Merry Christmas everyone!! Edinburgh is something else during the holiday season, I feel like I'm in a movie and not real life as a winter Christmas is still such a novelty! All the films show Christmas with everyone wrapped up in their woollens and scarves and beanies as they drag around all of their christmas shopping and that exactly describes Christmas here! The christmas lights wrapped around the old buildings look INSANE and I just love how even more beautiful this city looks. 

I had an absolute blast on Christmas Day! I took the bus down to my friend Billy's house and ran through the pouring rain to his flat. I was absolutely drenched by the time I got there and used a hair dryer to get myself warm again. We had so much food and SO MUCH WINE and then more food and more wine. We later walked down to Sian's house for even more Prosecco and Cards Against Humanity before I got so knackered and drunk I could have passed out. Somehow I found a taxi at 1:30am and spent a fortune getting home. NO REGRETS.

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I had originally planned this post as a 1 year lookback/holyshitImadeitthislong recap but (since I am a brilliant procrastinator) that never happened and so we’re here now some 16 months since arrival and I’m keen to look back on how incredible this country has been.

Over 16 months I’ve explored my new home and country, had awesome travel adventures and made some incredible friends. I’m at this very moment living alone, fending for myself and attempting to Be An Adult for the first time in my life. I did have Popcorn for dinner tonight so that’s not going too well.

I love Edinburgh. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. Here’s a list of reasons why I fell in love with this city - and a reason to dislike it. Let’s go!

EDINBURGH IS BEAUTIFUL

I am so lucky to have lived in the most beautiful cities in the world. Sydney is stunning, Wellington is gorgeous, but Edinburgh is EVERYTHING. The moment I stepped off the Airport Bus in the centre of Edinburgh at 7am on my first day in Scotland, I remember staring at Old Town in front of me, Edinburgh Castle to my right, Princes Street Gardens below me and the towering Arthurs Seat to my left and I was BLOWN AWAY. And 16 months later I still feel that way. Every time my bus passes Edinburgh Castle I do a stealth shoulder shake of excitement as I get to live in this amazing city.

EDINBURGH IS CHEAP

Being from Sydney I am the only person (apart from the few who have lived in London) who believes Edinburgh is cheap. Transport? Cheaper than Sydney. Fresh Food? Cheaper than Sydney. Drinks? WAAAAAY cheaper than Sydney. People don't believe me. The other week we hit City Cafe where you can purchase jugs of 4 different kinds of cocktails for £8. The jugs were the equivalent of 8 cocktails. FOR EIGHT POUNDS. And while others were hesitating at the price, I was ordering a jug for each hand.
Not to mention all the online stores that have free shipping in the UK. I'm looking at you Amazon and your exorbitant Australian shipping fees. Now I get my Amazon and Asos goodies shipped for free.

EDINBURGH IS SMALL

I always have a chuckle overhearing about the length of time it takes people to get places in Edinburgh. “Oh she has to drive from Fife - that’s 45 minutes away!”, or “It’s going to take 2 hours to fly to Spain. TWO HOURS!”, or my favourite: “Rachel you live so far from work! How can you stand the commute?” I live on the harbour which is as far north of Edinburgh you can get before you are literally in the water. My bus takes me 30 mins. A taxi to town takes 12 minutes. I can walk to town in 1 hour and 12 minutes exactly. Yes, I timed it. If this were Sydney I would be living in the Inner Suburbs. I love how quickly I can get around town. It’s also such a novelty after living my entire adult life in Sydney where it takes hours to bloody get anywhere. Which leads me to my next point:

EDINBURGH IS GREAT FOR NIGHT’S OUT (for those who don’t usually enjoy a night’s out)

I don’t go out often, I love a night in either at home or at someone’s house for dinner and board games. In Sydney I did this quite regularly, and honestly can’t remember the last time I went into the city for a night out. It was always just such a ridiculous effort to get home, or unfair to make someone our designated driver again. In Edinburgh there are night buses that get me home in 25 minutes and a taxi cost around £10 to get home. Such a novelty!

TRAVEL

One of the main reasons I moved to Europe is to travel. This whole year has been about getting paid and spending every single pound on exploring this awesome part of the world. I've even done the unthinkable and dipped into my savings (damn you Iceland #noregrets). I think I’ve seen more of Scotland and any other country I’ve been to and can’t wait to explore it more. I love the cheap flights out of Edinburgh, often I can find a return flight somewhere in Europe for around £50.

NETBALL

I’ve joined a netball team for the first time in 16 years and now I can’t wait for Tuesday nights. We play in George Heriot’s School which is basically Hogwarts and I love playing again so much. My team is called Nets Go and I could not have asked for a more awesome team. Everyone is so fun to be around and though we don’t win often we try and have fun each game.

AND ONE THING THAT’S HARD, REALLY HARD…..

