Scotland Day 2

After the frenetic night that was Hogmanay, things are much quieter here on New Year’s Day!

We slept in and missed the dubious delights of breakfast at the hotel, so trundled up to the Conan Doyle pub for a Scottish Breakfast (or part of one for me- no Cumberland sausages or Haggis) and giggled at the lads up early looking for a drink, when the bar didn’t open until 12.30. Kind of strange that nothing else was open (not even the Tesco Expresses) but the pubs were!

We found this out in great detail after breakfast as we’d hoped to get some washing done and so walked down to the nearest launderette, a km or so down Leith Walk. We got there, only to find they are closed until Tuesday. We hadn’t figured on this, since most launderettes at home are unattended. This one apparently is not, so we huffed and puffed our way back up the hill with the same dirty clothes in our backpacks.

Lunch was the next mission on our list, and finding something relatively GF that wasn’t pub grub turned out to be more difficult that we thought. I was a bit sick of heavy meat meals, so we kept walking until we unearthed a Pasta Fresco cafe near the Royal Mile which among the Italian dishes, did baked potatoes. I had mine with Coronation Chicken, a combination which sounds weird but tasted great. The waitress told us she’d had a big New Year’s too, but had managed to turn up for work with a huge (manic?) smile.

We checked out a couple more souvenir shops on our way back to the hotel, but didn’t find those elusive perfect gifts. More shopping tomorrow hopefully – even though it’s a bank holiday, most of the tourists will have headed home so there won’t be as many crowds.

The rest of the day consisted of an afternoon nap – the first I’ve had since Chefchaouen! Then we wandered out again for dinner, this time another Italian place called Jolly, for the hugest plate of chicken and king prawn risotto I’ve ever seen. So much for a slightly lighter meal! I can’t wait for London where we might be able to get smaller meals like sushi or salads occasionally – I don’t think my tummy’s been empty ever since we landed at Gatwick!

We finished the day with another local delicacy – a deep fried Snickers. I’d wanted the classic of the Mars Bar, but the chippy had run out, presumably with the influx of the world’s 80,000 biggest party animals the night before. It tasted pretty good though – just like a hot melty Snickers bar, really!

Maybe it’s the comedown from New Year’s, but I’m starting to get a bit homesick now, and missing family and friends. Plus, having to go out for every meal is fun to begin with, but it would be nice to just have some toast and a cup of tea now and then! It’s three weeks since we left home, which so far has been my travel limit. Another week and a half before we head back to Australia though, and moving down to London tomorrow will probably help. The frequent moving from one place to another, which is unfortunately our modus operandi in order to fit as many things in as possible, is taking it out of us and it’ll be nice to be in one place for a week.