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[Travel] Edinburgh 2022
Apr. 12th, 2022 08:25 amI went to Edinburgh this weekend! DublinBFF and I had decided to choose a city to convene in for a minibreak, rather than her come to London or me go to Dublin. We HAD decided on Liverpool, only to discover that all the hotels are very expensive in Liverpool through April and May (and possibly forever), so we made a shortlist of other cities and decided Edinburgh offered the most in terms of nice walks, pretty architecture, good food and sea access. It was such a nice break! We only went from Friday to Sunday afternoon but it felt as though we managed to pack a lot into that time without it feeling busy or frantic.
I took the train and arrived a few hours before DublinBFF, so I set up in a coffeeshop to work on training contract applications (currently for Wiggin) while waiting for her flight to arrive. We had a very late lunch of toasted wraps and salad at the Rocksalt Cafe and had the smallest of wanders before getting a taxi to our hotel, which was the Best Western Braid Hills Hotel. It was up on a hillside outside the city centre with a nice view of a park and some beautiful houses. It was a charmingly old-fashioned hotel which was unfortunately full of hen parties. I gave DublinBFF the room with a view and a bath and took the smaller room with a view of the car park, which was supposed to be an act of selfless generosity on my part, but it turned out my room was exceedingly quiet at night while hers got filled with the monkey shrieks of stag parties in the street outside.
After flopping for a bit, we went for a walk through the Hermitage of Braid, which is a beautiful stretch of woodland along a stream. The air was so cold and green-smelling. We found a hill and decided to climb it, then trekked down the other side and went into Edinburgh for dinner, which was Japanese food. I had teriyaki tofu and rice and DublinBFF had vegetarian soba in broth with tofu and egg.
On Saturday, we went for breakfast (mine was scrambled eggs on toast and a slice of chocolate orange cake, hers was avocado and feta on toast and a peach smoothie) and then we went to the SEA! We found a tripadvisor list of five best beaches and chose Longniddry as the most interesting of them. The best part was deciding we absolutely would put our feet in the sea, so we took our shoes off and rolled our jeans up to our knees and ran into the surf. It was so cold it burned right through to the bone. We had to run circles on the damp sand to get the blood circulating again and then ran straight back into the sea. I thought, ah, we are like two dogs right now! How nice!
After we had walked as far as we cared to, we returned along the beach and got chips from a van in the car park. They went cold almost immediately but it was very nice sitting in the grass on the dunes above the beach, feeling the sea air on our faces, eating chips by the sea. I had parmesan and truffle oil on mine and DublinBFF had chips with scampi.
We were both feeling a bit glazed and tired by this point so we got the train back to Edinburgh and bought some snacks and went back to the hotel to nap before dinner. I napped very deeply and woke groggy and hungry, so lay on my back eating mini eggs to restore my equilibrium. It felt very luxurious, to lie in a big bed surrounded by comfy pillows, cronching mini eggs. Then we trotted into Edinburgh for Indian food (aubergine and potatoes, spinach and paneer, a truly sumptuous dal) and returned again for our big sleeps.
On Sunday I broke my phone by accidentally winging it into a radiator after tripping on a towel. I remain pretty sanguine about this - I quite like not having a phone and I didn't injure myself. We checked out and went for breakfast at the Salt Cafe (a different cafe to the Rocksalt Cafe of Friday's lunch). There was a charming spaniel next to us, which was a Highlight. I had French toast, yoghurt and fruit; DublinBFF had Turkish eggs and sourdough bread. We then waddled our way happily into the city and had pastries in the park for quite some time, then did some more walking around and taking of photos. We weren't particularly hungry but decided it would be prudent to have a small lunch before travelling home, so went to our first choice place which was closed and then went to a disappointing pan-Asian restaurant which did an amazing pineapple and coconut drink but food which all tasted burnt and slightly caramelised.
Then DublinBFF went off to get her bus to the airport and I went off to navigate the travails of getting my train e-ticket when I no longer had any e-device. It threatened to be a saga because it turns out if you book online and go e-ticket only to save the environment, train companies can't actually print your ticket for you, but it turns out if you stand there wailing sadly they will let you email the e-ticket to them from your laptop and then they will print it from their wifi printers.
