Edinburgh
I've been back from Edinburgh since Wednesday night and haven't really been up to much, I have to admit.
I just now finished uploading the last of the pictures I took of the Uncon and Edinburgh to flickr.
I didn't do as much sightseeing as I could have squeezed into a week, I guess, but what I saw and did was mostly fun. And, more importantly, I managed to avoid getting soaked except for one time on Friday afternoon. I think that's not a bad record for a week in Scotland.
I saw
- the Royal Mile
- National Library of Scotland, with the current exhibition of Scots emigration. Sadly, no decent postcards in their museum shop, though
- Public Library of Edinburgh, who wouldn't let me take a picture inside.
- the Writer's Museum. It only covers three writers, though. I'd just finished Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, so that part was quite interesting. I've never read anything by Burns or Scot though.
- Leith in all its gentrified glory
- the Gallery of Modern Art and the Dean Gallery
- Mary King's Close, which was fun, though I don't need a tourguide in dress from the 17th century to enjoy the show.
I ate:
- full scottish breakfast, including haggis! It was surprisingly good, actually.
- porridge
- marmite for breakfast (they have these tiny portions now, just like jam!)
- chips with vinegar
- cullen skink and another chowder
- lemon meringue pie, which I have heard so much of but never tried before. I must try it again though, as the one we had wasn't great, apparently.
- and finally, the legendary scottish speciality of deep fried mars bar. It was disgusting, of course, but also very good. I need to go on a diet now.
- and much much more, of course.
I also went on a day trip to Glasgow (to the right: dodgy photo of sheep out of the train window) to see the famous Burnett collection (tapestries, stained glass windows, impressionists, and more) and the museum of modern art. The current exhibition is called (sh)out and has a lot of very interesting lgbt art, among others an awesome photo by Pierre and Gilles and two by Mapplethorpe.
Going through the list, it's not bad for a week of Edinburgh which included two and a half days of bookcrossing unconvention. I'm off to bed now and back to work tomorrow.