Edinburgh… Again.

Oh Edinburgh, you are so wonderful. I think this was my 7th trip. And still I cannot wait to go back again. Every time we go there are so many new discoveries to make and the city is just so beautiful, plus so many of our amazing friends seem to live there which is so convenient!

I was 19 the first time I went and loved it so much I nearly applied for Edinburgh University until I realised I would only be living in a Scottish city from September until May and I didn’t think I would be able to cope with all that dark and cold – lol. I used to live in Ayr on the other side of Scotland and all I can recommend is that you go up north in the summer because wow… That’s just about the only time you can survive lol!

Here’s us in front of the Edinburgh castle – it’s a bit of a hike to the top of the hill, but the building is incredible and the views are fab. I’ve been inside a few times, however we didn’t want to ‘bore’ Alfie on this trip, plus the Fringe was on when we went (this was back in summer 2021 – they barely even advertised the fringe to the locals this year let alone the rest of the world so they had very few shows on, but there was tons of street music and magic shows etc – it was actually pretty epic as there were no crowds compared to 2019 when the city was alive and heaving with people…). Of everything we saw, the guy playing piano below was Alfie’s favourite – he got a massive clap at the end.

This time we stayed with friends in a completely new area again – right at the top of one of the many hills and the view was just lush! As the weather was lovely and it was actually warm (I know – we got SO lucky), we ended up grabbing a picnic and going to the beach! It was sandy and clean and just beautiful – even though we didn’t swim because SCOTLAND, it was lovely to pop our toes in the water and have sand between our toes. There was obviously an ice cream truck in the car park as well so Alfie was a happy chappy too!

Now to the important bit as I know this is why you all read the blog – our favourite find of this trip was KOREAN BBQ. Oh dayum this was a tiny little restaurant full of all the spicy smells to make you dribble as you enter. We had a huge variety of food and they even have the metal BBQ in the middle of the table for all your meaty desires. It was just great. We have a whole list of places we love to eat at when we go to Edinburgh but this is now top of the list – just trust us and go eat!

We aren’t really massive museum people, but someone recommended the National Museum of Scotland with a small human and they were right – really great to run around and some pretty cool exhibits! Alfie loved all the animals and mummies and we even saw Dolly the Sheep! There’s a lovely little café with great scones and it’s free so it’s a perfect place to spend a few hours in. Below you can see Alfie doing his best zombie expression…

As is customary, here is the photo of the lads looking at trains… Waverley is actually a pretty mega cool and busy station so there was a constant stream of different trains to look at and wave goodbye to.

And yeah, the last thing to mention is the best boardgame shop in the UK – and literally we should know as we’ve been to most of them. Blackwell’s is a bookshop but if you go into the basement you’ll find shelves of boardgames that just go on and on and these are GOOD games as well – they have pretty much anything and everything. We always find games that we’ve been hunting for and other’s we’ve never even heard of. Such an amazing collection and variety that all I can say is if you enjoy your boardgames then this is the place to be!

Let us know if you have anywhere you recommend in Edinburgh, as we are already planning our next trip!