We went to Scotland with my sister and nephew for a week over Easter. We stayed in a really nice cottage in the Scottish Borders, which was on a sheep farm. We were woken up one day by sheep and lambs loudly bleating due to an overnight downfall of snow.
We had a really good time (and the snow didn’t hang about) and explored the Borders, walked by the sea, ate waaaaaaaaay too much food and generally enjoyed ourselves. We also spent some time in Edinburgh, and it must be the third or fourth time I have been there and I still don’t “get it” as a city. I just can’t seem to connect with it or feel that I really know what Edinburgh is about. Most places we go, whether big or small I feel as though I have somehow got a sense of what that place is like. For example, while we were in the Borders we were staying near Lauder and got a sense of what that village is like by spending some time walking around the local area, stopping for coffee, visiting the local butcher’s shop and so on. But Edinburgh continues to evade me, and I say that as a Londoner. G, a Scot, is obviously horrified by this and says we need to go back soon to redress this.
Since we’ve got back, work has been really hectic and I am counting down to use going to Porto in a couple of weeks’ time. I also have developed a pain in my shoulder for some unknown reason. I really am not suited to a working life.
3 comments:
Porto sounds nice.
I hope your mum is ok.
Xxxx
I used to feel the same about Edinburgh - but then I realised it wasn't one city, but two. There's "heritage" Edinburgh - all culture, museums and architecture, then there's real Edinburgh, which is a murkier, more elusive place. Even though Edinburgh has a populated city centre and so can fool people into thinking that that's what the city is like, its "real" areas are away from the city centre, eg, Morningside, Leith, Corstorphine, Portobello, Niddrie, Pilton etc. It's appropriate that lots of literature from the city - from Jekyll & Hyde to any of the Ian Rankin Rebus novels - has this duality of natures at it's core. Even sedate Alexander McCall Smith has the Isabel Dalhousie novels alongside companionable 44 Scotland Street series...
But yes, you should come up again, and soon. And as long as neither you nor G have a huge allergy to cats or rabbits, we have a surprisingly comfortable guest room...
Kahless - We are are so looking forward to going to Porto.
Mum seems to be doing ok, although it isn't entirely clear where the pneumonia is at, or the blood thinning for that matter. But she is fine!
Gripes - I think I have only really experienced the touristy side of it (although we did have a very nice trip on a canal boat out Ratho way...) and always at great speed and so have never had much time to sit and soak in where I am.
I shall have to get a tour guide next time we are up in Edinburgh. Neither of us have allergies, although G has an aversion to creatures that jump on the bed at night. Make of that what you will.
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