Weekend Getaway to Edinburgh

After "a hard working" study week the returning for the reality felt so tough that it obviously was a time for a getaway which was targeted this time to Edinburgh, Scotland. There seem to be quite many people sharing actually same thoughts because there wasn't only one or two people travelling to Edinburgh. At first there was our group the size of 11 persons but then we founded out that there was actually also another group of NUIM Erasmus students, also size of 11 persons but staying in different hostel. Everyone were taking the same flight, Thu morning 6:25am which did mean taking airport hopper at 4am. Even that I am kind of an early bird there are certain limits for that... I could say that basically I didn't sleep at all that night and I wasn't only one so you can imagine how sleepy the atmosphere was in both, a bus and a plane.

When plane landed to Edinburgh, plan was clear: Hostel-Breakfast-Coffee to get the day started. Our High Street hostel luckily had a cheap breakfast on offer: coffee, tea, juices, serials, toasts with jams, peanut butter and nutella... I think that I haven't ate as much peanut butter toasts during for a past year than I ate during those past three days we were staying in Edinburgh. I still can't believe how it was possible but we were sleeping in 18 persons dorm where actually no one snored (or cause other kind disturbion) any of the nights!

So what is Scotland actually known about? Men wearing kilts, sound of a bagpipe, tales, landscape and whiskey. We discovered all the aspects but the legend that Scottish men don't wear anything under a kilt still remain as a myth... Even that few girls tried to find it out by peeking under a mannequin which unfortunately didn't revealed through for them. Scots seem to be also very clever people at least according to few signs I saw that answered these questions:

- How to arrange a daycare for a husband in a city?

- Why children are not allowed to be in the bars?

During those days spent in Edinburgh we walked around the city discovering different places with slogan based on "all the free stuff is good stuff" so we stopped by in some museums, saw sightseeing spots and just hanged around. Of course the group of 11 people is impossible to organize because people have different interests but luckily we all are so grown up that we were able to split the group and everyone could do what they felt like doing and always at some point we did get together again for cooking dinner or going out. 

First evening we participated on pub crawl that took us in five different pubs.. Great way to see some places around with good drink offers. Second night it was just quick visit in a pub but then our last night we did found a place "Frankenstein", who could resist a club called like that? :D ... Place was cool, decorated actually like a creepy lab with green coloured water tubes one the walls and of course one tv screen showing the original black&white Frankenstein movie. Highlight of the place was the time when they actually brought the Frankenstein alive, a show lasted few minutes ending up when DJ spinned up to Ghostbusters song with its music video on screens, fabulous!

This time we had really improved our skills of cooking for 11 persons since the trip to Galway, avoid of doing oversized amounts of spaghetti with too less sauce :D ... As good as we were by cooking, last evening we went to eat out in restaurant called the mums', a place a serving delicious homemade food. I decided to go try one of the traditional Scottish dish, haggis: sheep's heart, liver, lungs and stomach (or sausage casing), minced with onions, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt. Served with smashed potatoes and turnips. Sounds delicious, right? Believe it or not it was actually really good!

There is also a small town half'n'hour train ride from Edinburgh called North Berwick. The town is know of it's sandy beaches and old harbor. Especially on summer season place is very popular but for some reason a bit chilly day end of March the beaches were rather empty. There is a peak right next to the town called The Northern Law which offers great views over the town itself and far far away of the surrounding flat landscape. Absolutely a day trip worth of doing.