My Weekend in Edinburgh in Bullet Points

Sunny Side Up #33

Friday

• Throw up from anxiety. A year ago I could barely leave my house, so this is sort of a big deal for me.

• Eat Cheerios.

• Get ready.

• Pick up Liza. She’s brought my Mum flowers.

• Our train is before 9.

• I buy a peppermint tea and drink half of it before the train, and the other half of it when I’m on the train.

• The journey is long, but beautiful. About three hours in we saw glimpses of the sea.

• Trains are fun because you can observe the entire world from a window and they don’t know you’re watching.

• I stare.

• And stare.

• And stare some more.

• I stare until we arrive at Edinburgh Waverley Station, and walk what feels like 500 miles to our hotel.

• It was actually only ten minutes, but whatever.

• The hotel is stunning so I squeal.

• When we get to our room, I squeal again.

• I look out the window and see the castle. More squealing.

• I FaceTime my Mum, my Dad, and Ben to show them the room and the view from the window.

• We’re starving so we go to the nearest coffee shop for baguettes and eat them by the Ross Fountain.

• We see Dachshunds and Dalmatians.

• Liza thinks Dachshunds are ugly but I disagree.

• The sun is out. Should have brought my sunnies.

• Before we know it it’s nearly five and we go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, which is early tonight because we are tired.

• I wear my Claudia Winkleman Traitors-style trousers and feel like I’m taking the piss even though I promise I’m not. You cannot sneeze for tartan in this place. I’m not wearing them again this trip, I don’t want them to think I’m stereotyping.

• Dinner at hotel. Fish & chips, a sixteen layer carrot cake and live music.

• I write from the chair in the window. Could get used to this.

• Best, longest sleep I’ve had in a long time.

Saturday

• Wake up to sun leaking through the curtains. Pull them back to reveal the castle basking in the light. Is this real?

• Edinburgh Castle is booked for 10am. I was going to book for 11 but then Michael said it will be packed so go earlier and he was right. It was heaving.

• We see canons and crowns and prisons.

• We spend four hours meandering around the castle, taking sharp inhales of breath when we catch the view from the windows and murmuring ‘oh my god’ when the hairs on our arms stand up from the cold of the prison cells.

• We walk around the old town. I am hungry. I say ‘let’s get lunch’, so we start to look for somewhere nice.

• I trip over the pavement. Happens to us all, yeah?

• I suggest a little Italian with flowers spilling around the doorway.

• “No”, says Liza.

• We find a cute cafe called Hula.

• “Yes”, says Liza.

• We get a table outside.

• A girl tells me she likes my scarf, which makes me happy. It’s my favourite blue one.

• I eat the best avocado toast I’ve ever had. I think it was the chunky salt that made the difference.

• We dip in and out of shops for an hour. Cheesemongers, book shops, natural skincare and a Jellycat haven.

• After an extensive search we find the Writer’s Museum. I feel bad that I’ve never read Treasure Island.

• Then we go to the Scott Monument.

• Then we go to Waterstones.

• Then we go back to the hotel because I want to swim in the pool.

• We walk down to the pool in our dressing gowns which feels rebellious in a nice hotel.

• I immediately feel less sophisticated when I try and open the door to the pool but it’s actually a fire escape and a little man runs behind me to tell me I’m going the wrong way. Oops.

• I swim for an hour, and Liza sits on the side.

• I want to go to the jacuzzi but it’s occupied by six people with glasses of Prosecco.

• I decide on the sauna instead.

• A facial is nearly £200 at this hotel so I whack on a sheet mask from Boots instead. Does the trick.

• After I shower I sit and stare out the window at the castle again. Maybe this is a waste of time but to be quite honest I don’t really care and it’s not often you get to look out of your bedroom window and see a medieval castle, is it?

• We walk to dinner at a restaurant a few streets away from the hotel and I eat delicious pistachio profiteroles.

Sunday

• We begin by eating breakfast at The Dome.

• I nearly try the Scottish breakfast but then I’m told what haggis is and so I settle on French toast. No regrets. Delicious.

• The Dome is right by the nice shops so I pick up some treats for my Mum and sister.

• On today’s agenda: the gallery.

• Outside the gallery a huge choir is singing Somewhere Only We Know and everyone in the vicinity has stopped to take it all in. It’s beautiful. You know those moments where loads of strangers stop and invest in a moment all together and it’s rare but when it happens it’s lovely because you all feel some sort of kinship?

• When we enter the gallery there’s loads of renaissance paintings and for a while I take my time reading about every single one and admire what I’m seeing but then I’m honest with myself and I actually hate paintings of babies with wings with weird dogs and dresses that look like the ladies can’t breathe in them so I stop trying to be intelligent and skip to the paintings I do actually like.

• I like one of three women having tea on a sunny day, and another room filled with watercolours. There’s another one that’s really detailed of Cinderella and her step sisters, and I like that too. Upstairs I was surprised to see Van Gogh and Monet, which made me all excited because I’ve never seen them in real life before.

• I could have stayed there longer, but after three hours we sat in the cafe and I had a nice hot chocolate.

• It was especially nice because it came in two parts: one mug half filled with melted chocolate, and a small jug of foamy milk. A DIY project, if you will.

• We go and see Greyfriar’s Bobby, who was a very Good Boy.

• I say to Liza, ‘let’s go to the museum because it’s only next door!’

• And we go in the museum.

• There’s an exhibition on about the development of the COVID vaccine which is amazing to wonder through but makes me feel all jelly-like.

• Masks behind glass.

• PE with Joe on the screens.

• A 3D image of the virus.

• At the end, a poem read by Robert Carlisle that makes me weep for a moment.

• Normally when you go to a museum you’re learning about things you’re quite far removed from. This felt like a shock, but it was important.

• We walk back to the hotel through the parks and a Westie called Bobby drops his ball at my feet.

• His babysitter tells me that Bobby’s Dad is a fancy chef and so Bobby is having sirloin steak for his tea tonight. Good for Bobby!

• Bobby is very happy frolicking amongst the daffodils and soon starts playing with a Scottie.

• This makes me smile very much.

• I wear red lipstick for dinner tonight because it feels fancy, but then I keep worrying that I’ve got it on my teeth.

• I eat Shepherd’s Pie and have a side of green beans that have toasted flaked almonds on top and I think that’s nice, and maybe I’ll do that myself at home.

• For dessert I eat creme brûlée, which is foolproof imho.

• We chat a lot at dinner.

• When we return to the hotel it’s almost 10pm and time I attempt to cram all my stuff back in my suitcase, which isn’t a suitcase but the massive rucksack my Dad takes with him on trips to the Euros and the cricket and stuff.

• It’s huge and I look like a year 7 on their first day.

• It doesn’t take long for me to fall asleep. My feet hurt.

A selection of favourites from the gallery

Monday

• Nobody ever likes going home, do they?

• There’s not much to tell here.

• We had one last stroll through the park. I ate a croissant.

• I said goodbye to the hotel staff who were all super nice, and isn’t it nice when people are nice?

• We got a taxi to the station because I wasn’t willing to walk 500 miles with that weight on my back.

• Hot chocolate at the station. An essential.

• Saw a Taylor Swift mural, which made me do a small happy dance internally.

• On the way home I started an audiobook. Gillian McAllister.

• Bag was too big to fit overhead and I ended up being trapped in my seat, but fortunately I didn’t whack anyone in the face with my massive backpack on exit.

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