Out and About

I’m just going to leave this here…

Last week I didn’t post anything because the highlights of my week were getting a tweet favorited by Michael Erard and going to a 3-hour talent show conducted entirely in Mandarin Chinese.

Proof!

This week has proved to be significantly more interesting, so I thought I would share that!

On Tuesday, I met with someone from my hometown and we sat in Princes Street Gardens and talked for almost two hours. We had such a lovely chat, and she even brought me a few things from home, namely some books that didn’t get shipped over here with the rest of my books. I hadn’t ever really spent any time in that park, but it was so nice. I will definitely have to go back, if not just for the people watching. While we were there, a man was practicing some sort of performance that appeared to be mostly rapping or singing, but he was too far away for us to hear most of the time. I have to say, I admire his lack of shame, because he was belting out his act for everyone to hear.

On Wednesday, I met with Nikki and Chloe at the Festival Theater to see about tickets for that same day, because if you go on the day of the show and present your student ID, you get the best available tickets for10! The tickets we ended up getting normally sell for  £42, so I’d say we got a pretty good deal. We went to see Top Hat, which I really enjoyed. It has a lot of really spectacular dancing in it and the costumes are gorgeous. It was a really fun show to see, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the story, since I had no idea what it was about before I went.

On Thursday, I went to my first ever pub crawl! I was a little hesitant because I don’t drink and I didn’t think it would be fun, but I had such a good time. I was out for 5 hours, from 8 pm to 1 am, which is pretty late for me. We ended up going to 5 different pubs, which was nice because I haven’t been to any pubs since I’ve been here. All the people in LangSoc are really cool and easy to talk to, so I feel like I got to know everyone a little better. Also, I enjoyed getting to see different kinds of pubs. I liked the Brass Monkey, because they have a screening room in the back with these bed/sofa things where you can easily sit close to a few people and have a nice conversation.

On Friday, I needed to go pick up my railcard from the Royal Mail office, which is 3 miles from my flat. Instead of paying  £3 for the bus, I walked. I actually ended up spending about 3 hours walking about 8 miles, because I got kind of turned around in Holyrood Park, which turned out to be the nicest part of my walk. I’m normally pretty good at interpreting maps, despite the lack of street signs here, but I did end up walking for 45 minutes longer than I was supposed to because of my mistake, but I’m glad I did. I ended up in a part of the park I had never been to before and it was so beautiful. I was walking up a hill and suddenly there was a lake with swans and other birds and it was so cool. Arthur’s Seat is great, but the rest of Holyrood Park is just as good, if not better.

From the park I could see the water, which is where I was trying to go!

Eventually I did make it to pick up my railcard and then I walked the extra mile or so to the beach, because I was already in the area and I had been wanting to go to Portobello beach. It’s always interesting to see different areas of Edinburgh, because it doesn’t feel like the same city! Portobello beach has a boardwalk and an arcade place, just like a muchnsmaller and more calm version of Atlantic City. I didn’t stay very long – I didn’t even sit down – but it was really pretty. You can see across the firth to the mountains and the clouds happened to be pretty stunning, so I think it was worth the hike. I hadn’t made it to the waterfront before, so I’m glad I’ve checked that off my list, however next time I think I’m going to take the bus and save my feet some soreness.

On the way back, The lighting at the ruins in Holyrood Park was so stunning, I had to take a picture!

Friday night I stayed in with Nikki and Chloe and we made cake, watched Outlander, and had a really nice chat!

I especially liked the mummy with the mustache!