The Inspiration Vacation continues! This is a series of entries that started a few entries back. To see what transpired before this entry, go back…maybe 4 entries to start?
At this point we are on Leg 3 of the trip - SCOTLAND!!
Got up early on September 11th to get to the King’s Cross train station to catch my train from London to Edinburgh. No problems there. Hung out in the commoner’s area (ha) until I realized that there’s actually a first class lounge where I could wait for the train. I’d sprung for a first class seat for this trip because I love train travel and meals and wine were included on this four-hour trip. Plus, it’s just a nice vacation splurge and I was hoping to see some great scenery on this trip and snap photos and post on IG - you know…my usual. :)
The train took us through small towns and a couple of bigger towns, a few rolling hills and then over by the coast (North Sea). The ride was easy. I highly recommend this mode of transportation if you ever find yourself in London and wanting to go to Edinburgh and vice versa.
Once in Edinburgh, at the Waverly Station, the stunning train station (I took this photo at a different time, but I thought that it was just beautiful), I got off the train and felt a major chill in the air - it was COLD! I knew it would be, but it was still a shock to the system since Paris and London had been so warm.
I’d planned my route to walk to the apartment where I was going to be staying for three nights. It was about ¾ mile walk and it was easy - along the main shopping street (Princes Street) and then over to the New Town. While walking down the main road, as I kept looking to my left, my mouth was agape as I could see the whole Old Town up high on a ridge - all of the old buildings, the castle…everything!!
Here is the VIEW that I was looking at!! Stunning, right?!
Made it up to the small boutique hotel apartments after about a 15 minute walk. Though the air was chilly, the sun was out and it was a gorgeous day. So I checked in to my ADORABLE apartment, threw my bags down and went downstairs to figure out where to explore first!
I made the mistake of asking the woman at the desk where I should go just to take a nice walk and get a breath of fresh air - because for some reason, she sent me off on a strange walk back around behind the area I wanted to see and around into a residential area. Don’t get me wrong, it was still stunningly gorgeous over there, But it wasn’t anything close to what I meant by getting some fresh air - I meant over by the castle! Of course, she didn’t know that when I asked her - just thought she would assume.
So, an hour later, after pulling my phone out about 50 times to figure out where I was going, I found myself up high into the Old Town walking amongst the crowds and trying to figure out what to do.
Suddenly, I stumbled across an old pub, the Ensign Ewart that had just been recommended to me by a friend who texted me earlier in the day! It was a sign.
I stopped in, and though I wasn’t hungry, I ordered a whisky!! My first Scotch whisky tasting! The bartender was a cool dude and he chit-chatted with me for a while and recommended this for a beginner. It’s a smooth one. I mean, WTF do I know about whisky? Nothing really. But it was the most delicious thing I’d tasted since being in Scotland!
While I sat and sipped, I got on the wifi and did some poking around on tripadvisor to see if there was a decent place to have dinner close to my apartment back in the New Town. I kind of hate to say this, but I definitely wasn’t in the mood for haggis or fish and chips or really anything typically Scottish. I found an Italian place two doors down and made a reservation for one person.
Slowly made my way back to the New Town and over to the restaurant. I suppose that since I’d made a reservation for one, the host thought I wanted to be seated in a secluded corner, but no! I requested a seat at the long, long, loooonnng community table. It wasn’t crowded, and I figured it would be the only way I could be in the thick of things…and I guess I kinda was, though the place wasn’t too crowded. It was a Tuesday night, after all.
At one point, a very handsome and what seemed like age-appropriate man walked into the establishment and it looked as if he was looking for his date or something. And then another similar man walked in…and as it turns out, they were having dinner together (and it wasn’t a date!), and in my mind I started praying to the restaurant gods that these guys would be seated next to me at the community table.
And you know what??? THEY WERE!! They were seated right next to me!
And that sort of got my juices flowing!
Even though I could kind of eavesdrop on their conversation, and I made split-second eye contact with both of these guys at one point or another during our respective dinners…even though we didn’t have conversations amongst ourselves, the energy was all I needed to continue on with my evening.
So I asked my awesome waiter (we were friends by then!) where a good place to sit at a nice bar and have a nightcap would be, and he told me of a place that was three doors down and happened to be right next door to my little apartment!
I did a little research on the place via tripadvisor and IG and discovered that I really needed to put in some extra effort on the attire. Like, dress up. Like, in a sexy dress.
So I went back to the apartment and put on my sexy dress…the one that barely covers my nips…and then I sat in my room for like 30+ minutes getting the courage up to (A) just get up and get going out to a bar by myself, and (B) get the courage up to walk next door in the COLD air with nothing but a scarf wrapped around me!
Hahha. I don’t know why it was so hard…it was literally NEXT DOOR!
Once I put one foot in front of the other, I was there!
And oh, it was a GORRRRGEOUS place! Like, an Instagrammer’s wet dream. There are several different rooms, each one decorated differently and lit with neon and mood lighting. Bright pinks and graphic black and white and lots of lush greenery on the inside. The place was luxe and the vibe was sexy and I found myself a spot at the bar and started chit-chatting with a female bartender.
It was a straight-up fancy cocktail bar, so I ordered a champagne cocktail and one by one got to talking with each of the bartenders…because the place wasn’t busy yet. There was lots of time to discuss who I was and where I was from and what I was doing in Edinburgh.
And one of the bartenders - super handsome young dude who also happened to be super friendly and helpful - asked me what I was doing the next day. I told him that I was going to explore the town. And then he told me that I should hike up Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano kind of on the edge of the Old Town where you can get AMAZING views of the city! I then did what I always do and I looked at Instagram, and found the most incredible photos of people who were climbing this volcano and the set of cliffs right in front of it (called the Salisbury Crags), and it looked ahmayyyyyzing! I was like, hells yeah I’m gonna do that!
And then this bartender - his name was John (and as it turns out, was a New Zealander) told me that he was off work the next day and that he’d hike it with me if I wanted! I mean!! How nice of him to offer! And I hesitated for a moment, but then thought, what the hell? This super nice guy was offering and told me that it would be a fun walk and we could bring beers…and then I asked, what about WHISKY??!! After all, we’re in Scotland!
And he was like, YEAH! Let’s do it!
We exchanged info so that we could communicate and set it up for the next day. Cool!
So I’d had a couple of drinks and I was about to call it a night. I was literally pulling my scarf around my neck and was going to head out around midnight, when the place started hopping!! Before I knew it, some guy had bought me a drink called a Porn Star and then another guy walked in who was a brand ambassador for some kind of rum….and he was shooting the shit with all of the bartenders and then he and I got to talking and then his brother and I were talking and laughing…and then the shots started flowing!!
It was a downright throw down at that point. On a Tuesday night! And I was like, WHO GIVES A FUCK I’M ON VACATION at that point and OH WHAT FUN!!!
Until, at 2am we were all kicked out of the bar because that’s closing time on a Tuesday night.
I bid adieu to the hot bartender and he told me he’d contact me so we could get together for our volcano hike the next day, and I left.
Home to my wee apartment next door, buzzed and happy and thrilled to have the whole day ahead of me with my own private tour guide of Edinburgh!!
Next entry: Edinburgh, Extinct Volcanoes and Eruptions!
xox,
GS
Loading comments...