To Edinburgh

Haiku by Suzanne:

First class compartment:
Men in a row along the window
All wearing button-down plaid.

July 22 (Fast train to Scotland)









I can't tell you how excited I was to be going to Scotland. I'd never been, so it was this place in my head that came from movies, poetry, storybooks...

On the way to the train station, we stopped by some properties that Ethel and Ian had restored. They were beautiful old barns. But not the type I know from South Dakota, they were made out of brick. Seriously beautiful. I could easily picture myself in one of them.

Then it was to the train station and off to Edinburgh. It was a 6.5 hour journey, with an hour layover in Petersborough. What a fun ride. We got inexpensive first-class tickets which meant we sat in a car with mostly men in suits, working on computers. And free wireless!! I IM'd Misty, and thought how cool is it that I'm IM-ing someone across the pond and talking with no lag time at all. It was awesome.

I loved hearing the phone calls. Many were straight out of the movies, "Oh, jolly good!"

We passed rivers and hills and went up the coast with views I couldn't even attempt to capture, it was so idyllic.

There's something about Edinburgh that feels calm, even though it is a big city. I haven't experienced any of the Dublin craziness yet, but we will be going back there to have a bigger taste of it soon. (Tom Waits!)

We cabbed it to the Holiday Inn and passed Edinburgh Castle, which I can't wait to visit, and many gorgeous old buildings. We were pretty hungry when we arrived so we walked to the nearest place, a northern India restaurant. It was only a take-out place, so we ordered and 45 minutes later had bags of food in our hands. Seriously, we were ready to storm the kitchen! 45 minutes?! We were the only ones there! haha. Ate Indian food in the lobby of the hotel and then off to sleep.. I was a bit nervous because I was going to be driving the rental car the next day. On the other side of the road. Stay tuned to how that adventure panned out. Well, obviously it did because I'm here to tell you about it. :D