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Scotland

Edinburgh

Our flight from Belfast to Edinburgh was 35 minutes, which is probably the shortest flight we have ever had, especially to get to another country. Once we landed, we were quickly initiated into the Scotland train system (ScotRail). Which was a little stressful but it worked out in the long run considering we’d end up using it almost daily while in the country. The trip from the airport to the Airbnb included three trains and one ringing of the wrong doorbell (totally Airbnb’s fault, not Ryan’s fault)! Eventually, we made it to the correct place. It had a mini fridge, washer, and a clothesline in the backyard, which felt like luxury. Sink laundry is fun and all but we were okay with this upgrade.

Our first morning in town, we started down the famous Royal Mile, stopped for coffee at The Milkman, and spent a few hours in the National Museum of Scotland. The museum was a standout as it was free, massive, and let us see the first ever cloned sheep, which was a little strange after all the sheep friends we made in Ireland. We got over it.

Later that day we wandered up to New Town for some Thai food at Rosa’s. It’s not the most traditional Scottish meal but Kaitlyn can only go so long without spring rolls so we had to. It definitely hit the spot, and we were happy to find out they have more locations in London. I have to bet we will visit one or two of those while we are there.

The next day we got a lot of steps in. We decided to hike Arthur’s Seat… but starting from our Airbnb which is about 3 miles out from the start of the trail. We added on Salisbury Crags, some city wandering, and by the time we got home we were just short of a half marathon. Kaitlyn was happy.

We are not the biggest Harry Potter fans, but it was cool to see the city that inspired a lot of the writing. It certainly does have a medieval, haunted feel to it. Now we'll have to go back and watch the movies to see if we recognize anything we saw while here.

Other highlights included strolling through Stockbridge, exploring Dean Village, and poking around the neighborhood shops and cafes. If we were to do it again, we would want to have our home-base in the Stockbridge area. There is so much great food and unique shops to explore. It is also very close to the rest of Edinburgh's cool areas. A lot of our favorite spots ended up being here in this neighborhood.

We kept hearing locals talk about “Porty” on the warmer days. Turns out that’s Portobello Beach, which was about a 30-minute walk from our place. We ended up visiting one morning and found what might be the best iced latte of the trip, maybe of our lives, at a place called Tanifiki. We made a pact to return on our last morning to have it one more time before we left.

Our final day was spent in Leith, a port district with a fun pub scene and some unexpected golf history. Apparently, the rules of golf were first written there at Leith Links which is now a public park. This was a neighborhood with a lot of history and the locals were proud of it.

All in all, we loved Edinburgh! It was really picturesque, super walkable, and had a surprising amount to see and do. The food and coffee scene was really impressive as well. Similar to Ireland, it was nice to have long days, with the sun rising at 4:30am and not setting until 10pm. It's a strange feeling to have full sunlight after dinner and even still while you're getting ready for bed. It was also nice to have some warmer weather. It got up to 80 degrees one day which gave us a little feeling of the summer we are used to. During the planning stages we talked about cutting this city and I am really glad we didn’t end up doing that, we would have missed out on our favorite city thus far. 

Glasgow

After Edinburgh we took the train 45 minutes over to Glasgow or 'Weegieland'. I don't think that's offensive. The vibe here is noticeably different. It's a bit grittier but there are some cool pockets if you are willing to do some hunting. Edinburgh has everything nicely compact and easy to walk to, but Glasgow makes you work for it. We ended up liking the west side of the city most (West End, Ashton Lane, and Hidden Lane). There also was some good food and coffee scattered around as well.

Pollok Country Park was another cool area we liked. You take a short train ride south and you can wonder the park, see some highland cows, and even a pretty good sized art museum (Burrell Collection).

As for the city center, it was cool to see the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), which is mostly famous for the statue out front wearing a traffic cone. The cone has been on top of the statue for 40+ years. The city and police initially tried to stop people from placing the cone on top of the statue, but after a few days there would be another one found on its head. I think the city finally realized they couldn't stop it so they gave in and own it now. That was, unfortunately, the most memorable part. Inside the museum was not super impressive to us. However, with the Kelvingrove and the Burrell, we got our fill of art in the city. Another perk being that all the museums we found were free to enter.

We liked Glasgow but felt like, for us, we divided up the time between the two cities the right way with the majority being in Edinburgh.

Before we knew it, it was time for London. We spent our last morning jogging the river, packing up our stuff, and fueling up at Outlier before our 5 hour train ride down to our first month-long stay.

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