It's Daddy time!

Sorry about the title, it's a spin off a TBTL audio drop called "It's granny time!" and I couldn't come up with anything better, really.

Anyways, this post is about my dad's visit to Edinburgh. After a rather harrowing journey here involving many missed connections, confusing building numbering conventions (finally, someone understands about the STUPID street name changes), and amounting to an extremely long two-days of travelling, my dad met me at his bread and breakfast. The accommodations were alright, although the matron could definitely have been nicer. Since I haven't dealt with many customer service people, I can't be certain that it's not a difference between Scottish and American hospitality but from what I have seen here, I think she was just crabby.

As I've mentioned before, my favorite pub here is the Greenmantle, a friendly neighborhood pub. On Thursdays, they do live folk music, so of course that's where I took my dad (after he had a chance to eat and rest, obviously). We got to hang out with my friends Sam, Megan, Alice, and Robbie. It was really nice for my dad to meet everyone who I've been talking about.

Friday, I had morning classes but my dad wasted no time in exploring on his own. After we met up, we basically walked around the Royal Mile and Princes Street Gardens, exploring the main tourist areas. That was my first time walking around there so extensively, and I'm really glad we did- it gave me a better idea of the city. To this day, I'm still discovering new areas of Edinburgh and all of them are delightful. That night, we had to do some bar-hopping, of course. We sample a few different whiskies and I had a chance to get some more of my mulled wine from the Reverie :)

My dad got some pretty good images of the city walking around on his own- this is

Edinburgh Castle.

He was pretty impressed by the old water wells in the Grassmarket area.

Saturday, we had a traditional Scottish breakfast- haggis, black pudding, a fried tomato, a tattie scone, baked beans, bacon, sausage, a hash brown, and an over-easy egg and of course, breakfast tea. It was all decent, except for the blood pudding. That was disgusting. I've had haggis a few times before this, and have actually enjoyed it. We hiked this heart-attack-on-a-plate off at Arthur's Seat, a volcano in the middle of the city. We took the steeper route up and came down the other side, where there's the ruins of an old cathedral inhabited by hermits. Fittingly, it was named after St. Anthony, the same patron saint of our home parish in Renton. Following the trail down put us at the bottom of the Royal Mile next to the Palace of Holyroodhouse (where the Queen stays when she visits Scotland) and the new Parliament building. The Parliament building is pretty controversial- it was designed by a Spanish architect who wanted to incorporate the landscape of Scotland into the design, but it ended up going way over budget and being a somewhat Louvre-ish situation (in terms of the pyramids designed my IMPei). We walked up the Royal Mile again, semi-souvenir shopping as we went. We met a really nice girl working in one shop who was also studying in Edinburgh, but at a different uni. We started to explore the castle, which lies at the top of the Royal Mile, but we decided to come back the next day to truly explore it. As we started to venture north towards New Town and St. Mary's Cathedral for vigil mass, we came across a shopping mall and I discovered my new favorite department store: John Lewis. It's like a cross between Macy's, Nordy's, and Jo-Ann Fabrics. Basically, anything I could ever want. The cathedral itself was pretty as well- one of the oldest places of worship for Catholics in the city- but it was undergoing construction to one of it's wings, so we didn't get to see all of it. Mass was nice, though, and much less rushed than my previous experience the week before. We had dinner in a rather dodgy fish and chip restaurant before heading back. We did another pub-crawl, this time with my friend Christy. She did a double-take when she realized the whisky was for me and the beer was for my dad. Apparently, I'm made of stronger stuff than she thought. This is good because I'm going home with her for Christmas and on her home island of ~1000 people, there are also 8 distilleries, making it a major whiskey-producing region of Scotland. Pretty amazing ratio, huh?

At the top of Arthur's Seat. We're at the highest point in all of Edinburgh!

The debating hall at Parliament. The part at the bottom is made from exclusively Scottish oak. One of those beams actually fell shortly after Parliament opened, interrupting a session.

Sunday, we started out with a late brunch, and continued to the castle. Dad was really fascinated by all of it. I was really fascinated by the crown jewels ;) We followed this with a tour of the Scottish Whiskey Experience. They had this weird barrel ride/ animatronic video thing that explained the distillation process. After that, they did a really good job of explaining about the different whiskey regions in Scotland and what makes them distinct, and we got to taste a whiskey from one of the regions of our choosing. My dad chose one from Islay (where Christy lives) which is reputed for really smoky, peat-y whiskeys. Too strong for my taste! This museum (?) also houses the most extensive whiskey collection ever, bought from a collector who lived in Brazil before his death. There were a TON of whiskeys in that room! We finished the night with a nice dinner at an Argentinean steakhouse in between my flat and my dad's B&B. I miss Mexican food SOO much!!!

There was an exchange of stuff- my mom had sent some new clothes (I love them!) and some food- tea (for a place that drinks tea all the time, they only have a couple kinds), peanut butter, and popcorn. I sent back some clothes and coats that I didn't think I'd need anymore. I still don't know how I'm going to get all of my stuff home...

Dad left on Monday morning, and had another tumultuous trip- ending with him sleeping in his office since Washington was hit with a snowstorm! Aggghhh the travails of travel.

For my part, I allowed myself about 5 minutes of crying/homesickness/frantic calling to my friend Audrey who is in London studying for the semester before I got myself together. It was harder than I thought to say goodbye to Dad, especially since he had brought all the news about home. It's little things like businesses closing and neighborhood gossip that you never realize you miss til you're gone. And it's not like I'm talking to them less this semester than normal. If anything, we talk on a more regular basis than when I'm in Cali. It's just knowing that I'm really far away and not just a 2-hour plane ride that really makes the difference.

And on that melancholy note... haha. It's better now- I still have a lot to look forward to this semester. More on those things to come! xxx