We're Finally Here!!

 06-31-2022

Woohoo!  Ginger's here and the party can really begin!  She don's her official girls' trip t-shirt and we're ready to rock and roll! She's brought some homemade rhubarb pie!  She and Connie go off on a scavenger hunt for forks and we all dive in.  Thank you, Nick!  It's delicious.  Eventually it's time to board but there haven't been any announcements and we can see our pilot and co-pilot jus hanging out.  More time passes and the gate agent says that our plane is not at the gate (which we knew!) but is at a remote location!  We figure that means Jersey!  Or Winnipeg! 

When we can see the plane approaching everyone applauds!  But it is still quite a while before we actually find ourselves on board.  When we finally take off it is after midnight.  Connie and Marilyn are sitting in Comfort Plus beside one another.  Ginger and I are in the main cabin;  but there is no one beside either of us and it's a much more pleasant trip!  Presently dinner is served.  This is definitely not Turkish Air!  There is something called chicken marsala but you couldn't prove it by me!  It came with six string beans, eight baby carrots, and mashed potatoes all in one container and a side dish of pearl couscous with red onions, tomatoes, squash and feta.  It wasn't awful and there was a lovely chocolate chip cookie.  And wine! 

I watched part of "The Atomic Blonde" - meh!  and all of "The Bone Collector" with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, and then decided to try to sleep.  After all, I've got two whole seats to myself!  It's the entire row!  As expected, I'm a dismal failure and eventually the lights come back up and "breakfast" is served.  It's an egg with cheese on an English muffin and mostly it tastes like the cardboard container in which it was heated,

But never mind all that!! We're in Scotland!  We breeze through passport control and wait patiently at the single luggage carousel and pray that all four bags arrive!  Ginger and I entertained ourselves on the plane as we waited more than an hour for take-off by checking our iTags to see where our bags were!  Sometimes we could see them move 0.1 mile!  The reason we were so late taking off is that they were having trouble getting the luggage loaded!  The pilot was pretty sure that we all wanted our luggage to make the trip along with us!

Anyway! We exit the airport and find a taxi that will all four of us and we're off with our Zimbabwean driver to the Castle Rock Hostel.  Along the way he points out the castle and the new rugby stadium and he advises us that the route we have chosen will do very well for us!

At the hostel we register and get our orange admission passes and stuff our big suitcases into the luggage room with all the others.  We can't get into our room until 2:30, so we set off to find food nearby.  We settle on Hanams which is pretty funny for our first Scottish meal, since it is Middle Eastern! I really want to try the muhammara, since I've never had that, but they are out, so I get felafels.  Ginger and I each order an Italian beer, Birra Moretti, which is pretty innocuous.  On the way we saw a piper in full regalia busking.

When we're finished it's time to check in to our room.  It's called the Lord of the Rings room and it's big enough for two bunk beds with some space between and suitcases if some of them will go under the beds.  Ginger and I get the top bunks.  We spend a little time getting organized and then set off to explore the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle to the palace at the other end.  We've all downloaded Rick Steves tour on our phones and follow along pretty well.

      

That remarkable tower is St. Giles Cathedral.

We get about half way through when Marilyn says she needs something to drink and to sit down.  Her feet are giving her trouble.  We find ourselves at the Whiski Bar and Restaurant and we sit outside with our beverages.  When we're done Connie and Marilyn take an Uber home and Ginger and I walk. On the way home I give in to the urge to pet Hazel, a Eurasian eagle owl!

A bit of down time and showers for some of us and then it's off to dinner.  Stu and Ole had recommended Makar's Gournet Mash Bar and it's pretty close. And pretty wonderful!  We start by sampling Haggis and find it delicious!  Then we each have an entree, all of which come with your choice of various marvelous mashed potatoes! David is our charming server and he recommends the sticky toffee pudding.  It comes with ice cream and one isn't enough for us all to share so we immediately order a second!  Of course we've all got take-home boxes with half our dinner in them!

The lady sitting next to us has retired from Goodyear.  She and her husband live in Darby and this trip north was part of her retirement present from her co-workers.  WE also meet a family that lives about fifteen miles from Ginger!  One of the kids is wearing a Dahlonega shirt!  It's still light outside and it's about 9:30!

We head home when one of the other servers runs after us!  He's got Ginger's phone! Such a good kid! Marilyn is already part way up the stairs (did I mention that we're on the third floor?) when I remember that there is live Scottish folk music near by.  She's not interested but the rest of us go back out and find the place quite quickly.  There is no where to sit and Ginger asks the musician if he'll be there tomorrow.  He says no, but the people who will be there are quite good, so we think we'll come for dinner and that way we'll have a place to sit for the music!

Back to our lair and a bit more organizing for our first night.  Sunrise is at 4:30!!  Good thing there's a shade on our window!  I'm finally going to get some sleep!! Monday morning was a long time ago!