A very Edinburgh-y Christmas

As the train pushes on, the rolling green landscape, whilst remaining relatively modest, is brought to life by sheep, rivers, fields of peat, stone walls and old-style houses that make my 150-odd year old previous residence in Adelaide seem like it was built last year. We pass a coastal town and a mysterious, fog-enshrouded island off the coast comes into view. A short while later a second train change occurs in a city that I am quite familiar with, not in the literal sense, but in that a good friend of mine that I met in New Zealand lives here. I have to walk between stations here to catch the connecting train to the country's capital. I arrive early afternoon and Lee meets me at the train station.
I had landed ready for Christmas and the famous Scottish New Year celebration of Hogmanay, a well-known 2-to-3-day festival. There was a slight problem though. From the moment I stepped foot onto the bustling Princes St from the Waverley station, a sickness was a-brewin'. I met a few of Lee's housemates, including the crack-up Aussie Susan that evening. After only having slept for a couple of hours the night before I was quite tired and was starting to feel the effects of my ailment, so I hit the sack early. The next two days were a compete write-off - I slept for most of it, a feat which I don't recall ever having achieved before and don't intend repeating. It was, in part, a conscious decision to do this as I knew that Christmas and Hogmanay were coming up and I wanted to let myself recover as much as I could - not to mention the intentional avoidance of the punishing constant change in temperature between the toasty warm inside to literally below-freezing outside. I pretty much lost my voice, a real annoyance for someone who sings all the time (yes, in the shower, too.)
This Christmas was a time spent with orphans from all over the world.... Well, Australia, New Zealand and Spain... Close enough. Lee and Susie (a.k.a. Miss Clause) planned and executed a wonderful Christmas lunch of lamb, turkey and the "Two-hour Pavlova"! This was only after we had all exchanged gifts, both from each other and packages that had been sent over by our respective mums (thanks for the snakes, mum!), which sat under the classily-decorated tree in the lounge room that had since been transformed into my room after I couldn't bear the heat of Lee's little loft at night due to my increased core temperature. That evening we tried, unsuccessfully, to find any kind of pub or bar that had more than 10 people in it. Guess Christmas night is just not a night for going out in Edinburgh.... It was still a really enjoyable day.
Boxing Day was a day for relaxing. But moreso than that, it was a day for going on rides! Over the festive period, or as Bill Bailey prefers to call it, "the Primary Gifting Period and Auxilliary Generosity Zone," Edinburgh sets up a whole bunch of rides, stalls, authentic German markets and something they call the Winter Wonderland - including an open-air ice-skating rink - all set around and overshadowed by the looming Gothic, and somewhat rocket ship-like Scott Monument, dedicated to the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. Pretty cool! Literally...
In the afternoon we (Susie, myself, Lee and her kiwi mate, Saskia) decided it would be fitting to visit the cinemas to watch "Australia," the Baz Luhrmann film about my country - who would have thought? - in the early 1940's. A few hours later we emerged into the darkness, with the sun having already well-and-truly set, and ventured to the top of Carlton hill (one of the several hills that permeate the city centre) atop which stands Scotland's attempt at replicating Greece's Acropolis - they famously, and to many embarrassingly, ran out of money and it remains in its present state only half-finished. From here you can also get quite a good view over the city, its multitude of colourful lights from the Winter Wonderland and a secondary set of ostensibly more "big league" rides on the other side of the park, and of course the city's main centrepiece, the Edinburgh Castle lit up like a massive beacon on top of its stony hill.

Photos:

Lee and Saskia making some fruit salad for Christmas day! mmmm

Miss Clause (a.k.a. Susie) doing the cleaning

wise words..

spinning around - the ferris wheel, Princes St

the Christmas markets

Scotland's embarrassment - I think it's pretty cool personally

the Scott Monument amongst modernity