Today we (me and T, B and T, and J and K) ventured out of Edinburgh to Linlithgow to see Trudi’s paternal grandparents. It was only a 20 minute train trip (another tiny detail about the UK that I would love to have in Australia- they put tables on the four seater sections on their trains! It’s a tiny detail but think about how many games of poker you could play with a table on the train). Linlithgow was lovely. We were met at the station by Trudi’s grandparents, Aunty and cousins, and then went for a long walk around Linlithgow Loch. It was nice to hear about the town’s history, like the fact that because the mascot is a black dog everyone born in Linlithgow is known as a Black Bitch. Not too classy, but ... read more

Had a big but relaxing day today! We went to the elephant house (all lower case intended) for breakfast, the cafe where J.K. Rowling spent a lot of time writing Harry Potter. The cafe itself was cute but everything else was a bit sub-par. I chose the cheapest thing on the menu (Scottish pancakes, which was $11) and when it arrived it was literally two small thin pancakes slapped on a plate with maple syrup drizzled no where near it. I regretted getting food at all but I shrugged it off- that is until we were leaving and I looked into the kitchen on the way out. The “chefs” were opening packets of thin, stacked pancakes and chucking them in the microwave! But what can you do. At least the coffee wasn’t burnt. After that Trudi ... read more

Another very relaxing day, the first day in Edinburgh! We headed off at 9am and walked around for a while, and eventually hit a shopping centre called Cameron Tull (very similar to Toombul shopping centre). We went to Sainsbury’s to pick up some groceries for the Airbnb we’ll be staying at for the week, just some extra stuff on top of all the bags of food Trudi’s mum has been kind enough to order online for us (Thanks Rach!). I still can’t believe they sell alcohol in the supermarkets so I went to have a look in that aisle, and found a bottle of Sainsbury’s vodka for about $17- I couldn’t resist. Standing in line for the checkout I felt like the most unsophisticated person- everyone around me was buying organic pastas and fresh meats etc ... read more

Slept in again today but this time it was accidental. Trudi and I left the house at around 10:30 but we still managed to fit in a lot of sights and a lot of walking! We caught the tube to Embankment station and from there went across the Thames and walked for ages to Shakespeare’s Globe. Unfortunately we got there at 12:30 and tours finished at 12, so the only way we could have gotten in was to go see Hamlet at 2pm. I love Shakespeare, but I don’t think I could actually sit through an entire one of his plays. Plus we didn’t want to waste the day waiting so we decided to just check out the gift shop and then continue on with our day. From the Globe we walked all the way down ... read more

Had a big shopping day today! By big I mean we went into many, many stores but didn’t actually end up buying much. I’m a bit hesitant to buy anything that I could find in Australia, considering it would probably be a lot cheaper back home. We left the house at 9am and headed straight to Regent Street once we got off the tube. Immediately we found an adorable tea shop, with the most incredible flavours. Their hot chocolate section was super interesting, with flavours like “Blueberry Cheesecake White Hot Chocolate” and “Key Lime Pie Hot Chocolate”. Trudi ended up getting a Mumbai Spice white hot choc powder and I walked away with just a plain white hot choc power. We stopped into Zara (where I did actually buy a top), Anthropologie, Liberty, Boots, Urban Outfitters, ... read more