So I'm on the train up to Edinburgh currently -- we got a bit delayed behind a broken down train early on and so are about 30-40 minutes behind schedule! The countryside is absolutely gorgeous -- if I look out to the left of the train I can see the ocean! Pretty crazy.
I got to London on Thursday night by taking the Eurostar -- it's quite nice, but it's actually much more like going to an airport than just getting on a train and leaving. You have to be there 30 minutes early to check in (which luckily I was even though I didn't know it was required), and then go through customs and border control and scanners and such. The scanners aren't nearly as rigorous as those at an airport, but it was still much more security than I had been expecting. I had requested a forward facing window seat -- and I got about 1/4 of what I requested. I was facing backwards and I was technically in a "window" seat, but it happened to be in the space between the two windows that was filled in with metal. A bit claustrophobic!
My cousin Al met me at the train station, and we took a cab back to his apartment -- which is absolutely beautiful! I met his girlfriend Kerstin, who's awesome, and we hung out for a bit and then headed to bed.
Yesterday (Friday), I met up with Kylen -- who's from my Paris program and goes to Williams, because she was coming to London to visit a friend but found out that her friend wasn't available until dinnertime -- around 11:30 at the train station. We dropped her bag off at Al's apartment, and then we set out for a bit of an adventure! We headed towards the river and ended up down by Borough Market where we found a fun pub-type place to eat -- and we both had fish and chips! Of course. How could we not?!
After lunch, we went on a hung to find Ben's Cookies -- which Kylen's friend had raved about while she lived in London over the summer. We walked west and crossed back over the river on the Waterloo bridge and walked up into Soho and Covent Garden, where we did, indeed, find Ben's Cookies. They were pretty good! But we both agreed, that NYC's Levain Bakery's are still far in the lead....
It was getting into the late afternoon, and we decided to make our way back to Al's apartment so that Kylen could retrieve her bag and go to meet her friend. Al's couch and I spent the rest of the afternoon together, and I enjoyed watching some tv in ENGLISH. It was really nice.
Al came home around 7 and as promised, he got to cooking a wonderful wonderful dinner for the three of us! He marinated salmon, and made risotto with asparagus! It was beyond delicious -- much much better than any dinner we would have had at a restaurant! After dinner, we finally agreed on watching Four Weddings and a Funeral - and made it about 90% through the movie before all falling asleep.
Saturday, I woke up around 8:30 and packed up my stuff. Al took me across the street to Sweet, which is a wonderful little bakery just a few minutes from his apartment. We each had a pain au chocolat, he had two "flat whites" to drink -- still not exactly sure what that is -- and I had a mocha. Stopped by the grocery store on the way back to pick up some lunch and snacks for the train ride!
We got to Kings Cross in the knick of time and I found my seat on the train -- this one was actually next to a window, but unfortunately, still not forward facing. But it was a pretty pleasant train ride -- we were delayed about 45 minutes due to a broken train near the beginning, but other than that everything went smoothly!
I was met at the Edinburgh Waverly train station by my friend Melanie, and we walked across the city to her apartment! We had a fun night -- leftover chili for dinner, and then I tagged along for her frisbee team's flat crawl -- I think I'll just leave that to your imagination.
Anyways! Today was filled with sleeping late, a lovely walk in Edinburgh, baking an upside-down plum cake, eating a delicious homemade shepherd's pie with the leftover chili (which was then followed by the plum cake), and some awesome British tv -- we watched the season finale of the show Spooks, which is a government/spy show -- extremely exciting! And then to end on a lighter note, we watched an episode of the show Merlin -- also very entertaining.
I'll leave you there for tonight -- it's getting late! Edinburgh is a truly beautiful place -- it's been wonderful to get out of the city for a bit and see nature again! The buildings are incredible, and it just has a great feel to it. Here's a picture from London and one from today in Edinburgh!
Cheers!
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