Here we are at the last leg of my UK trip, and if you’ve read through these blogs, I’m impressed! Thank you for keeping up with my travels, and still being interested at this point. I’ve been very happy to share my adventures with you!
On our first night in Edinburgh, we were received by a true Scottish welcome: rain and 5 degrees celsius! 
My leg was still suffering from our hike in Patterdale, but despite it being gloomy and wet, I couldn’t pass up walking around the city. We went to an all-you-can-eat dinner in a place called Cosmo. Apparently, this place is a very popular go-to in Scotland. The restaurant was packed, but luckily we were able to get a table. The staff was very quick, efficient, and most of all, friendly! Great service and so many amazing food choices. I’d definitely come back just to sample every other food that I wasn’t able to.
It stopped raining heavily after dinner so we decided to walk around a little bit. I played with my camera on lowlight, and there was still a slight drizzle so the “light effects” are literally just water smudges from the lens. Also, please dont find it weird that I take pictures of street names. I’m not sure why I’m doing it either. They look pretty cool. 
At night, the city looked a little small, because it seemed like every turn we took to go through a different way just lead us back to a place we’ve been to. It got too cold later in the night, so we decided to walk back to our hostel. My frozen fingers had a little trouble entering the door code correctly. I told the caretaker that I was freezing and he said “You’re in Scotland sweetie, this is warm!” 
Our hostel, the Kingsview Rooms is very cute! The ambiance was very “old-style” quaint and comfortable. It was inexpensive, clean and close to pretty much everywhere! It felt very homey. We were excited to go around the city, but the place also made us feel excited to come back home every night.
Finally experiencing a Nando’s for the very first time! I was told my United Kingdom trip would not be complete without it. I am so in love with their food! This place alone might just be the final nail in the coffin as a reason to move over the pond.
As what I’ve noticed in the pattern of this trip: my first day in every city is heavy rain, and then it’s all sunny days after. I’ve been very lucky to be in Scotland in some of their drier, warmer days. We still went around the same exact places, but it looked and felt very different from how it was at night. Walking around the Old Town was very exciting. It was packed with tourists such as myself being amazed by pretty much everything: the architecture, the landscape, and the people. People watching in the most touristy spot in the city was a very interesting experience.
If you don’t already know, based on a lot of my old posts: I have a slight obsession with castles. It would’ve been so unnatural for me to come to Edinburgh and not visit the Edinburgh castle!
To be honest though, just being in this city felt like I was in a giant castle, or maybe some old world kingdom that’s kept most of it’s architecture, history, and traditions alive and well into the modern world.
A lot of my travel mishaps and crazy adventures have definitely taught me what to do and what not to do next time I take a trip. I feel like at this point, after countless travels out and around the country I’m probably what you could consider a proper “traveler” but I still get myself into a lot of situations that I shouldn’t.
Somehow we’ve managed to walk through every dodgy area in the city and were still able to find a lot of hidden beautiful places in every turn.
I wasn’t sure how I convinced my cousin to walk with me through a dark unlit staircase close that literally reminded me of “Knockturn Alley” but she did, and we were able to discover one of the coolest, hidden pubs in Scotland: The Devil’s Advocate, where we had one of the best locally crafted beers.
In the course of this trip, we’ve gotten accustomed to the British afternoon-tea-tradition. We’ve spent every afternoon of this trip in a different café everyday to do our drinks and desserts. The window view from Costa showed a number of people headed in one direction. We decided to follow suit after desserts and we found a museum and the University of Edinburgh. Just being in there gave me such an inspiring feeling that I couldn’t define. I was in awe of this place, I almost felt like going back to school then and there.
We didn’t follow any itinerary despite it being both our first time in Edinburgh. Our rule was: walk the way we never walked yet, and that just led us to one beautiful place after another. If we felt like we’ve gone far enough and we had nothing else to see, we would go back to a crossroad landmark that we remember and go the other way. It was very liberating to not really plan out what to do, my cousin was the best travel partner for that!
Out of all the places I’ve been to, Edinburgh has now become my all time favorite! I can’t even describe Edinburgh as “beautiful” because that doesn’t even give it justice! The city is gorgeous, the food is great, the drinks even better, and the people are amazing! I don’t know if you can tell, but I have indeed fallen in love with Edinburgh. Thank you Scotland, for this wonderful, wonderful place.
Thank you Manang Stef for being such an amazing travel buddy! I loved having all kinds of conversations with you. I’ve missed you so much! I hope we can travel together again in the near future! Maybe by then, we are both residents of the same continent.
I am very thankful to be able to travel the world, see my friends and family, and meet new people. I wish I could stay in Scotland, but my time is up. I was honestly very emotional on my way to the Edinburgh airport. This city will definitely be a place I am coming back to. Now, I just have to sort my travel details, because I just received an email that my flight back to Colorado is cancelled due to snow storms. I guess I will be stuck in London for a couple days. I am not complaining though. 😉
xx Gizel
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