Today was an interesting day. And by interesting, I mean that not a lot happened, but what did happen was pretty unexpected. These are the sorts of things that make travel (and stories about trips!) memorable.
The day began rather simply-- I had to get up entirely too early, especially given how late I had gone to sleep. I finished packing, got dressed, and Suzanne, Daniel and I started having breakfast. Then the fire alarm went off.
We raced outside, and found a few other bewildered residents trying to figure out what was going on-- eventually, we discovered that the mechanism is just rather temperamental, and decided to report that Flat 24 had a fire, which was not the case. Some nice person came and turned it off, and that was that. However, I still had to finish breakfast, and now I was going to be leaving later than I had anticipated.
Suzanne and I took the bus in the direction of the station I needed-- she got off to go to her office, and gave me directions for switching buses. I somehow screwed up (go figure), and wandered about for 5-10 minutes, looking very lost and dragging a suitcase behind me. I was displeased. I saw an empty taxi, and the New Yorker in me snapped into action-- I flagged him down, and directed him to take me to King's Cross, as quickly as humanely possible. We had a lovely chat about Scotland and Bath on the way there, but I was too busy looking at my watch to really get into it. He dropped me off, I ran into the station, and all the way down to the last platform (and then all the way to the furthest car, because of course, the quiet coach had to be at the front). I made it with a few minutes to spare. Crisis averted.
I was reading Emma for the beginning of the train ride to Edinburgh, until the man sitting next to me struck up a conversation. He was a young Arab man, a doctor in training who was living in Prague and working all over England, and an avid conversationalist. We wound up talking for two hours (until his stop)-- though I honestly could not tell you what we talked about. Everything and nothing. And it was a bit strange, I have to say. However, there is something fun about talking to strangers on trains-- you get to meet lots of interesting people that way. Also, I now know that if I'm ever in Dubai, there is a chocolate company (owned by his parents) that produces the most interesting chocolates using camel's milk, and that they are only available there-- no where else in the world. Cool, huh?
Once he left, I got back to reading for a bit, then fell asleep. I woke up for a minute to see the most gorgeous landscape ever-- rolling green hills dotted with sheep, with a clear blue ocean behind them, separated by huge rocky cliffs. ...and then I fell asleep again.
After arriving at the station, I set off in search of the hostel that I had booked a bed in. Now, I have never stayed in a hostel, and I was a bit wary about the whole thing, but decided that I should have a proper student's travel experience and try it out. I dragged my suitcase over cobblestones and hills and up narrow stairs, until I made it into the hostel. The super friendly receptionist handed me a key, and when I went back to my room, I opened the door to find a room about the size of a small single at Williams, filled with four bunk beds. And I was on a top bunk. And there were two showers for all of the girls in the hostel (which was a lot). This would not do.
I texted Liz and Dylan, the friends from my programme that I was meeting here in Edinburgh, and while waiting for a reply, decided to start wandering around the city. It didn't take long before I started wandering into hotels, asking if they had vacancies. Sure enough, a hotel from the chain that we stayed at in Dublin had rooms, and they weren't too expensive, so I ran back to the hostel, handed in my keys, negotiated a refund, grabbed my bags and left-- 45 minutes after checking in. I hope that I didn't insult them... but I have simply led too spoiled of an existence for me to deal with that sort of accommodation at this point. Oh well. So much for that.
I did a little more wandering around before meeting Liz and Dylan for dinner at the bar under their hostel. We had a long dinner-- just sitting around and talking-- and decided to head back to my hotel room once the live music came into the bar (and brought a horde of people with it). We were all quietly reading in my room when all of a sudden....
The fire alarm went off.
I was beginning to think that I was cursed. I grabbed my important belongs and we went downstairs in a calm, orderly fashion-- unlike the little boy who ran past me in nothing but his underwear while yelling (which was hysterical enough to make the inconvenience worthwhile). We waited outside while the firemen turned off the alarm-- nothing was wrong, of course, just another spastic system--and once we were allowed back in, Liz and Dylan headed back to their hostel, and I came back to write these posts. Oy. Vey.
So yeah-- interesting day. Didn't see much of Edinburgh; however, what I did see is really rather lovely-- it's a city with lots of character, lovely buildings, and kilts. Hopefully tomorrow will afford a better chance of exploring the city, without so many unexpected situations!
With love, my friends, from (a hotel room! in) Edinburgh-- goodnight!
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