Weekend with Leah: Day One!

I had an absolutely fantastic weekend! In the morning, I went to Dunbar with my supervisor to sit in on a session. It was another beautiful, sunny, hot day. Again, I had an hour beforehand to just wander around by myself. I sat on some rocks, looked out on the sea, and just enjoyed being outside.

As I may have previously mentioned, Dunbar is still an active fishing town. To the left in this picture, you can see the remains of a castle.

My cousin, Leah, has been in Paris for the last 6 weeks on a study abroad program. I was so thrilled when I found out she was making a detour to Scotland before going home! On Friday around 1:30pm we met up at the hotel in Edinburgh. We would have started our adventures together earlier in the day, but due to phone issues, we were delayed. On my end, my Tesco phone was receiving calls, but would not let me dial anything out. Every time I tried, even with numbers I have previously called, I was getting a "this number cannot be recognized" message. Then my Iphone would not connect to any of the wifi hot spots well enough to send an Imessage. Later I found out she was having the same issue! But eventually, Leah attempted to call my Tesco phone and we connected (I was at the hotel at this point), and she quickly got a cab to meet me there!

It was a joyous reunion, witnessed by the hotel staff, who minutes earlier I frantically bombarded with questions to help me get in contact with Leah, and the two nice travelers who offered to let me use their phones to try to call her/email/text her. I am thankful to have family who I can instantly reconnect with, even when there has been time in between visits. The whole time, we were saying how it was hard to believe that we were halfway across the world spontaneously adventuring together!

After I dropped my backpack off in the room, we grabbed lunch, went to the National Gallery, wandered around the Royal Mile, sat in Princes Street Gardens, and had delicious Italian food for tea. To the left, you can see the yummy gelato we had for dessert. It was so warm out, we couldn't resist!

After that, we spent the evening participating in the Ceilidh at Ghillie Dhu! It was fantastic! It was just as fun as the first time I went, and I think we both really enjoyed the experience. A different ceilidh band was playing this time, and they were fabulous as well. I really love live music as it has always been a part of my life, so it is really great that in Edinburgh it can be found everywhere. Everyone has been so nice at these events, too. It seems to be a mix of locals who claim the bar and restaurant as a local haunt, and visitors who are keen on having a truly Scottish cultural experience. If you're sitting down in between dances, it's likely you'll be asked to be someone's partner. Because of this, you rarely get a break unless you say no!

After the ceilidh finished, we were both tired so we concluded our day walking back to the hotel in the light of the full moon! We decided against going straight to bed, and continued hanging out in the hotel cafe and just catching up on life, until we could no longer keep our eyes open!