Almost...Almost...Almost...There we are

Wow, what a difference a week makes. You'll (hopefully) be happy to learn that I'm back to good health. I switched hostels last Sunday in hopes of a fresh start in Edinburgh. I'm sure glad I did. The new hostel was big, but was good...very relaxed, laid back atmosphere. Thanks for the tip, Arty! Still not letting you live down the MNF ticket incident though. Anyways, I checked into my room which was big but luckily not overcrowded with beds. As I was getting settled in, I got to a know a few other people who were also just getting there. They were a couple of Aussies, Dan and Hayley, and a Canadian, Liz. Quick aside... you'll likely notice a recurring theme in this blog, which is the meeting of Aussies. That is because they are everywhere in Europe. I can honestly say I heard more Aussie accents in the last two weeks than Scottish accents. Not that there's anything wrong with that... I just wonder who is back in Australia since they're all out here. Anyways, I quickly befriended these 3 great people and we decided to hit up a pub or two. This is when we discovered our natural ability to assemble a homemade pub crawl. We started out just the 4 of us, but by the time we made it to the 3^rd bar, we had more than doubled in numbers. It was a great night out all in all.

The following day, I finally explored the city a bit. I couldn't stretch myself too much though since I was still regaining my strength from not having been able to eat/breathe much the week previous. What I did see was awesome...very beautiful architecture and design. Just to backtrack a moment...my first Edinburgh hostel had been in the newer part of town, which they for some reason named New Town. Since it is a modern addition, the buildings aren't nearly as old and impressive. My new hostel however was right in Old Town (guess how it got its name), with an amazing view of the Edinburgh castle. So seeing this part of town after having been laid up in my hostel for a week was a great little surprise. That night was Hayley's birthday. Well, the entire day had been Hayley's birthday, but we were celebrating that night. Her one birthday wish was to go to Pizza Hut. You may scoff at this, thinking we're travelling in a faraway continent with loads of culture and cuisine in every direction and all she wants in some crappy pizza from an American chain. However if you've been on the road for any extended amount of time (they're 5 months into their trip), you'll come to appreciate the comforts of home, no matter how trivial, as something to be revered. Hell, I've only been gone a little over a month and it was the best meal I'd had since the chicken roast I had mentioned in a previous entry. So with our stomachs full we went back to the hostel to have some drinks and play some cards before heading out to celebrate. This is when our pub crawl abilities really shined. We were playing cards in our room in the middle of the floor and not only managed to get more people to play the game, we got the entire room (a dozen total) to come out on our pub crawl. Liz lead the way, as always, and we found a couple really good pubs and had a really good time. We also found a couple shitty pubs, but we managed to have a good time nonetheless in those as well. The way last call works in Scotland is that pubs have to close by 1:00 am (in the morning) but clubs can stay open til 3. So at 1 we headed over to a club near our hostel. This won't come as a shock to many of my friends, but I fucking hate clubbing. I hate everything about it...the overpriced drinks, the loud and shitty pop music that prevents any sort of meaningful conversation, dancing, and the obvious way in which half the people there are just trying to hook up. I dunno, I just don't like clubs. Anyways, I figured I'd be a good sport since it was Hayley's bday and went along with the group. I had a drink, but just couldn't get into it...there was no denying that I was miserable there. I didn't want to be a wet blanket on anybody else's good time, so I wished everybody farewell, and took off. When I got back this was great since the whole room was still out of the club. I got to fall asleep in peace. Of course a couple hours later this backfired on me. I'm not sure what happened in those 2 hours that I was gone, because everybody seemed fine when I left. But when they got back it was like an alcohol bomb had gone off. People were singing, climbing into eachother's beds, even climbing (and physically jumping) into mine! I didn't mind the noise because I knew it meant that everybody had been having fun...these were my friends afterall, not hostel randos. However it was not to last. You know the old saying... it's all fun and games until the hairy greek guy strips down to his bikini brief underwear and starts running around trying to insist his way into a girl's bed. No? Well that should be a saying, cause that creeper made the night real fucking weird real fucking quick! After pretty much half the room told him to get his shit together and go to bed, he finally did.

Believe it or not most people took it easy the following day. The 4 of us, along with another Aussie girl (see?!) headed up to Canton Hill, which overlooks the city. It's got some great views. We took a bunch of food up there and had a nice picnic. It was cool because it was intimate, which is something I mentioned missing in my homesick post. It was nice to just sit and chat and take it easy. That night we played cards again and had a slightly quieter night out at the pubs. It got kind of weird though when a couple of Scottish guys came into our little table alcove to escape the loud music that had been playing. One of the guys, Jimmy, was massive...he made me look short and skinny. The other guy was a smaller guy, very quiet looking. Anyways, they took a liking to us and chatted us up for an hour or two. They were funny guys, but a little off kilter. Jimmy, the big one, was really into conspiracy theories, and would talk your ear off about the Illuminati or whatever the hell else he was on about. The smaller one (forget his name) actually gave me a book and made me promise to either read it or give it to good will. Then he mentioned something about the peace corps and that's when things got awkward. He started on a bit of a rant about how we were just basically taking a holiday (well...yeah...nobody said otherwise) and how we should be spending our time in third world countries (“the dark continent” as he referred to it), helping them with our advanced skills and to quit wasting our time being around other white people. It got really awkward because by the end he was just shouting a bunch of white guilt type stuff. I was tempted to ask why his white ass was sitting in a bar talking to white tourists instead of digging irrigation ditches somewhere, but Jimmy's size kind of prevented that. I'm all for helping others in need, but I'm not presumptuous enough to assume that I can just buy a plane ticket to Africa and solve all their problems with a combination of my awesome white presence and my Bachelor of Arts degree. Anyways, we finished off our drinks and got the hell out of there.

My friends took off by Friday, so I spent the next couple days further exploring the city and even did a 3 hour walking tour. My favourite part of that was when I said the word “toque” to the Canadian tour guide, she hugged me. See? It's the little things that reminds somebody of home.

So where to next? I'm currently on the train, bound for Liverpool. I'll be meeting up with a friend from Canada, Mandy, who has been living over in England for the last year or two. We'll travel around Northern England for a week, and then I'll be heading down to London for the weekend to meet up with Liz, Dan, and Hayley again for some more pub crawls there. The NFL just happens to be playing a game in London on Sunday too...what a coincidence! I figure that'll be a lovely day to see the famed Wembley stadium. Not sure if I'll get a ticket though since there aren't many good ones left for sale. Perhaps though. After that is anybody's guess.

I had a blast in Edinburgh...if you're going to the UK, don't miss it!

PS...believe it or not, the book the crazy guy lent me is actually really good so far...I've only had it for a few days but I've already read over 200 pages.

Addendum: I've arrived in Liverpool after a much longer/harder day of travel than originally anticipated. Due to my connecting train to Liverpool not running for some mysterious and unannounced reason, I had to take a charter bus through about 6 towns I didn't particularly care to see, and then got dropped off at another train station, where I had to wait for a train that was running 50 mins late and full of likewise not so happy customers. Ah well I'm here now in the birthplace of the Beatles.