Back before Morocco, when I was in the UK, I made a trip to Scotland.
THIS was fun.
I never knew that five hours on a train could take me so far. For a canadian, a five hour trip barely gets you across half a province. In the UK, it took me out of England to the far side of the Scotland.
To Edinburgh, that is. And to Paula.
I left Taiwan 5 years ago with several friends left behind. To date, I have retained two of them. My "little brother" Sam. And Paula.
Paula and May are a lot alike in many ways. Neither one of them is what you might consider typically Taiwanese/Malaysian. That's why I like them. Then again, I guess I am not your typical canadian.
Paula left Taiwan to pursue an MBA at the Univeristy of Edinburgh. I love her because she isn't afraid of a challenge. Paula has also been to Thailand more times than I can count. The difference between her and most other people is that she goes there for rock-climbing.
On the night I arrived in Edinburgh we went out for a good British pub dinner and I had my first real FISH and CHIPS in the UK. (I was less than impressed but I'll trust it was a fluke)
Afterwards, we went to a jazz club and had drinks and listened to some local bands.
I only spent one day there, but we made the most of it. When we got up at about 8, Paula and I hiked up to an extinct volcano that stands over Edinburgh called Arthur's Seat. We didn't realise how long it would take or what the conditions would be like but we did it anyway. By the time we got down it was noon.
What we didn't expect was the wind speed as we went up Arthur's Seat.(No pun intended!) It was so strong that at one point Paula couldn't move for fear of being pushed over the edge of the narrow path we walked on. She had to shout for me to come back and help her. Going up the side was incredibly difficult as we didn't know from which direction the wind would hit us. In the end, we had long stretches where we walked hand in hand or we hung on to one another's packs.
This is Paula leaning back, being held up by the wind.
In all it was a good trip. I say Edinburgh in a day and a half and even found a Polish bakery where I could get some drozdzowka and E. Wedel Chocolate! YEAH!
And I bought this pullover...
Bought and paid for, twenty quid, in Edinburgh city centre at a market. Bought and paid for in Scotland complete with Scottish flag on it. Not surprisingly, the inside tag says "made in Nepal".
