Saturday, March 29, 2008

Meeting the World

In Ed'n-bra. Or if you’re American, and butcher everything, Erinburg.

So, Dilly and I returned from our delightful experience at Glenturret – to the city of the castle.

And there, in the dark of the night, someone had the great idea to walk back to the flat. Because we’d been told by reliable sources, “It’s just a short walk. Right over there.” (imagine a hand wave)

Only? One of the someone’s eyes were having problems with their contacts – and the other someone - who had been VERY CONTENT to NOT be the navigator (VERY, VERY, HAPPY), suddenly had to make heads and tails out of a travel guide map. One of those stupid things that DO NOT have a sign saying “You are here” - and also was bisected by the “End of the Page” and “See D-3” just at the part of the map where we needed to go! The red-head someone, who foolishly suggested this – SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER. But still. A little extra walking. *shrug* It’s not like I wasn’t WALKING TO HELL AND BACK on this trip ANYWAY.

After purposely *cough* viewing a few extra blocks, we found our way back to the big church that was on the corner of our street. And back to the flat. We quickly cooked a dinner of Blue Cheese and Fig Tortellini in a creamy peppercorn sauce – changed our clothes and then CALLED A CAB to take us to The Brass Monkey.

Now – some of you know the bigger picture of this trip. But many of you, remain in the dark. And I guess I must reveal more of my life, least the rest of this travel log make little, if no sense. Of course, one of the purposes of the of the trip was to see all these wonderful countries/cities/towns. But the BIGGER reason – was to meet a whole slew of friends I’ve made over the internet on a “social networking” site. Indeed, that was the purpose of the visit to the Brass Monkey. There were about nine people gathered there, waiting to meet Dilly and I!

The night before, two of the gang, known as CraigWA (from nearby Livingston, Scotland) and TiggerWoman (who came from Exeter, England), came by the flat and joined Dilly and I for some wine and conversation. Actually, they supplied both wine and nibbles – and we lightly supplemented their efforts. It was a great time of chatting – and getting to know each other better.

SO – walking into the Brass Monkey, was not so intimidating – because I knew Dilly (obviously) and CraigWA and TiggerWoman. The very first person, to greet me was 70s Child (who flew over from Norwich, England) . She claims I was the first female friend she made on the site. It was so wonderful to be engulfed in her hug and spend the night chatting with her.

Next – bounding up to me – barely able to contain her excitement, was Pink Princess (from Manchester, England). She had a great little gift for us – tiny pink tins of mints – that had a mirror cleverly hidden in the lid. Next in line for introduction? Rob3000 (from Dundee, Scotland), followed closely by LazySod (who is actually Edinburgh born and bred!).

I think one of the best things about the venue – cleverly picked by TiggerWoman – was the arrangement of couches. There was this great U of three leather couches that we overtook. The brilliance of this arrangement was that all night, we were able to switch seats every so often, and sit in the midst of some other grouping.

Because of this, I got to spend time talking to Pink about music and singing, and Lazy Sod about being a System Admin – and looking at p0rn sites visited by co-workers - ALL IN THE NAME OF WORK, PEOPLE!

I know I spoke with Rob. What about? The sun and the moon – life and death? Or maybe an entirely different set of topics.

There was a non-on-line person who also joined us – and I TOTALLY loved talking to her. I wasn’t sure why … until after about 10 minutes. When it struck me how GREAT I was becoming at understanding these accents. And then, I paid a little more attention, and had to ask Kim the question. “Where ARE you from?” Only to learn that, “NO I had not suddenly become amazingly acclimated to other accents” … but that she was from CANADASTAN! Which is almost America.

In amongst all this talking – 70’s and I continued to clutch each other and grin. And talk about … well, lots of things. But I’m pretty sure almost every other sentence was about The Horse!

Just as I was beginning to think I had a handle on everything, in walked a cyclone. A green cyclone of Frogs and Peas to be exact (citizen of the world, and refuses to be pinned down about his location!). I was quite pleased. We sat and talked – about creativity, and life, what to do with life, and what could be left out.

His friend, Russ, an Englishman, completely captured Dilly’s heart by calling her “full of daft” – and so, I can only assume he is equally charming.

About mid-night, the smart people of the group decided to go home. I thought about going home too. But figured, “This is Edinburgh. This is why you’ve made this trip. To meet these people and talk to them. Why go sleep?” And so, it was sometime after 2 am, we found ourselves having a “real Edinburgh” experience.

We walked the streets of E’burgh to a small restaurant that serves Belgian Waffles and ice-cream at two o’clock in the morning. It was, the icing on top of the cake. And so I continued to tell myself as I dragged my tired body into the flat at three o’clock knowing there was no way I’d be attending church the next morning.

The next morning, was another beautiful sunny day (it’s because I was in town. None of these places EVER has sunshine they tell me, yet … we had sun almost every day). After we recovered from our night, we walked a few blocks from the flat, to have brunch and meet up with some more friends.

Chasing Cactus, his girlfriend, and daughter joined Dilly and I, TiggerWoman, CraigWA, Kim, 70s. Brunch was at this great “Gastro-Pub”, Hamilton's or known simply as H:. This is where I had my first “proper breakfast”. Besides eggs, I had Blood Sausage, Haggis, and a Grilled Toe-mah –toe. It was good. (well maybe not the Toe-mah-toe, but then again, Mit doesn't like Toe-May-toes either.)

Many hours and laughs later, we left and hit this cheese shop for food for our trip to Cardiff on the following day.

Edit to Add: And we also walked, and walked, and walked that afternoon. It may be called "The Royal Mile", but I think I'd rename in the "Royal Never-ending Mile of 'Stuff' and 'More Stuff' no-one needs to buy. The church looked lovely - and it's too bad we didn't have time to poke around the grave yard.

But taking the bus to Leith, for dinner at The Shore was a top notch experience. My first taste of "Mushy Peas" and Fish and Chips. Both were exceptional. And now, I'm at ...

The End

3 comments:

Joseph H. Vilas said...

You're a much better person than I am. I'm not exactly sure in what way, but you are.

MitMoi said...

In a "girl-y" way?

saturday's child said...

I don't remember the name or location of that place but I do remember that it was across the street from the 'Water of Leith' which is very pretty.