September 12, 2009
All my life I’ve heard the saying “Third time’s a charm”. And all my life it’s been like a fifty-fifty chance that it’ll be true. Well, in this instance, our third day in Edinburgh has been the most charming of all!
It’s six in the morning and our eyes slowly break open. Sleeping for so long is such an addictive drug. Our stomachs are playing Beethoven’s 5th and we come to an absolutely horrible realization.
When I booked the B&B online, it gave me the option to choose a continental breakfast. Sweet so I go for it. £5 a person (somewhere in between $8 and $10). Must be good.
When we arrived at the B&B the first thing that Timy told us was “Make sure you fill out the breakfast form. Circle what you’d like and the quantity and place it right here on this piano. Put it out before you go to bed, not in the morning.”
Well, somewhere in between foot massage ecstasy and the 6 o clock Scottish sunrise, we forgot the breakfast form. So, grumpy as hell, Angela and I set out on a bacon and eggs excavation.
Making our way down Colinton road, our eyes catch a glimpse of something familiar. Starbucks. I don’t know if you’ve ever had Starbucks’ Perfect Oatmeal…but it’s heaven in your mouth.
We practically prance on inside, come up to the counter, and say to the barista “We’ll have 2 Caramel Macchiatos and 2 Perfect Oatmeals please.”
“2 perfect whats?” He says to us with a raised brow.
We look at the menu. Oatmeal = Porridge. Haha all my life I’ve wanted to have porridge. Ever since I heard the story of Goldie Locks and those bears and how she ate baby bear’s porridge. It was the perfect thing to break the fast.
While we’re eating we decide that we’ll have a very nice, slow, and relaxing day. Since the school is closed and all letting agencies aren’t open till Monday, there’s nothing else to do but actually enjoy Scotland for the first time. Just this idea in my mind was such a relief. It really takes a toll on the body to worry so much. Stress so much. For the first time, we looked at our map and pointed to where we’d actually like to go. Not to where we had to go.
We walk along Bruntsfield for a little while and come across this beautiful little park. It’s made up of these little trees along the perimeter and just green hills in the center. It was pretty full of couples and friends. Some were laying down together talking. A group of four guys had their guitars out and were singing some noticeably Scottish tunes. Two friends were drinking, smoking, belching, and laughing right next to us. It was pretty funny. Across the park two little girls walking a dog passed by a group of little boys and the boys did what we do best. They made fun of the pretty girls trying to be mean, but I’m sure they just wanted to look cool. There are bee’s (a kind I’ve never seen before) hovering all over the grass, they came in to say hi a few times but once you mark your territory they move away. Seagulls are flying all over the place. One guy was holding up some food in his hand trying to get their attention. A seagull took a nosedive at like 50 mph, but changed his mind at the last second. Lucky guy probably would’ve gotten his hand snatched too…crazy person.
We take a few pictures and have a good time, and then we leave to go have lunch at the Baguette Shop. I’ve never had a baguette before. I wish I got one. I got a panini instead. It was supposed to be with Mexican Chicken. I asked the woman if she had anything spicy and the first thing she said was “Oh, yeah, Mexican chicken!” It was about as spicy as a Tootsie Roll. Really good though.
It’s about 2:00 now and Angela and I, being old farts, decide it’s time for our afternoon nap. Why does all the sleeping make you sleepy? Who knows. We walk into the B&B and are pleasantly surprised with what we see. The three little munchkins that live there are no taller than my knees. The two boys are older and then there’s the baby girl. These are the monsters that we can here screaming “But, mommy, I don’t want to go to school! Where’s daddy?!” at eight in the morning. They’re so cute man.
So remember Lorna, the shower lady? She’s there too. With a big smile on her face she walks up to us. I mean…big smile.
“Hey guys! So, I noticed you booked 5 more days with us!?”
“Yeah we did. We kinda had too. The flat search really isn’t going too well. Everything is taken. We have some lined up for next week, but who knows when we’re going to get one.” We tell her with a pretty sad tone.
She replies “ Oh, that’s a shame. Yeah, it’s real hard this time of year, with all the students and all. I think I might have something to help you out though. We rent out a flat not too far from here. It’s not a long-term stay flat, but it’s a guaranteed place to live until you find one. It’ll be cheaper then continuing to book this place. What do you think?”
In my head I’m thinking “No way. Two days ago you were Count Dracula, and now you’re giving us a place to say?”
It took Angela and I about a second to tell her we’ll take it.
We walk to our room, Glenfiddich, and do a little celebration dance when we get in. It feels great to know that at least we can have a solid temporary place until we find a permanent one. This was icing on the cake. Although…we don’t really have a cake yet, more like a cookie crumb. Still, it was icing.
Earlier today we had stopped by the Merchiston Campus of Edinburgh Napier University and stole some wifi. We saw on the map that this little movie theatre, Dominion Cinema, was near and we wanted to check it out. Online the movie times for “The Time Travelers Wife” were for 6:30 and 8:50. Sweet, take a little 2-hour nap, wake up, and go see the soft side of Eric Bana.
We should’ve expected it. The alarm was no match for Angela’s snoring. We…or should I say I woke up at 8. I tried and tried and tried to wake Ms. Angela up, but she wouldn’t budge. Haha she actually got a little mad at me and told me to “buggar off!” No, she didn’t…might as well though. So I throw on a little dvd I like to call “How to lose a guy in 10 days” and have myself a party.
A wee bit later at about 2 in the morning Angela decides to wake up. And you know, if someone next to you gets out of the bed, it’s going to wake you up too! All wide-eyed and perky she turns to me and goes “Let’s watch Chocolate!” Automatically, I think of the movie “I love you, Man” and bust out laughing. We finally went to sleep at 4 in the morning.
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