Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, is one windy place.  When you're walking, you're either fighting to stay upright or getting propelled to where you're headed!  But, its an absolutely beautiful city with really nice architecture (many of the buildings/districts are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site) and people (though sometimes you have to listen quite carefully to understand what they're saying).  Its also a huge student town so lots of cheap drinks and discounts for students (unlike in Copenhagen where being a student doesn't get you anywhere).

 

The cheapest tickets for me were to fly to London Stansted then on to Edinburgh and back along the same route.  So I spent quite a bit of time waiting for the next flight at Stansted.  The flights were a little bumpy due to the wind and I kep looking out my window expecting us to crash or the wings to rip off (morbid i know).  I stayed with Lina who is there on student exchange.  She lives in a flat where they all pretty much work at the same club/bar... what that means is when you walk into their living room, all you see are bottles of spirits and mixers.  So.. in all truth... I spent most of the nights out at bars or clubs and the mornings sleeping in.  I did get to see *some* of the city but not that much.  I didn't walk up to see the castle (I did take a photo of it) and there was a hill Ann (more about her later) wanted to take me up but because it was getting dark (and windy) we decided not to go (this was at the bottom of the hill where the steps started).

 

Friday night, I arrived and Lina and I walked to Ann's place where her flatmates had prepared a roast dinner. It was delicious!!!  Ann is from HK but moved to study and live in Edinburgh where she went to Copenhagen for a semester on exchange (which is where I met her).  Ann lives with her boyfriend (Andrew) and two good girlfriends (Ailleann [pronoucned Alan] and Gemma).  Roast dinner was followed with shots of vodka where we made a toast before each shot...took a break talking etc then another toast and another shot.  Ailleann had lived in Russia as part of her studies and I think this is the way you do it in Russia.  After that, it was time for the girls to get dressed and we headed out to some bars/clubs and had a great night.

 

Saturday, woke up quite late and went to The Three Sisters for a massive burger and chips with Lina and two of her french friends.  It was pouring down but Lina and I decided to brave the elements and did a quick walk around the city, pit stop at Starbucks (during which time the rain thankfully stopped) and then we headed home.  Lina had to work so I went to Ann's place for some more drinks. The plan was to head out to Lina's work but after we started playing drinking games (Ming, Mang, Mong; this really simple and quick card game and 21), that never happened.  Sunday, was when Ann took me on the rest of the tour of Edinburgh then that night I went out with Lina and her friends to a club.  And that was it!!!

 

oh... one of the highlights of my trip was after 16+months I finally sunk my teeth into a really nice meat pie!!! mmmmmmmmm