the new, ugly parliament, and the famous Edinburgh castle? Yes, to all of the above.