Edinburgh – Last Day

Feeling more well rested today. Didn’t do a lot yesterday. I did go on the tour of Mary King’s Close. It was quite neat. They ham it up a little bit for the tourists – the guides and re-enactors are dressed in period clothes and all and claim to be from the period when the close was where people lived rather than serving as the foundations for the City gov’t of Edinburgh. But it was still quite educational as you see how people in the 1600’s lived. I’ll stick to the 21st century!

Afterwards, I wandered around the city for awhile, but not long. It was a STEADY rain yesterday. And the wind was really blowing. My pants were wet all the way up to my knees when I had lunch. And it had really soaked through all the layers. I don’t recall ever feeling quite so cold and miserable. I know I’ve been physically colder, but it was the combination of cold, wet, and tired, I think. I decided that the day would be leisurely. I did a little shopping for fun. I went in Debenhams (a big department store chain in Britain). They were having sales. I found a new hat to replace the missing one. I quite like it. I’ve seen a few people hearing wearing ones like it. Kind of a cross between a baseball cap and one of those old fashioned hats that has ear muffs built in.
The sales were good enough yesterday that it was comparable to buying it back home with the exchange rate. So, that was nice. I would have been hard pressed to buy anything otherwise unless I just really liked it and couldn’t get it back home. The cap has the stores name in it, so I’m not sure if I could have gotten it back home or not, but the style is “Maine New Englander” – so you sort of have to think I could.

Afterwards, I walked back to the Hostel and did some laundry. I had to do it yesterday anyway, so my need to rest worked out well. After the laundry was done, I bundled up and went back out and caught a movie down the street. I thought it was funny as it’s quite a new theater. Has stadium seating like the ones back home, etc., but the whole theater probably didn’t have but about 6 screens, compared to the one down the street from me in Alpharetta which has 18 screens. I guess it’s a lot harder to build big inside of a cramped old euro city.

Saw Garden State, which is a US film. Not sure if it had been released back home or not before. Very quirky film – if it has, I expect it would have only come through the more “artsy” theaters. But I enjoyed it.

Came out after the movie, and it was SNOWING! Oh my! It alternated between snow and sleet all the way back. It wasn’t sticking, so I knew that it wasn’t much going to matter, but it was still fun to see snow falling between these old buildings. The wind was really whipping it around. I had my camera but was just too cold to stop and take it out. It’s supposed to snow again today and tonight – 80% chance – but it was dry on my way here this morning. I looked at the weather in London for the next two days, supposed to be practically balmy by comparision – mid to upper 40’s over the next couple of days and dry… It doesn’t take long to acclimate in some ways. I’ve about got how to dress down pat and all and if it’s a light rain, barely notice it enough to bother with it. Yesterday being a steady wind-blown rain was the exception. That was miserable.

Not sure what I’m doing today. If the weather holds, I suspect I will walk up to Calton Hill. There are a few monuments up there that I only saw by the torchlights a few nights ago – the procession on Wednesday concluded there. I don’t think I’m going to do Holyrood Palace/Abby. I’ll possibly walk by just to see if it’s something I want to bad enough, but I’m afraid I’ve done so many castles and ruins the last several days that everything is going to be underwhelming. There are some art galleries nearby. I figure that would be fun (and warm and dry – nevermind free). We’ll see.