T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
To start out our recent trip to the Highlands, we based ourselves in the seaside town of Nairn for two nights (and we would have happily stayed another night or two). We spent our second day exploring the Moray Firth (a firth is basically the Scottish equivalent of a fjord) on both sides of Inverness.
We’re finally getting the chance to get out and see some of the wonderful other parts of Scotland that we’ve been hearing so much about. Not knowing where to start, we chose a direction and hopped in the car. We ended up covering a good bit of northeast Scotland on our first five-day excursion, getting just enough of a taste of its rolling hills, castles, beaches, distilleries, and hairy coos to know we definitely want to go back for more.
What Oktoberfest is to Munich, the Festival Fringe is to Edinburgh: that time of year when all the tourists show up. Edinburgh more than doubles in population during August as visitors and performers from around the world flood in. The Old Town is packed with street acts and revelers. Hundreds of buildings around the city turn into venues for performances. Theater, dance, music, spoken word and comedy are the main types of entertainment you’ll find at the Fringe, with comedy dominating in recent years. But the Fringe hardly has a lock on your entertainment options in this city
About time for a wee blog update, isn’t it? Let’s fast forward from my month in Tokyo (we’ll come back to it, I promise) and jump all the way up to present day, where Scott and I are just your typical, everyday serial expats settling in after yet another international move. We’ve been in Edinburgh for about five weeks now, long enough to have most of the new-country administrata out of the way. The first few weeks of a new expat gig feel the same pretty much anywhere, even if the details are different. Register this, paperwork that. Sign up for a cell phone, figure out where all the various kinds of recycling go before the growing tower of vodka bottles in the kitchen falls over, that kind of thing.
Happy new year! Now where was I? Oh yes, Assisi. After an inspiring artist’s residency in Italy, we headed back to Munich for a couple weeks of Christmas market season before hoping on a plane to the US to spend the holidays with family. Then back to Munich for a quick hello before finally making our first trip (first trip since deciding to move here, anyway) to Scotland.
“Scotland? Cool! Have you seen that movie Waking Ned Devine?”
(Actually, that’s Irish.)
“But it’s so cold there!”
(Winters are a lot milder in Edinburgh than in Munich. We see that as a downside – we like snow.)
“Why would you want to do that?”
(This one comes mainly from Scottish people who live outside of Scotland.)
“Are you going to learn that kind of dancing where they only move their legs?”
(That’s Irish, too.)
“Do you like whisky?”
(Yes, very much. Can’t wait to visit Islay.)
“Have you found a place to live yet?”
Read moreThings you hear when you tell people you’re moving to Edinburgh
We spent most of January in Edinburgh (I know, I’m a little behind on my blogging), so we got a chance to try quite a few of the city’s restaurants. That is, when I wasn’t busy using our apartment’s induction hob or sampling oddly-named desserts from Marks & Spencer. Here are the notable eateries, favorites first.
David Bann quickly became my favorite restaurant in the city
Want some?
How can you not love that accent?
As I mentioned in the comments of my castle post, tourist attractions in Edinburgh tend to fall into one of two categories: free, and rather overpriced. Travelers on a budget can focus in on the free sights, as there are plenty. I chose to do a lot of both, because I was in Edinburgh for a long time, and because the average price per attraction is still pretty low if you average the free stuff with the expensive stuff. This post covers my favorites of the free sights.