30 Flirty and Thriving

Hello, and welcome back to Mischief & marauders. After a chill New Year with some rather gorgeous gifts, ( I was a very spoilt gal) I surprised Si with a trip for the big 3-0 to Edinburgh. I was so sad because I planned it for around 3 months prior and kept it a secret right up until a week before when it just slipped out in conversation. I was absolutely devastated because I'm usually good at keeping secrets for people…except from Si unless under special circumstances.

It was our second trip to Edinburgh; although the first one was only a half day visit back in 2012 with his entire family and his brother's girlfriend; so I don't think that really counts. I do recommend if you're anywhere around the Yorkshire Region to take the train, as surprisingly the trip went quite quickly, and slightly cheaper than flying; although I'd be tempted to fly one day as it would mean we'd be there in about an hour, and timing is everything when visiting such a gorgeous city. Sadly a few days before, Si was struck with an abscess which meant we had to get an emergency appointment done on his birthday… before we could start the festivities. Having had dental work done before I know exactly what it feels like to have a numb face, but seeing someone else have it, can be quite funny especially when he tried to talk and having him fight his own face. We grabbed a cheeky McDonald's (clearly didn’t learn his lesson) and popped on his adorable 30 Birthday badge his parents got him.

Fully kitted out in his Slytherin gear compliments of both his sister and myself, we got ourselves onto the train. I can't begin to explain the joy of knowing I'd be going back to Scotland especially after finding out about my own Scottish bloodline, it really felt like going home.

As we approached Berwick-Upon-Tweed, we caught our first glimpse of the ocean and I eagerly began to look for the house we'd stayed at on the first holiday I ever went on with Si and his family. We had a lot of places we wanted to see, but as we were on limited time and I'd rearranged some holiday to ensure we could make our trip to the States viable, we scaled back and as the hotel we were staying in was rather nice, found ourselves lounging around a lot after walking around everywhere.

The hotel we were staying in was the Leonardo Royal Hotel near Haymarket - However the stop we got at was Waverley. Now anyone who has travelled with me knows I a) don't wear appropriate walking shoes b) don't pack lightly and having thought this was the right station resulted in us getting an Uber as although trains aren't as bad as busses, you still feel slightly grotty.

The Hotel itself was absolutely gorgeous, as we walked in, we got welcomed to the sight of Edinburgh hanging over the rather generous sized bed. The hotel had decent cable and lighting on either side, which is something I still don't have in our own home. The bathroom had a beautiful picture of sheep, which reminded me of both my sister (weird I know) and one of my good friends whose actually terrified of sheep.

You know things are real fancy when you get into the room and along with the tea's and coffee's you got some shortbread. Now there should have been one for me and Si, but Si's personal vice happens to be shortbread, so I can't even tell you if it was in date or how it tasted because boy he got stuck into the first one immediately and I had to hide the other for our trip to the castle the next day. One of the biggest reasons aside from the good reviews of the place, was in fact the food. Having wanted to try a lot of places, more than the time we had in the city, our hotel also offered 24 Hour pizza on site…. It's like the place couldn't have been more suited to Si. Sadly I didn't allow and deliveries to the room, however when we go back we'll definitely have to try it. In the morning, I have to admit I near on skipped to the restaurant and as it looked absolutely divine. I got to try haggis for the first time, and I was actually pretty shocked at the flavour, I think you see all these videos and hear about the traditional contents and I think it just made me feel really queasy, but what a pleasant surprise. Si and I are always looking to try new things and work on opening our experiences up in life; and I'm very glad we did. After our trip to Manchester, I'd been disappointed at hotel bacon, but Leonardo's….you were absolutely gorgeous. If I could have sat and gone up repeatedly to the buffet and had plate after plate without putting on weight, my god I honestly would have, there were selections of continental elements too and your cereals, but to be honest I've never been one for cereal; even as a kid. After gorging on the options to ensure it would get us through the day, we made our way up the rather steep hill (this brings back nightmares to the first time we did this with Si's family and I hated it then already) all the way up to the castle.

Now as per above, this wasn't our first trip to Edinburgh as a couple, even though I class it as; as we didn't get enough time in Edinburgh with Si's family to really consider it a trip. Si has a habit of finding the steepest inclines to walk up, now I'll happily walk miles on a straight line, but put me on a hill (even though we live in a hilly area) and I absolutely lose it. We made it about halfway before his sister rang to catch up and I threw a strop and didn't want to go all the way back up so didn't get to see the castle. At least this time we weren't time pressured to the same extent and waddled our way up the road with our tickets in hand. I'd highly recommend booking your trip to the castle via TripAdvisor - not only do you save a quid (hey if you work in rand that's an additional R18.47) each, but they can just scan the mobile and you can go straight in. Fun tip, you can go into the first portion of the castle walls which are free, and only have to pay after you get past the gift shop; so if you wanted to be thrifty and get the pic outside but not go in, you could. However I would recommend paying the money especially if you can get it 2for1 as the view Is breathtaking. I also recommend if going in January to not dress like you're going to the beach. I didn't realise how windy it was at the top of the castle in January and I immediately regretted my choice of outfit…however anyone who is friends with me will know that this is not unusual or uncommon for me to do nor say.

