Scotland: In Which We Stumble Around Starstruck (Day 1)

SCOTLAND! 
Ken-kun and I hopped across the pond (for 10+ hours)
to celebrate our second wedding anniversary in the United Kingdom.
We experienced so much, took so many pictures, learned so many things,
that even though I'm condensing everything here,
I still need to break it up into days so you're not reading one long post for days.

A brief video of our taxi tour from the airport to our flat,
interestingly called "Fountain Court Apartments".
(We found them in Seattle as well, so perhaps they're not solely based in the U.K.
and thus refrain from being called "Fountain Court Flats"?)
Our driver had the most incredible accent and
was very informative of the areas we bumbled passed,
a wonderful welcome to our week-long home in Edinburgh.

We slept terribly the night before our flight to try to force sleep on the plane 

(we're both horrendous at travel sleeping) 

but it backfired because of all the movie selections on our flight, eehee. 

Oh, and we were excited too. 

Moisty face, gads. 

I had signed up for gluten-free options on Delta's website 

and was pleasantly surprised they included rice-flour bread in my meal!

We chased the sun to our first stop: Amsterdam.
Ain't no rest for the movie-watchers.
This particular shot is when we flew over Greenland -- never done that before!

Delta kept us well-fed during our flight.
While I never truly ate the main courses of each gluten-free meal/snack,
(I'm a picky pickle)
the side portions were quite lovely.

Och, we've arrived already! No, wait, stop! Let us off! Noooooooooo!

In my bleary-eyed state, I thought they offered me another snack.
Turns out, nope, it was breakfast! We had breached the new day!

Hallo, pretty Amsterdam. 

Someday, we'll adventure in you too. 

Upon deplaning in Amsterdam, I was unexpectedly overwhelmed with panic.
I had never before walked in a foreign land where I hadn't a hope of understanding the language,
Japan being my only international excursion up until that point.
But as we walked to our connecting gate, a smile grew on my face.
Euro symbols everywhere, people speaking Dutch
(they switched to English whenever talking to us even when we hadn't spoken though...
Do we just ooze American I wonder, or do they assume
we might not know Dutch even when we're in their country?)
Tulips, miniature windmills, and suckers the size of human heads were
being sold amidst fresh produce kiosks and airport pubs.
All too soon, we boarded our KLM flight for Edinburgh,
leaving deep blue skies and lazy white clouds drifting in our wake.

The flight attendants asked if we wanted a snack, "sweet or savory".
Curious, I chose savory, KK chose sweet... then we promptly switched.
Darn those delicious Gouda-filled Cheese Bites.
They were certainly not gluten-free, as my stomach will grumblingly attest.

Scotland... we finally made it! 

Declaring my suitcase to be nearly as big as I was, 

our wee cabbie lady hefted it up into the car with surprising strength 

and ushered us in before setting out on our journey to Fountain Court Apartments.
(You can watch the video above to hear her briefly guide us through Edinburgh.) 

Scotland brought many surprises, one of them being passionate politics.
We happened to visit during their elections and learned quite a lot more
than anything we had heard or read in American news.
If you want to know more, please ask me privately... or better yet, ask a Scot!

Arriving in the morning, our flat wasn't quite ready for us.
So, we left our bags with the receptionist and stumbled around town,
trying to stay awake after 24 hours of no sleep
and gulping in as much of the surrounding area as humanly possible.

We found an old kirkyard,
some of the headstones dating before our country's birth.
I am completely enamored with all of the stonework and architecture of this old city.

We found this conifer to be curious, it almost didn't look real!
Upon further research, I believe it to be a Monkey Puzzle Tree.
It sure puzzled us, hee hee.

The kirk had a memorial to Reverend David Dickson and his family
who stood against the Church of Scotland adopting practices of the Church of England.

We emerged from the solemn kirkyard to find a great garden and fountain,
the Prince Street Gardens, nestled at the foot of Edinburgh Castle.

Not truly understanding where we were going,
we found ourselves on a path steeply inclining over the city.

When we next looked up, we discovered Edinburgh Castle above us.
And what a defensible castle it is! I wouldn't want to scale that hillside.

Only exploring Japanese castles before,
I was starstruck with how fairytale Edinburgh Castle felt to me,
my inner Disney princess rousing after our long flight.

And suddenly, we were on the Royal Mile!
Ghost tours, witch tours, history tours, oh my!
Fun fact: A traditional Scottish mile is actually 1.11 miles.

We thought for certain this building would be a cathedral of sorts,
but it was actually a performing arts center and cafe!
Och, if only every city preserved such grandiose architecture.

Rolling down the hill a bit farther (the Royal Mile is slanted)
we bumped into an actual cathedral -- St. Giles' Cathedral!

We left our cash in our luggage, so we didn't pay the £2 fee to take photos inside.
But it was decorative and gorgeous, a most reflective place.

About halfway down the Royal Mile, we turned about-face and struggled back up the hill
to suddenly find aviculturists trading coin for moments with their birds.
There were owls too, but realizing we had no cash to contribute, we slinked away.

O Castle, how bountiful thy beauty.

About to blow away in the wind from hollow hunger,
we staggered into Wagamama.
Yes, yes, our first Scottish meal was Japanese... we needed transition!
Besides, the sodas we ordered were made with real sugar...
they tasted different from American sodas!

Now that I've defended our sleep-deprived meal choice, I can rave about this restaurant.
Fast, affordable, delicious food! If only they flew back with us to Seattle.
This seaweed salad was heaven in my mouth.

The spices of my pork ribs woke me up enough to finish my meal.
Kapow! 

KK opted for the chicken curry.
What a clever little arrangement!

When we dragged our bodies back through the doors of Fountain Court reception,
we were happily handed our keys and luggage and given directions to our suite.
HELLO, BED. 

Knowing we would only be using our flat for sleeping,
and thus not really caring how messy it got,
I snapped shots of the rooms before we settled in to show how pretty it was
before we hurricaned it.

If we weren't trying to see as much of Scotland as possible during our stay,
we might've had time to use this lovely little kitchen.
There was even a hidden washing machine in one of the lower cupboards, hee!

Tucked away from busy streets, just off the canal,
this was a very peaceful place to spend our nights.

Much to our surprise, we were given an upgrade upon arrival -- an extra bedroom!
Not that we needed such luxuries, but we loved it anyways.

This reflective glass gave me a fright one or two times, thinking a ghost was beside me! 

I'll scare from wind blowing, I swear. 

(It wasn't until our second or third night that we discovered the main bathroom, 

the door for it being behind the door to our bedroom, hee hee.) 

We vowed to stay awake as long as possible to fight jet lag, 

but by 3:30 pm, my head was buried in a pillow and I was dead until the next morning. 

To be continued... in the next post!