Ahhh it's been over a week since our last post! We apologize - it's been a busy week.
Amandine arrived from Oslo last Tuesday and we had a lot of fun exploring the city with her. We filled the week with cooking, movies, walking/hiking, day trips, and relaxing in private gardens. The rain did not stop us. She is on her way back to Calgary tomorrow and I miss her already.
At Amandine's recommendation, we decided to hike up Arthur's Seat again - this time in the middle of the night - to arrive at the top in time to watch the sun rise over the ocean. Sounds great in theory, right? It turned out to be slightly less magical when we, completely sleep-deprived, had to navigate our way through swarms of drunk people stumbling home at 3:30am in order to get to the base of the hill. The actual climb also seems to be ten times more difficult when your body wishes it was sleeping. There was no going back at that point though. We made it to the top
just in time to watch the sky turn crazy shades of pink and purple and to see the sun peak up over the horizon. We sat for awhile and appreciated the view before agreeing that bed sounded really really good.
On Monday (27th), the three of us took a bus to St Andrews and spent the day wandering around the town. The weather wasn't the greatest, but we still had fun. We had lunch at an amazing fish and chips place called Tail's End, and then took a walk on the huge stretch of beach that runs parallel to the Old Golf Course. None of us were too intrigued by the golf stuff, but we got really excited when we found out they filmed that famous scene from Chariots of Fire on that beach. So cool.
We ended up at an old cemetery and cathedral ruins on the other end of town. The scene became extremely morbid and creepy when we witnessed two seagulls brutally attacking each other. In the rain. Among the ruins. We were kind of dumbstruck by it. Both birds were okay (we think) but it was completely bizarre to watch. We ended our day at a cute coffee shop, where I tried Banoffee Pie for the first time. It's a British dessert - combination of bananas and toffee. So good. I definitely recommend.
So, turns out all the people who live in the rich, fancy neighborhoods of New Town (like Murphy), get access to the Private Queen Street gardens. Like, the gardens are in the middle of the city but gated and locked at all times to the public. Unless you have a special key. Which Murphy does, and so kindly allowed us to use so we could have a fancy picnic removed from the hassles of commoners and their unruliness. So naturally, we went to M&S and bought sandwiches, crisps, fruit, and bubbly wine spritzers and entered our lovely green sanctuary. As Kayla describes it, "it is for all the rich puppies and their poops" - which is actually completely accurate. We spent a few hours laying in the sunshine, getting bloated by the fizzy drinks, and feeling generally very fancy.
I believe that's it for now! We'll probably keep up this method of writing from now on - a longer post once a week instead of every few days. Next week will be very eventful as I am moving into my new flat on Friday. Hope you are all doing well!
Love,
Amy (+ Kayla)
