Beautiful Edinburgh

So after another week of recovery at Aunty Joy and Sandy's in Menmuir it was time to head to Edinburgh in search of a job and a place to live. I booked myself into The Caledonian Hostel where my housemates to be, Geoffrey and Anna (from Contiki) were waiting excitedly for our reunion. The hostel was awesome.... for about a week. Sleeping in a 20 bed dorm is fine, but when you get woken by drunken Irish rugby teams, fire alarms that cause evacuations at 8am and a line up for the 4 hot plates to cook dinner you start to get a wee bit over it. Whinge whinge i know!! Anyway the hostel had wii sports, couches, wifi, a beanbag cinema, a bar and with our discovery of white star cider (3 pound for 1 litre of 7.5 percent) we made it through our time here. Oh I almost forgot.. We did do some sight seeing inbetween all of the time spent sleeping, applying for jobs, handing out resumes, looking for houses and enjoying Scotlands finest Tenants beer and cider.

Mum... This one is for you. Thought you would enjoy the hair after riding up a nasty Scottish hill. Aunty Joy was still on her way up but not far behind! Looks like I have adopted the highland cattle look.

Welcome to Scotland! Bagpipes on arrival. :)

Anna and myself in the Princes Gardens with Edinburgh Castle in the background.

Some very cool artwork through the hostel.

The news of 1 more week in the hostel.. Depressed, tired and dirty.

Edinburgh Castle... I could look at this thing all day! Amazing.




Touristic time

The seagulls over here are something else. MASSIVE! And this guy was a daily visitor to the hostel kitchen window waiting for some scraps... Pity most backpackers are living off scraps too!





The climb to Arthurs Seat

I made it to the top... In my flip flops/thongs/jandals!
Stunning views over Edinburgh!!

Finding a job sounds pretty easy doesn't it....? Well, unfortunately there was about 2,587 other people doing the same thing! Very very frustrating. Anyhow after a couple of weeks I scored some interviews for jobs at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and I got offered a position! Woooh! I have now classified myself as a professional usher as the job is with a company called Underbelly where I believe there stages are set in a big cow??? I probably should know a bit more but I am sure I will find out next week. Minimum wage but it is sure to be a bit of fun and a great way of meeting some local Edinburghnians.

After 2 and a bit weeks for myself and Anna and almost a month for Geoffrey we finally left the Caledonian backpackers and made a very hungover walk to our new abode. 24 Bellevue crescent! A pretty large and bright 3 bedroom flat about 10mins walk from the city. It has been so nice to unpack all of our stuff, sit on a couch and stare blankly at the tv, cook food and not have to wait for hotplates and best of all sleep in a ridiculously comfortable bed! For me.... I had one night in our new home before I headed off to Spain with a mate from home (Isaac). Ridiculously bad timing i know but atleast I won't be heading back to a hostel on my return to Scotland.