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Published: November 28th 2008
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The Balmoral Hotel on Princes St, adorned with St. Andrew's Cross/the Saltire in honour of St. Andrew's day which is coming up on Sunday. She's following me. Either that or there's a herd of Chinese girls in this town with weird sleep habits. Unless it's the same girl that was at the other hostel I stayed at (I can't be sure, I've never really seen her fully conscious), there's a pandemic of some sort. I was in the room one night when one of the other girls (also Chinese) struck up a conversation with her. Girl A was asking Sleepy what she's doing here, how long she's been here, does she work, etc. etc. All the typical questions we all ask each other. Sleepy was giving the oddest answers...vey very vague. Yes, she's here for long-term. She's been away from home for 5 years. Yes, she has worked before, but doesn't now...or rather, it's "complicated". She keeps the oddest hours, and can often be found in a corner somewhere with her back to the room, just laughing. I'm pretty sure it's the same girl. I'm worried for her, her mental state, but she seems happy and what could I do anyways. I have sneaking suspicion her form of employment is sketchy as well.
On another note, I'm settling into the hostel a little more,
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The masses waiting for admittance to the gardens. MooMOO! on a social level. Actually beginning to talk to people ahd gain a little status as potential staff. The free massages to the current staff are certainly helping. I'm charging the rest of the residents for my services--backpacker prices, of course. A jar of Nutella each will suffice, hahaha. I've been temporarily employed as a runner to buy Hogmanay tickets for the hostel for the end of December. You're only allowed to buy 6 a day, so myself and a fleet of others are on a mission to get as many as possible: the hostel is sold out for beds between Dec. 29-Jan. 1st. Hogmanay is a huge deal here, bigger than Christmas. I have my street pass to party on Princes St. along with thousands of others. Next year I want to go somewhere a little more remote and genuine like Mull or Inverness, but I can't pass up the opportunity to be at the biggest New Year's bash in all of Europe!
So last night saw me heading down to East Princes St. Gardens, as the ticket booth was opening for the first time. I had forgotten that it was also the lighting ceremony of Edinburgh's Christmas
Festival/Winter Wonderland. Not many things make me truly homesick, but the sight of an ice rink did it. I was hustled in like some sort of lowly cow amongst the hundreds of parents and wee children who were seemingly impervious to the cold. It was chilly, and the wind and rain were enough to cancel the fireworks that I had so hoped to see.
Sequence of events: Radio hosts blathering on about the wonder of the Christmas season, mayor-like dude of Edinburgh robotically reading something off a page about the wonder of the city. A cool thing though was one of the highest political figures from Norway who had come to officially give Edinburgh its Christmas tree (as they do every year) as a gift. She was lovely; bubbly and funny, and fantastic english except for when she said: "...and it never fails to put me into a Christmas mind of frame!" Too cute. I thought she was great. We were then to bear witness to Scotland's best figure skating teams and soloists. Another pang of homesickness as the snob in me realized just a) how much I didn't know that I knew about the sport and b) how
amazing the Canadians are at it! To their credit, they all did really well, especially one girl who wasn't supposed to perform but skated in front of hundreds all on her own in miserable weather. I sent texts to my brothers and Russ saying "I have just witnessed Scottish Ice Capades" and giggled to myself.
A young boy was brought out, the winner of aformentioned radio station's contest to push the buttons to light up Edinburgh. He was hilarious, and sang "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer" for everyone. He then pushed the button, and all the lights in the gardens and above in the Old Town went on, including the massive Norwegian tree. I'll get pictures of that later, there's tons of time before Christmas. I then made my way (sooo slowly, soo many cattle--I mean people) up to the box office, grabbed my precious tickets, and winged back to the hostel feeling like some odd Festive Sentinel.
I have spent every spare moment of the last couple of days READING. FICTION. Oh man. It's so nice to spend a whole afternoon with one's nose in some lovely story. I've read over 700 pages in 48 hours! After nothing
but hard-core science for 2 years, I'm truly revelling.
Sometimes when I'm in my bunk at night, all the girls asleep around me I swear I can hear horses' hooves on the cobbles outside. I know it's not actually real, and I can't figure out why I hear it, but I like it. I wonder if I'm the only one who notices it.....
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Gill
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Festival Pictures
Sounds like you had fun being cattle, and hopefully the strange girl is alright. I love the night photo's of all the lights and was wondering if a photo request could be made? I don't know whether your camera will allow you to do a timed exposure, but I think the Ferris wheel would look awesome if you could get a full rotation of it at night. It probably isn't the easiest thing to do, but I'm sure you could figure it out.