Edinburgh, Scotland

Greetings!

It's been a while since I've even thought about writing here but most the other interns I'm here with regularly update their blogs, putting me to shame plus it makes it a lot easier to update people all at once! Woot woot!

I've been here in Edinburgh for a month now (yeah I'm really behind) but so far everything has been going great, minus a few unlucky situations, but I've determined all that will work out eventually.

When I first arrived, on Friday January 8th, it was right towards the end of the terrible cold weather that had been affecting the whole UK. Consequently I finally arrived to Edinburgh 4 hours late with no baggage and the city was covered in a light layer of snow. It was very pretty but not so easy to get around town, cobblestone gets very slippery!

Here is the satellite image of the whole UK that was on the front page of the Scotsman the day I arrived. It shows the whole of mainland Britain except for a small part of Scotland completely covered in snow! It's like something out of The Day After Tomorrow, spooky.

Saturday morning I went over to the flat I had arranged to let a room in. Although I've been gradually learning my way around the Old Town area of Edinburgh where I live, eat, sleep, drink, and work most the time (I have to go elsewhere to shop...) the Royal Mile has been my main route for most outings.

The Mile, is pretty cool in several ways. First of all its a long, straightforward street with an assortment of restuarants, pubs, tourist shops, and sights that are all easy to find and visit. Beyond that it is the heart of Old Town and all the buildings and churches still have their historical facades with closes and wynds weaving in and out of the buildings. This part of town has been densely populated since Edinburgh's early history.

At the top of the mile is Edinburgh Castle the biggest tourist attraction in town. It is built on the Rock which is a part of an ancient volcano. Here is another reason why the Mile is interesting. The Mile slopes downhill away from the Castle all the way to the new Scottish Parliament building (where I work!) but it is sloped like that because of glaciation as a glacier slowly moved downhill and carved out the modern landscape the town has been built upon. Oh yeah, the nerd in me went crazy!

My flat is on Victoria Street which is a short, steep cobblestoned road right off the mile. It's also right next to the Grassmarket (use to be where the cattle market was held) where there are a ton of resturants and pubs. We're on the 1st floor and technically its a 2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room, shower room, and toilet room. However, due to the long history of the building there is another random room right next to the street. I have no clue what it might have originally been for but somebody built in a lofted DOUBLE bed and there's a little desk, some shelves, and all-in-all its the perfect amount of space! I've dubbed it my "bat-cave" so far no serious ladder issues, thank god I brought my headlamp!

The rest of the flat is great too, everyone calls the living room my opium den (not because of the presence of opium hehe) but it is very colorful and...bohemian, I guess would be a good word. The bathroom set up is actually comical. There is a toilet at one end of the hall, it's "victorian" with a wooden seat and pull handle with a porcelain fish on the end, to clarify splinters are a non-issue. At the other end of the hall is the shower room. The shower is raised a little and the top of it goes up into this bizarre raised space in the ceiling, they definitely had to squeeze it in. All over the place the guys have hung up cool photos, articles, pretty much anything they thought was interesting I guess, it makes for some good reading material over a bowl of cereal.

Clearly, I'm very happy with my living accomodations and I hear some wild things late at night from the street below, all part of it's character. At first it wasn't so warm and cozy, literally, since the boiler broke my second day in and we had no heat or hot water, and I had only one outfit. It took 10 days for me to get both of my bags so that first week was definitely...interesting. It was challenging to not look like a dirty hobo at work but at the same time much worse things could have happened. I'll continue with my first day of work soon! (Oh and I have pictures to share as well)