HOMESICKNESS

I hate being away from my friends and family. It’s the hardest thing to deal with.

DUNBAR CLOSE GARDEN

Edinburgh is genuinely full of surprises. You're walking down one of the busiest and most touristy streets in the city, and take a risk walking down one of the 80+ closes and then BAM you're in a 17th Century styled garden. It's so strange that in such a built up part of Old Town there are little hidden gardens that are so well maintained and beautifully designed. 

I first went to Dunbar's Close during Fringe Festival. And if there is one lesson I learned that day it's to not visit the Royal Mile during the busiest month of the year. Why did I even do this to myself? What an idiot. Anyway, the Royal Mile is an awesome area of Edinburgh, running from Edinburgh Castle to the Queen's Scottish Residence at Holyrood Palace. The Royal Mile is packed in August with wall to wall people, tourists constantly stopping to take photos, people awkwardly trying to roll their ginormous suitcases over the cobblestone streets. It's hell! I ventured down Dunbar's Close to escape a bunch of vaping Brits and it was like I was hit with a wall of tranquility and peace and serenity and QUIET. I did a bit of research later on, discovering that this area of Edinburgh was where the super wealthy folk lived in the 17th century, and the landscape designer wanted to bring some of that history back into the area. They would have had little gardens like this hidden behind the streets and away from those commoners. I found a number of them in my travels, but apparently there are still many more I need to find.

TRUNKS CLOSE

TRINITY APSE

PRINCES STREET GARDENS

OK this one is cheating. Princes Street Gardens are anything but secret, they are basically the Central Park of Edinburgh. There is no escape from this beauty, the area dividing Old Town from New Town is basically the heart of the city. It's where the Christmas Markets are held, New Years Parties, concerts, it's where the National Gallery is and of course is looked over by Edinburgh Castle. It's not secret but I'm putting it here anyway. Hey this is my blog and I'll do what I want!!!

There are many reasons why I like Scotland - the road trips are incredible, people are super friendly, drinks are cheap, buses run on time, I'm not sweating off my makeup in summer, tiny spiders, free Amazon shipping.... but it's the CRAZINESS that I love. Their national animal is a unicorn, 20 degrees is a hot summer's day, they deep fry everything and they have places like Yester Castle.

Here's an excerpt from Yester's Wiki Page:

"Legend supposed that Hugo was able, via a pact with the Devil, to raise a magical army to his aid, and use them to carry out his will. It is this army of hobgoblins that was considered the builders of Yester Castle."

Sir Hugo de Gifford was known as a powerful wizard and necromancer, who not only conjured the Goblin Builders Guild from Satan himself, but gifted his daughter a magical pear that was to remain undamaged or it would bring disaster and grief to her family. She kept it safe until a few hundred years later when one peckish bride-to-be snacked on the enchanted pear, leading her and her future family into misfortune. The pear turned to rock, complete with bite mark for absolute proof of pear's magical fruit-to-rock-transformation, and it's still housed at Colstoun House to this day. What a country!

After discovering Yester Castle at secretscotland.org.uk I knew I had to go and see if for myself. Sarah was due to visit a few weeks later so I shared the Wizard of Yester story with her and we planned to visit the moment she stepped off the plane. Yester is approximately a 45 minute drive from home and is located in rural Edinburgh with no directions, signs, fanfare, NOTHING. I loved this about Yester, it was the first castle I've visited that you have to put in some serious effort to visit, that can only be found by asking someone to point you in the right direction and hoping you don't get lost!
After doing a bit of research I discovered that asking someone at the golf course was the best way of  finding the castle. Our golfer pointed us off into the distance, directing us over fields, through farm gates, dodging horses, avoiding the tractors, across a stream, through the forest, follow one of the paths (but you have to guess which one!), continue up a hill or two and you should come upon the ruins of the castle. It was such an awesome moment to be walking through a forest and stumbling upon a castle. Built by a wizard. And goblins.

We spent some time wandering around the castle, trying to find the entrance to the subterranean chamber where the goblins were conjured. The three entrances we found were boarded/caged up and I'm not going to lie, I was way too afraid to even look through the darkness of the caves. What if we fell in? What if we saw something. It's was scary - don't judge. Only the one golfer man knew where we were and he had probably already forgotten about us. And I would not want to be here after dark.

Is this the subterranean chamber built by the goblins? Too afraid to get any closer.

Stumbling upon Yester Castle!

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Finally, some snow in Edinburgh

Can it look anymore beautiful?

Random street lamp outside where I live. But snow!

Would you believe this magical place is only a 5 minute walk from Princes Street, the busiest street in central Edinburgh? What a city!

OMG Edinburgh, you are just too beautiful! Just a 5 minute walk from work takes me up to this spectacular view over the city from Calton Hill. You can see every angle of Edinburgh from this viewpoint, so amazing! I can spot my apartment from here :)