day three: edinburgh

we got up super duper early in dublin in order to catch the first flight out to edinburgh. it was quite cold out and extremely foggy. it had a great atmosphere to it, the way you'd think dublin would be in books, dark, cold and foggy. the lights were casting a very strong yellow hue.

we got to the airport via taxi and waiting in line to checking. unfortunately ryanair only allows one carryon, so we both had to check in our duffels. i had to keep my laptop with me of course. we rushed through security because we thought we were running late (as it turned out the flight left a bit later than planned so we were fine.) but also because N really needed an exit row to be comfortable. ryanair's seating operates like southwest, so we got in line very early on. thankfully N and i got an exit row.

surprisingly i slept for most of the one hour flight, while N read. yup read at 7am. once we landed we headed into the city on the express bus which took us to waverly station (the second largest station either in the UK or outside of the london ones, i can't remember). anyway from there we walked just until we found a mcdonalds. we were so hungry he had to eat something. and we needed coffee. N got enough food for three people and i had the standard sandwich, hashbrowns and coffee.

after eating we made our way down to our B&B which was recommended by the NYT. it was farther than i had hoped it was. a good 20-25 minute walk from the center of town. the place itself was beautiful with a lot of care put into the furniture. the house has a backyard with a little garden and across the street is a large park.

as soon as we got here, N took a three hour nap. i did some more research on edinburgh and points of interest and then decided to go for a workout. i ran for a good half hour and then did prisoner squats and push ups in the park. when i got back from working out, N was still asleep for another hour before i had to get him up so we could head out.

we headed back toward town to get some lunch. we had a few hours to kill before we'd meet up with J. we hit an italian deli to have some sandwiches. N ordered an app, sandwich, milkshake and of course three beers. i had a sandwich and the beers.

after lunch we headed over to a nice dept store, because we heard there was a great view of the city. we sat at the bar and had budvars for a while enjoyed the afternoon sun and of course the view.

we stayed here too long, because we were supposed to go to the national gallery, but we drank for too long. we decided to find the restaurant where we wanted to have dinner and then headed back to pick up J. things were getting a bit cold so i picked up a military green shell jacket at H&M. oh and we got more beers to drink at the B&B when we got back. J had 2, N and i each had 3.

we headed out and walked back up to the city and climbed calton hill to get a view of the entire city. it was just before sunset. afterwards we headed down to mussel inn for dinner. we had an insane amount of mussels, which was great. and of course more beers. after eating like crazy we headed over to a neighborhood bar. there were no tourists there at all, it was dark and all wood. we had some great beers. i had a cask ale which tasted amazing and N had a stout beer. J and N did shots of jack for the rest of the night, with N doing beers in between shots.

we were out till around 12. and while walking home got a bit lost (we were drunk). we decided to jump into a cab and get home quickly. once home we pretty much passed out immediately.