Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

After New York, I hopped over the pond to London to visit my boyfriend, Albert.  I landed in Heathrow on February 14th, Valentine’s Day. *collective “d’aww”*  I swear we didn’t plan that, it just worked out that way!

The next day, we had booked train tickets for Edinburgh, Scotland.  We planned to stay for two nights, three days.  We almost didn’t make it.  We left the house a bit late, dilly dallying with breakfast, washing up, petting the cat (this is not a euphemism, by the way.  His landlady has a tabby cat named Merlin.  Just so you know).

When we got to King’s Cross, we BOLTED.  Sprinted up two eternally long flights of stairs, and believe you me, I am not a runner.  Luckily, we made it with a couple minutes to spare, but I thought I was going to die.  My throat was on fire and it felt like I was coughing up my lungs.  It was probably the closest I’ve ever come to being mad at Albert, but I wasn’t actually mad at him, I was just annoyed that I couldn’t breathe properly. :P

The train ride from London to Edinburgh is about 5 hours long, and I learned something new about myself: I instantly fall asleep on train rides.  I can’t help it.  Even during the hour long ride to and from Edinburgh and Glasgow, I still somehow managed to pass out.

Anyway, when we got to Edinburgh, we took a cab to The Terrace Hotel.  I can’t recommend this hotel highly enough; it’s quaint and cozy, the rates are reasonable, and the owner, a snarky British man named Michael, kept making fun of Albert and Spaniards in general, how their double last names always causes mix-ups with the bookings.  Our room was huge, with a king size bed and a smaller twin, a nice big window overlooking the garden, and an ensuite bathroom (the shower stall was really tiny, though, but who cares?  I didn’t come all the way to Scotland to take a luxurious bath).

We joined the Sandeman’s New Europe Free Tour of Edinburgh, which I really enjoyed.  We were absolutely blessed with gorgeous weather, too!  Sunny and warm, perfect for an afternoon walking tour!  Apparently, I was the only Harry Potter fan on this tour (but we all know that I was simply the only one who admitted to it), but our tour guide added in a few Harry Potter trivia, which I totally fangirl-ed over.

Also, during our break, we were at the Grassmarket, and I did a little celeb spotting: they were filming the movie Filth, with James McAvoy, so I had to snap a crappy, blurry, extremely zoomed-in photo.  I think I just felt my street cred go up.  Don’t hate.

That night, after dinner, we went on the ghost tour, which was really fun and not very scary, just creepy.  It was a very busy first day in Scotland, and we called it a night early!

The next day, we took a train to Glasgow.  We arrived there quite late and unfortunately we didn’t get to see much, but Albert did show me around where he went to class and where he lived (he got his master’s at the University of Strathclyde) I did get to meet one of his friends, Korina.  We had dinner at a bar/restaurant called Lucky 7 that had a really cool vintage store in the front called Postcard Limited.  They have since moved locations, according to their Facebook page, but if you’re ever in the area (and you’re into that kind of stuff), you should definitely check them out!  I bought Jackie a cute little teapot necklace. :)

Our last day in Scotland, we wandered around the city centre, then went to Edinburgh Castle (mostly to see the Stone of Destiny — oooh!).  Then we caught the train back to London (that was another adventure.  Ugh).  Whew!

P.S. The title is deliberately the wrong word for Scotland in Spanish.  The correct word is Escocia. ;)