I got home very late and I am tired but refreshed this week. I did the thing with Edinburgh that I do with everywhere at the moment: could I live here? Would I be happier here than in London?
I took the train and arrived a few hours before DublinBFF, so I set up in a coffeeshop to work on training contract applications (currently for Wiggin) while waiting for her flight to arrive. We had a very late lunch of toasted wraps and salad at the Rocksalt Cafe and had the smallest of wanders before getting a taxi to our hotel, which was the Best Western Braid Hills Hotel. It was up on a hillside outside the city centre with a nice view of a park and some beautiful houses. It was a charmingly old-fashioned hotel which was unfortunately full of hen parties. I gave DublinBFF the room with a view and a bath and took the smaller room with a view of the car park, which was supposed to be an act of selfless generosity on my part, but it turned out my room was exceedingly quiet at night while hers got filled with the monkey shrieks of stag parties in the street outside.
After flopping for a bit, we went for a walk through the Hermitage of Braid, which is a beautiful stretch of woodland along a stream. The air was so cold and green-smelling. We found a hill and decided to climb it, then trekked down the other side and went into Edinburgh for dinner, which was Japanese food. I had teriyaki tofu and rice and DublinBFF had vegetarian soba in broth with tofu and egg.
On Saturday, we went for breakfast (mine was scrambled eggs on toast and a slice of chocolate orange cake, hers was avocado and feta on toast and a peach smoothie) and then we went to the SEA! We found a tripadvisor list of five best beaches and chose Longniddry as the most interesting of them. The best part was deciding we absolutely would put our feet in the sea, so we took our shoes off and rolled our jeans up to our knees and ran into the surf. It was so cold it burned right through to the bone. We had to run circles on the damp sand to get the blood circulating again and then ran straight back into the sea. I thought, ah, we are like two dogs right now! How nice!
After we had walked as far as we cared to, we returned along the beach and got chips from a van in the car park. They went cold almost immediately but it was very nice sitting in the grass on the dunes above the beach, feeling the sea air on our faces, eating chips by the sea. I had parmesan and truffle oil on mine and DublinBFF had chips with scampi.
We were both feeling a bit glazed and tired by this point so we got the train back to Edinburgh and bought some snacks and went back to the hotel to nap before dinner. I napped very deeply and woke groggy and hungry, so lay on my back eating mini eggs to restore my equilibrium. It felt very luxurious, to lie in a big bed surrounded by comfy pillows, cronching mini eggs. Then we trotted into Edinburgh for Indian food (aubergine and potatoes, spinach and paneer, a truly sumptuous dal) and returned again for our big sleeps.
On Sunday I broke my phone by accidentally winging it into a radiator after tripping on a towel. I remain pretty sanguine about this - I quite like not having a phone and I didn't injure myself. We checked out and went for breakfast at the Salt Cafe (a different cafe to the Rocksalt Cafe of Friday's lunch). There was a charming spaniel next to us, which was a Highlight. I had French toast, yoghurt and fruit; DublinBFF had Turkish eggs and sourdough bread. We then waddled our way happily into the city and had pastries in the park for quite some time, then did some more walking around and taking of photos. We weren't particularly hungry but decided it would be prudent to have a small lunch before travelling home, so went to our first choice place which was closed and then went to a disappointing pan-Asian restaurant which did an amazing pineapple and coconut drink but food which all tasted burnt and slightly caramelised.
Then DublinBFF went off to get her bus to the airport and I went off to navigate the travails of getting my train e-ticket when I no longer had any e-device. It threatened to be a saga because it turns out if you book online and go e-ticket only to save the environment, train companies can't actually print your ticket for you, but it turns out if you stand there wailing sadly they will let you email the e-ticket to them from your laptop and then they will print it from their wifi printers.
I got home very late and I am tired but refreshed this week. I did the thing with Edinburgh that I do with everywhere at the moment: could I live here? Would I be happier here than in London?
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