Finally Edinburgh

We met Liam and Riitta through mutual friends only 2 years ago, but became fast friends. Mike was one of the few people who had been to Scotland and Finland, where they were from. (Riitta explained that they use double vowels in Finnish often, and you pronounce all of the letters, Ree-eet-ta is actually 3 syllables.)

When they told us they were moving to Edinburgh, we were at once sad but excited–Don’t invite us if you don’t want us to actually come stay with you, because we will!, I told them. And now here we were, my first trip to Scotland!

The train from Stirling to Edinburgh was only about an hour and mercifully I was feeling better. I was so very happy to see Riitta waiting for us at the train station–it was all like a dream! One day you say goodbye to someone in Orlando, then you with them in Scotland whaaaaaaaat!?!??

It was only 10 minutes from the train station to their flat and we were greeted by one of our favorite dogs, Morgan, their Newfoundland 🙂

We had wondered if Morgan would remember us. She stayed with Mike and I for a week when she was not allowed to fly to Scotland initially, but that is another big story which most everyone has heard. We were reassured when Morgan greeted us at the door with her bunny!

“Old” has a different definition in Scotland. Our friends live in New Town, in a flat that was built in 1780. Here’s Mike, walking into their building, to their 3rd story flat.

One of the most incredible things about Edinburgh is the vast amount of green space. Calton Hill is only blocks from their house and soon we were hiking to incredible views from on top of the city. Mind you the climb was steep, so just walking the dog included considerable exercise.

From the top of Calton Hill, you could see Old Town, the featured picture. The castle in the distance was likely built in the 1200’s, but people were occupying and fighting over the space long before that.

Our friends had purchased tickets to a play for that evening. Soon we were walking to Old Town and stopped at a pub to have our first Cask Ale! It was smooth and delicious. Cool, not cold, with less carbonation.

The play was called Rebus: A Game Called Malice, written by a popular British writer, Ian Rankin. He has a series of detective novels with a character called Rebus. During Covid, Rankin wrote the play, which is set exclusively in one room. And, Riitta recognized the writer in the theatre lobby, milling about with guests before the show. The theatre was, of course, old and beautiful.

When Riitta asked me at intermission if I could understand the accents, I had to admit I only got about 50%. Two of the actors were from Glasgow, where the accent is even difficult for Mike to understand!

During intermission, I noticed a queue of people on each side of the aisles and Riitta said they were buying ice cream! What a nice treat!

The very next day I could hear crowd noise from our guest bedroom which overlooked a busy street. It sounded like chanting and grew louder. Finally I looked out the window and saw it was a protest over Israel-Palestine. There were about 100 marchers, flanked by security guards.

We enjoyed lingering over coffee and croissants from the Italian store called Valvona & Crolla directly across the street. It is quite a famous store that people travel miles to visit–small and authentic.

The flats in Edinburgh have tall ceilings, like 12 feet or higher. The fireplace had been taken out of their kitchen but there was a curious ladder parallel to the ceiling. Riitta explained that it was for drying laundry! They have a dryer, but the ladder was still handy for rain-soaked clothes or drying towels. To load it you undo a rope and lower the ladder; then you raise it up to let it dry. The ceiling is so tall the clothes are completely out of the way! (That’s Morgan’s huge gray elephant on the floor.)

We spent our first morning drinking coffee until noon and catching up. Mike and I insisted we did not want to impose and perhaps 2 weeks was too long. They assured us they welcomed the break of fun with friends and we sketched out loose plans for our visit!