Edinburgh, Scotland Airport - 12 June 2006

My hopes to go to Munich over the weekend were dashed when my Munich trip classes pushed until the early part of this week.

I could not really just pop up and see my distant cousins unannounced so I booked a last minute easyJet flight to Edinburgh, Scotland to hang out with my childhood buddy, Lawrence. It worked out that his girlfriend, Joan, is in Africa doing field research for her Ph.D AND there was a beer festival in Edinburgh that weekend. Toss in good weather, the World Cup and 36 holes of chip n' putt golf down the street and we had the makings of a good guys' weekend.

Everything was going according to plan until the variable Scottish weather got in the way. The "Harr" (fog) rolled in and we were delayed about 2 hours. I got there around 10 pm. Marion(Joan's sister & flatmate) , Lawrence & I popped down to a chippie for some easy-bake pizza and then over to the pub for a couple of pints.

Saturday morning we got a late start. For some reason I sleep really well on their couch. Maybe it was the 2 pints.

The weather was incredible. Bright sun, blue skies, and 70s. So, The 3 of us headed down to the farmer's market to see what we could find for a proper Sunday dinner. One of the stands there has a pig roast and serves it on some buns with apple sauce and pork rinds. It was REALLY good. mmmmm, pork... We picked up some venison/wild boar sausages and then Marion headed off to Glasgow and Lawrence and I headed out to the hills near Edinburgh for a nice jaunt.

The Pentlands were really nice. They were an hour's busride, or so away. We walked through some residential areas a while past the Red Moss Bog and then up into the hills. The area houses many of the drinking water reservoirs for Edinburgh. So, it is fairly peaceful. We walked a few miles and then decided we'd walk up the highest one, Scald Law. It looked pretty low.

HOWEVER, the trail to get started was straight up! It was quite tiring, actually. Thankfully, there was no altitude to deal with. Either way, I knew that I was going to feel it in my legs the next day.

We walked about 3 hours and then grabbed the bus back to Edinburgh. It was really nice. At the beginning, we'd talked about doing more. Fortunately, common sense prevailed. We got back in time to be able to get showers and watch some World Cup before heading down to the beer festival.

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ales, sponsored the event. Compared to Denver's great american beer fest, it was small. But, a good size. The majority of the patrons were guys. But, they appeared to be beer fans. As opposed to the Denver one where it seems the majority are there to get wasted. That just meant that there were a lot of single guys there that looked like they preferred online role playing games to human contact. This was probably the only event of the year that they left the house for that did not involve dungeons & dragons. We even saw one guy wearing a calculator watch!

It was in its last day. So, the winners had been decided and some were gone. But, there were still many tasty pints to be had. We met up with Lawrence's friend, Dan, and his friend, Audrey. Both were beer aficionados. So, it was nice to hang with people whol liked beer. We started the fest diligently marking down which beers we'd had. By the end, who knows? But, it was fun.

We headed back to Lawrence's flat and chatted with Marion and her younger sister, Pam until about 2am and then crashed.

One nice thing about Lawrence's flat is that he has a deal on his phone that makes calls to the US really cheap. So, it was easy for Janet and I to get ahold of each other. (If I ever do one of these European gigs again I am definitely getting a cell phone.) In addion there are a few people around that have wireless internet that don't secure their networks. Ergo, email is easy, too.
Sunday morning I woke up late and a bit foggy due to the ales. We had some toast and eggs and headed out to get some food for a day of World Cup watching. In honor of the Mexico/Iran game, we got nacho fixin's as well as stiff for hummus.

Then, we went and played some golf. A block from Lawrence's is 36 holes of chip n' putt golf. Challenging only in that I suck at golf, it's in the middle of the city, and it is "links" style. Very natural. Meaning sunbathers, beer cans, stoplights, rows of homes, etc. Lawrence beat me over 9 holes 4 - 1.

While we were playing we got to watch the police chase down a guy on foot. That was exciting.
Afterwards, we tossed the frisbee about, walked the dog over by a flat Marion and her boyfriend, Jim, have bid on and then settled in for some World Cup. Exciting to watch, for sure.
Marion made a wonderful Sunday dinner. She made a casserole of the venison/wild boar sausages, rosemary mashed potatoes, and baked carrots & zucchini. Pam joined us for a bit. Good times.

It's now Monday morning bright and early and I am waiting to fly back to Luton to go to back to work.