Edinburgh Castle
Day Two and I went exploring. I had my new 30-day bus card which I bought yesterday and figured I needed to do a couple of important things.
Figure my way around.
Open a bank account.
Get a UK mobile number.
So I did the most sensible thing and asked a neighbour how to get into the city. She directed me to the bus stop and the bus number (31) and when I was on the bus, I asked the lady I was sitting next to which stop to get off at for the city. We had a nice little chat and she gave me heaps of helpful hints- a place to go for tourist information and what the buses are like.
One thing I hate about Edinburgh- half the buses don't have names, the ones that do are so tiny me-with-my-bad-eyesight can't see them until it's too late, and the stops don't actually seem to be marked on any maps anywhere.
Everyone says I'll get used to it though.
Perhaps, and at least my blistered feet will heal (from missing a couple of stops and having to do a lot of walking).
So I got into the "city" (although I use that term loosely, cause you'll never be able to compare Edinburgh to a city like Sydney- not that it isn't so much better than Sydney in so many other ways). I found the tourist place the lady on the bus was talking about (which was in an old church complete with amazing stained glass (just a note- I love old churches, the more beautiful the better). Had a look around, got a couple of ideas and found these:
(My father will get a kick out of that pic, he's always told the silly stories about the Haggis)
I also found three more Edinburgh cows (but I've been told they'll be removed in a few days! I'll never be able to collect them all :(
I also found a gorgeous armoury which sells stunning swords, daggers etc- I even found our surname on their database (which you'd hope so, cause it's a Scottish name!)
I walked for a bit and bought a map that includes the bus routes on (pity it doesn't actually show any bus stops! (Grr!) and a couple of other bits and pieces (including a new UK sim card for my mobile ;), and finally found:
And then I stopped off at the gift shop on the way back to get some Scottish rock (which I've missed since the Scottish Yarn shop that used to be in Buderim closed down) and:
Mead! It's so yummy!
So by the end of the day I had managed to miss my stops twice, have a hell of a lot more walking than was necessary, and still no closer to a bank account cause RBS wants proof I live where I say I life, and the only way I can do that is to get my current bank to send me a statement at my new address.
Like two weeks later. :S