We got up to the top of the castle and got pretty irritated at how people tended to hog the areas in groups and not just take a picture and move on, I don't usually mind telling people to move; but chose the passive aggressive option instead and just shuffled into the area to try make them uncomfortable which didn't quite work as their rudeness outmatched mine. The inside of the castle is fantastic and we got to read about the relationship between the Tsars and Queen Vic. It was at this point I realised how I had a large English and Scottish genetic as it turns out the Scots had also joined the English in the invasion of the Cape (we didn't get taught this in our history classes). I did overhear something rather sad whilst making my way around. A father had taken his kids, I say kids they were more like teens around the exhibition area and found out they don't know their own heritage and couldn't name one famous Scottish king (Uhm Robert the Bruce?!) and hadn't even bothered to try watch Braveheart. I think I'm officially considered old now in comparison to them and this made me feel rather depressed…Although at least I wasn't 30 like the man to my right. We overheard some raucous near one of the turrets and made our way over. I'm so glad we did, as I now have footage of Si acting like a barbarian learning to defend the castle against the English. There was an adorable rat companion and the man was clearly so passionate about what he did, that that alone was worth the trip. Unfortunately Si put himself in one of the back rows so not the best visual and whilst people could see I was obviously filming them they had no issues walking right in front of the camera ruining the shot.

So I booked this a few months in advance hoping it would be a fantastic experience, only to find out rather than being the Harry Potter experience, we landed up having the Grimm Fairy tale option. The Pop Up Geek can be found down the Station road from Edinburgh Waverly, and it was smaller than I thought it would be; however, still very captivating. We went around 6pm and there was only us and 4 other people in the bar. The aroma in the air was a mixture of musk and floral scents, and the entire alcove was lit with fairy lights and the tables had old school candles on them to give a more eerie vibe. The menus were crafted into excerpts of Hans Christian Anderson's stories, which I thought were quite cute and Si and I deliberated about the best ones to go for. The bar seemed to favour a lot of rums and whiskeys, but I honestly think I have to be in the Mood in order to neck these types of drinks. Nevertheless we went for the Magic Lamp and Poison Apple. I thought the lamp drink which Si chose was okay, it had a very bitter flavour with a blossoming flower and definite taste of jasmine. ( the drink contains a Chinese spirit called Baijiu, White Rum, Blood Orange, Lychee, Sesame and Lemon) but my drink… Oh. my. goodness… it was so beautifully balanced with sweet and sharper tones in the drink, thanks to the vodka used. Moreover I really loved how the poison was presented in a skull bottle that I've been keeping my eye out for so that we can have a skull decanter for our own home. The second drink we had was the Rumpelstiltskin inspired drunk and Si ordered a second round of the lamp. I have to say I much preferred the Poison Apple.

We stumbled out as the drinks hit us quicker than we thought - turns out that if you don't drink, especially on an empty stomach, it hits you like a ton of breaks fairly quickly. So we had a hop skip and a jump trying to follow my terrible directions towards the Hard Rock Café, word of warning, never let me direct you anywhere unless you enjoy walking quadruple the distance. Edinburgh itself compared to Bradford is incredibly clean and has limited vandalism; however when trying to cut through a snicket, by fear of walking down an alleyway with people kicked in, and after heading down some seriously steep stairs realised that I was glad it wasn't snowing because people must either sled down these steps or get seriously hurt. We went past Holyrood which is very impressive and found ourselves at the doorway of the Hard Rock Café. We went in and got ourselves seated in the far back. Having seen the layout of the Manchester and London cafe's, I have to say this was my favourite. The merchandise options and donated artworks on the wall were highly impressive, but really at this point we were ravenous and just wanted food. Out waiter for the evening was actually from Leeds which was awesome because it was like home and holiday combining together. Si got himself a haggis burger whilst I tucked into some ribs…because let's be fair who doesn't like ribs?

They were fantastic and before we could finish our food our waiter brought everyone around and everyone sang happy birthday to him. It made my eyes well, because usually a couple people in the restaurant will maybe sing, but everyone in the place was singing which made me feel so proud. In traditional Si behaviour he got up and revelled in it. Now having been stuffed and dosed with drink and food we Uber'd our way to the hotel ready for the excitement of tomorrow.

Now whilst I loved the castle as much as I could with other jerk tourists, having to go the Boy Wizard was probably the highlight of the trip, because there's very few things that I can think of that can't be improved by Harry Potter trinkets. Oh how I regretted walking in, because despite Si having already been spoilt over the festive period, he began eyeing up the cane of one Lucius Malfoy; and whilst we probably could have saved a few bob purchasing it elsewhere, I think part of the experience was us performing some magic with the shop assistants. So whilst I saw so many things, definitely overpriced things, we luckily escaped with only a small dent to our savings and one very happy birthday boy who couldn't wait to get back to the hotel and play with his new gadget. The cane itself sheaths Lucius' wand and the detail on the serpent is definitely fine craftsmanship. There were so many other trinkets including the Fantastic Beasts franchise merch, however I feel although loving the initial one, due to how poorly the second film was, couldn't part with money to purchase even the most adorable Niffler - actually the authentic merch version of Niffler was actually poorly and cheaply designed and perhaps a purchase on Etsy is in order.

We were due to go on a Ghost experience tour later in the evening, but due to the weather changing, we decided to leave it and just head downstairs for dinner, although I do wonder whether it would have been better to have gone as I've always been curious to explore such a haunted city. Although we had a delicious breakfast I was really sad to be leaving, and had I not been working the next day, would have happily extended the trip longer. But sadly, it was January and there wasn't enough holiday accrued in order for me to this, and honestly this broke my heart. So on we popped back towards Leeds, sad to be leaving... but fully intending to return to the place that feels like home.

Slàinte and ciao for now.

x