📍Edinburgh, Scotland, Part II 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇬🇧

Day 1: I got to Edinburgh around 5 pm and the sunset was looking right. I check into my hostel, CoDE Pod- The Court, which was right in the center of downtown. When I checked in, there were a few people from Ireland playing cards and I kindly invited myself right into their game. We played until they had to leave for diner, which was fine because if I’m going to be honest here, their card skills were subpar at best.

I had been craving a sandwich from Bread Meats Bread—we had eaten there the first time we were in Edinburgh—so I walked over for a late dinner and a drink. We knew we were going to Portugal, so while I was at dinner I started looking at places I wanted to go. There was a couple sitting next to me and we randomly started talking. We asked the standard tourist question: “Where are you from?” Their answer: PORTUGAL. They gave me all the recommendations and we ended up talking for the rest of the meal.

When I came back from dinner I was hanging out in the common room of the hostel and started talking to a girl who was also staying there. Her name? Alex. Where was she from? PORTUGAL. I had not met a Portuguese person on this trip and now I couldn’t stop meeting them. I wasn’t complaining, so far I liked 3 out of the 3 I had met. Pretty good odds. We hung out for a bit and then it was time for bed.

Day 2: If anyone knows my dad, they know he loves one thing: golf. When he found out I was kinda close to St. Andrews, he highly recommended I visit. I knew he was probably a tiny bit biased by the beautiful golf course, but I decided to take his recommendation and I am so glad I did. It was beautiful. I spent the day walking around the town, visiting the castle, and I even went to see the golf course. (Dad, I know you are proud, please hold back your tears.)

I saw a sign for a sushi burrito and without thinking twice I was in there. As one can imagine, I should have stuck with fish ‘n’ chips, but it was a learning experience.

I then made my way back to the train and went back to the city to meet up with my new friend Alex. As I was walking to the train station I noticed a bunch of dots in a field. I walked up to them and found 2,500 new best friends.

I met up with Alex and we went to the Camera Obscura & World of Illusions.

We spent so much time messing with our brains we worked up an appetite. Because we got out of the museum a little late, we had very few options when it came to food. So we found a Mexican restaurant called Mariachi.

Day 3: Through where I do all my research (TikTok) I found a place I wanted to try called Mor Bakery. It took a 20 minute walk to get these meat pastries but they were amazing. On my walk back, I saw a crowd around a building with a news crew.

Being the nosy girl I am, I obviously stopped to get the tea. For my fellow nosy people, apparently, a cop was in trial for doing some bad things and the news crew was waiting for him to get out.

I started walking around the city and low and behold I found a Mor Bakery a solid 2 minute walk from my hostel. Some may say it was good news I did not know this before my trek that morning—it was best I got those steps in—some may say this is dangerous knowing it is so close.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the day just walking around the city, stopping at cafes (specifically liked Hideout Cafe Old Town), taking pictures of the sites, and just taking my time exploring. I am not usually one to “take my time” so it was a lovely change of pace.

When J and I made the plans to travel separately for a bit, we totally didn’t realize the time apart would be over Valentine’s Day. Since we were both traveling alone, my new friend Alex and I decided we would go out for a nice dinner and treat ourselves to some sushi and drinks. No better self love than a juicy sushi roll.

Day 4: I woke up a little later and went to the closer Mor Bakery because I simply could not resist. I also walked The Royal Mile.

Eventually, I met back up with Alex and we had a chai tea and cookie at a cafe and then made our way to the H&M. Because I only had a backpack and was spending all my money on food, I had not really shopped. Well, Alex conveniently works in the IT department of H&M and gets great discounts so I had to take advantage of the opportunity. It also was time to pick up some new outfits because if my sister-in-law saw me in the infamous green sweater one more time I would never live it down. Spoiler alert: she did in fact see me in the green sweater A LOT more times.

Alex went to the airport to fly home, but I happened to be very close to Dishoom, where J and I had eaten at in Edinburgh, and I NEEDED to have it again. I went pretty early, it was maybe 5:45 pm or so, and there was already an hour wait. I had absolutely no where else to be, so I went to the bar and got a drink while I waited.

Eventually, I ate copious amounts of delicious Indian food and went back to the hostel. I had made friends with a guy on night one of this hostel stay and he was in the lobby, so i popped down next to him and started chatting. While chatting, our group grew to: one guy from Columbia (but lives in the US), a guy from Italy, a girl from Taiwan, a guy from Australia, a girl from South Africa, and me. We had six people and represented six different CONTINENTS and I thought it was just about the coolest thing.

The guys and I went out to the bar, but we eventually ended up in a metal band bar which resulted in me quickly leaving for my bed.

Day 5: Remember I mentioned I became a huge nerd and way more into Harry Potter than I was before I left for this trip? Since Edinburgh has so many connections to HP, I decided to go on a Harry Potter walking tour through the city. If you would have told me I would choose to follow a middle-aged women around in a cape with a wand around a city on my vacation, I would’ve told you to lay off the drugs. Turns out, you would’ve been right and I did exactly that, and I loved it.

I grabbed lunch at Oink which, as you probably guessed, serves pulled pork sandwiches.

Unfortunately, during our trip we lost someone very special to us. J’s dad passed while we were traveling separately so I jumped on the next train out to where J was in England. Though it was under really sad circumstances, it felt good to be reunited. We got to distract ourselves a bit by sharing stories and telling each other about our solo time. Sam, you were very loved and you will be missed by so many. J, you are an amazing son and your dad was very proud of you. ♥