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cdybedahlSo, thursday last week I went down to Edinburgh. To see the woman who is now my girlfriend. Which still feels strange, by the way.
The trip down was long. For some reason, there are no convenient flights from Stockholm to Edinburgh. You get to chose between taking a regular flight, which means insane costs (about £600) and many hours of waiting at either Heathrow or Schipol, or Ryanair, which while very much cheaper and faster means ending up at Prestwick Airport in the middle of the night, or at least close enough to the middle of the night that there are no more trains to Edinburgh. So I was very, very glad that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katlinel and Sugoll were kind enough to come pick me up at the airport and drive me all the way to GF-to-be's front door. Which included helping me find said front door in a city where I'd never been before.
It turned out to be about 15 minutes walk from where they live. Which I came to find less surprising as the weekend proceeded, as it seems that everybody in Edinburgh lives about 15 minutes walk from everybody else. And I try not to think to hard about the geometry of that, since I suspect it to be disturbingly Lovecraftian.
Anyway, I arrived at GF-to-be's place shortly before 1am. Which was ten hours after I set off from home, so I was a bit on the tired side. I was also a bit nervous, since the GF-to-be and I hadn't really spent that much time together, or talked that much, before this.
It's amazing how seeing someone else be more nervous than you are yourself can make your nervousness go away. Hers went away quite quickly as well, I think. We had a nice time, and I didn't get to sleep for many more hours.
Friday came, and we dragged ourselves out of bed at the crack of afternoon. Barely. GF had to work in the evening, so we hadn't planned anything for the day. We took a walk through the botanical gardens close to her flat, and I saw a bit of the city in daylight. Like most British cities I've been in, Edinburgh looks very monochromatic. A good, clean stone-grey, though, which is nicer than the pollution-grey of London or Manchester. Edinburgh also felt much less cramped than I usually find English cities.
Anyway, time passed and eventually I made my way to an Indian restaurant where I metbrandnewgun, yonmei and glitterboy1. The first two were being kind hosts and thoroughly filled us non-locals in on the local gossip. I also found out exactly how much I really have been missing good Indian food. Mmmm... Spices... After the meal I returned to GF's flat and slept until she returned home from work. I didn't mean to, but after a more-than-24-hour day and only a few hours of sleep I was rather tired...
Saturday we went to an erotica fair that was being held in Edinburgh, and apparently only for the second time ever in Scotland. We went there together with a few friends of GF's, who were also nice people. The fair itself was a mixed experience, with much less of the sleazy porn and much more variety than I expected. On the whole, though, I have no great desire to go to one again. There was a stage show as well, which was better than much of the rest of the fair since it wasn't quite so single-mindedly focused on the female body (it even had a couple of guys making out, which surprised me somewhat). After the fair there was a longish walk through the city, to reach a more high-class Indian restaurant than the day before, where I got even more tasty spicy food. Mmmm... Spices...
Due to not-so-fun weather and one of GF's cats being rather ill (and I just got an SMS saying that he's gone to the cat Summerlands, at an age of fourteen and a half years), we stayed in to just talk and cuddle the cats until evening. Which was nice. In the evening, we went out for a (surprise!) Cantonese dinner, and then proceeded up to Carlton Hill to watch the Festival-ending fireworks. The view from up there was excellent, and the unfinished Greek temple looked very post-modern. Unfortunately most of the fireworks disappeared into the low clouds and/or were obscured by the drizzle, but other than that we had a good time. Afterwards, we returned home to go to bed at a reasonable hour, since GF wanted to take the cat to the vet as soon as they opened Monday morning.
Monday had more bad weather, no good news about the cat, packing and going home. Taxi to train station, train to Glasgow, bus to another station in Glasgow, train to Prestwick, getting irritated at rude Swedish businessmen carrying golf clubs (have these people ever heard of the word "please"?), airplane to Skavsta and finally being met by a suddenly red-headedjennyaxe and driven home.
So, I had a very nice trip. And now I'll just have to learn how to bilocate, so I can be in Stockholm and Edinburgh.
The trip down was long. For some reason, there are no convenient flights from Stockholm to Edinburgh. You get to chose between taking a regular flight, which means insane costs (about £600) and many hours of waiting at either Heathrow or Schipol, or Ryanair, which while very much cheaper and faster means ending up at Prestwick Airport in the middle of the night, or at least close enough to the middle of the night that there are no more trains to Edinburgh. So I was very, very glad that
katlinel and Sugoll were kind enough to come pick me up at the airport and drive me all the way to GF-to-be's front door. Which included helping me find said front door in a city where I'd never been before.It turned out to be about 15 minutes walk from where they live. Which I came to find less surprising as the weekend proceeded, as it seems that everybody in Edinburgh lives about 15 minutes walk from everybody else. And I try not to think to hard about the geometry of that, since I suspect it to be disturbingly Lovecraftian.
