One Day in Edinburgh

For Christmas, Ralph bought me one of the best books I've read this year.
One Day, written by David Nicholls tells the story of two friends on St. Swithin's Day, each year across the span of twenty years. It's a beautiful story that's also been made into a film, starring the charming Jim Sturgess and stunning Anne Hathaway.

The characters in the novel, Em and Dex, both attend university in Edinburgh itself. The novel describes places in Edinburgh beautifully, and after reading the novel by the new year, I was hooked.
To date, I've read the novel back to back about five times in total. I know it's a bit silly of me to read the same book over and over again (especially because I currently have six English-lit novels to finish by Friday and I haven't made a start in any of them...)

Ralph took me to Edinburgh just a few days before I left for Singapore, and it was by far one of my favourite day trips for the summer. Never did I imagine I'd get treated to a whole day in Scotland! I didn't bump into Amy Pond, or Em and Dex, but I definitely could imagine having bumped into them, saying hi, taking photos... just a really chilled out fan in action. =p

Arriving in Edinburgh, I was half expecting a Nessie to greet me and say hi, but unfortunately they're only mythical. Evolutionary flaw in my books. Also, I had no idea that Scotland was home of the Highland Cow! I bought about three post cards (none featuring the beautiful landscape or architecture of Scotland), but of these cows instead. My ignorance had led me to believe that Scotland did not really have much to offer- but I was wrong. It's history, the layout of the city, the atmosphere, and the beautiful buildings all around was plenty to discover for the whole day.

We made it into the heart of the city along Royal Mile, and up to the castle. It costs around $30 just to see the inside of the castle. Following the example of all the couples, Ralph and I loitered around the drawbridge and ticketing area for a few minutes to take photos and see the sights...and slowly backed away. You'd think that the admission price would be around $10 NZD or something. Following a low cost but broad market strategy would work effectively in the maintaining of the castle as well! (just utilizing some leftover knowledge from a business paper last semester)

Having had bento in the train ride up to Edinburgh, we had no plans for lunch in the city. Moving on to exploring the rest of the city was extremely exciting. As usual, Ralph had to do most of the navigating because I have zero sense of direction. Getting lost for me is not an option either. It rates about an 8 on the fear factor scale.

We explored a lot of the city, taking photos of the landscape and finding an abandoned Tardis on the way. The weather was as usual, unkind to us all, and we sought shelter in the National Museum of Scotland. It's a huge pity I did not get to visit the British Museum in London.

an equal marriage protest

What is it about coming back from holiday and suddenly listing all the places you wish you had visited? Every single holiday that I had ever embarked on results in a "why didn't I go here?", or "damn, should have went to that place after I visited this place...!"
Oh well. An excuse for a re-visit in the near future hopefully!

Also, a key point in the novel, One Day, is when Em and Dex hike up Arthur's Seat, a spot that overlooks the whole of Edinburgh. It was too cold to hike up there and by the time we exited the museum, it was close to nightfall. Summer would definitely be a better time to visit. But the earth has to be round, and my winter, is Ralph's summer, and vice versa. Bleurgh.

The National Museum of Scotland was absolutely huge. It looked impressive from the outside, a modern building, but it was definitely bigger on the inside. Perhaps it has residue Tardis particles in it or something, but Ralph and I only managed to finish one level of the museum in two hours! There were other exhibitions on display that we couldn't go and see due to the crazy universal closing time of 5pm.

I ooh'd and aah'd at the Natural History exhibit (of course), and couldn't believe the colossal amount of information they had about stars and astronomy! It was like everything Ralph had said to me before about the stars and galaxies, but written down in stylized, lit up font.

no, we didn't go inside this cafe exactly- but who knew potatoes were called tatties?

After the long museum visit, we went to take refuge indoors again at a cafe. We were both hungry, and unsure of where to have dinner. A potential Japanese restaurant located about 30 minutes from the cafe looked promising. We were so excited to find out that they had this amazing shabu-shabu buffet and sushi deal for only 17 pounds per person. Literally everyone in the restaurant was having this buffet deal, but of course, we were "too late", and the restaurant had already run out of steamboats to use.

Throughout our meal we bitched and moaned (in good spirits, of course) about their business ethic. Seriously though! If you advertise "buffet", but run out of steamboats? And it's not unreasonable to assume that every table would be allocated with one steamboat. Sigh. My ramen was really good though- so no complaints there!

As the day drew nearer to a close, I realised that this was my last day trip in the UK for the summer.
It's a horrible feeling counting down towards the day you leave. Looking back now, I realise that it wasn't that long ago. It was just two weeks ago that I was in the UK, but it feels like it's already been forever.
Time flies when you are having fun, but when you are in law school sitting through a torturous public law lecture, an hour can feel like forever.

My finger is healing at an extraordinary rate as well! I hurt it terribly in the UK while cutting up some onions with Ralph's new samurai knife (hate that thing), and about a third of my nail was sliced off. It's nearly grown back to its normal size now, and I can type perfectly on it without any pain. That was also a huge deterrent in blogging the last few days in the UK- I physically, and mentally couldn't.

I'm so happy that I have all these amazing memories of Japan, and the UK with me. It's different each and every time, if not better, to travel and find out things about yourself, about the people around you. To grow, develop, and appreciate the precious time you have with one another.

It's difficult to settle back down in New Zealand though. I had this problem adjusting as well after a year in Japan. It's only been three months in the UK, but I guess that is still somewhat of an extended length of time in comparison to a week's holiday in Malaysia or Singapore by comparison.

I hope I get to go back again one day.

All my love always,

April