Anyway, I arrived at GF-to-be's place shortly before 1am. Which was ten hours after I set off from home, so I was a bit on the tired side. I was also a bit nervous, since the GF-to-be and I hadn't really spent that much time together, or talked that much, before this.
It's amazing how seeing someone else be more nervous than you are yourself can make your nervousness go away. Hers went away quite quickly as well, I think. We had a nice time, and I didn't get to sleep for many more hours.
Friday came, and we dragged ourselves out of bed at the crack of afternoon. Barely. GF had to work in the evening, so we hadn't planned anything for the day. We took a walk through the botanical gardens close to her flat, and I saw a bit of the city in daylight. Like most British cities I've been in, Edinburgh looks very monochromatic. A good, clean stone-grey, though, which is nicer than the pollution-grey of London or Manchester. Edinburgh also felt much less cramped than I usually find English cities.
Anyway, time passed and eventually I made my way to an Indian restaurant where I met
brandnewgun, yonmei and glitterboy1. The first two were being kind hosts and thoroughly filled us non-locals in on the local gossip. I also found out exactly how much I really have been missing good Indian food. Mmmm... Spices... After the meal I returned to GF's flat and slept until she returned home from work. I didn't mean to, but after a more-than-24-hour day and only a few hours of sleep I was rather tired...Saturday we went to an erotica fair that was being held in Edinburgh, and apparently only for the second time ever in Scotland. We went there together with a few friends of GF's, who were also nice people. The fair itself was a mixed experience, with much less of the sleazy porn and much more variety than I expected. On the whole, though, I have no great desire to go to one again. There was a stage show as well, which was better than much of the rest of the fair since it wasn't quite so single-mindedly focused on the female body (it even had a couple of guys making out, which surprised me somewhat). After the fair there was a longish walk through the city, to reach a more high-class Indian restaurant than the day before, where I got even more tasty spicy food. Mmmm... Spices...
Due to not-so-fun weather and one of GF's cats being rather ill (and I just got an SMS saying that he's gone to the cat Summerlands, at an age of fourteen and a half years), we stayed in to just talk and cuddle the cats until evening. Which was nice. In the evening, we went out for a (surprise!) Cantonese dinner, and then proceeded up to Carlton Hill to watch the Festival-ending fireworks. The view from up there was excellent, and the unfinished Greek temple looked very post-modern. Unfortunately most of the fireworks disappeared into the low clouds and/or were obscured by the drizzle, but other than that we had a good time. Afterwards, we returned home to go to bed at a reasonable hour, since GF wanted to take the cat to the vet as soon as they opened Monday morning.
Monday had more bad weather, no good news about the cat, packing and going home. Taxi to train station, train to Glasgow, bus to another station in Glasgow, train to Prestwick, getting irritated at rude Swedish businessmen carrying golf clubs (have these people ever heard of the word "please"?), airplane to Skavsta and finally being met by a suddenly red-headed
jennyaxe and driven home.So, I had a very nice trip. And now I'll just have to learn how to bilocate, so I can be in Stockholm and Edinburgh.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 10:51 am (UTC)BTW, I discovered that Ryanair fly from Stockholm to Stansted, and Easyjet fly from Stansted to Edinburgh. I don't know how well the flight times co-ordinate, but it might be worth investigating.
Det er Bar Delige
Date: 2004-09-08 12:04 pm (UTC)Hi hi
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 01:21 pm (UTC)Gina
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 01:31 pm (UTC)Btw, that's
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 01:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 03:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 07:56 pm (UTC)Long-distance relationships and travel are arsey. Grr. I bet that all Ryanair's Skavsta flights arrive bloody late at Stansted? Oh, wait, maybe they don't... I had to travel across the gulf a few times to take those before Ryanair opened their Finnish route. *that* only arrives near *midnight*, grr.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 05:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-08 09:10 pm (UTC)That's Calton Hill.
HIghly shady gay male cruise spot and home of Edinburgh's Beltane celebration :).
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 12:38 am (UTC)And yes, I was told about both of those. Since I to the best of my knowledge didn't talk to any straight people at all (excluding talking to myself) after I arrived at my GF's flat, I got to know quite a bit about the gay community in Edinburgh.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-09 03:17 am (UTC)http://www.edinburghguide.com/travel/visitor/caltonhill.htm
You must have just heard English people pronounce it.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-14 02:51 am (UTC)