Edinburgh never ceases to amaze me. There's something magical about it! My obsession with Scotland is probably something you all know about by now. Every time I go back, it's as if I had never left. The excitement starts kicking in way before the plane touches the ground. To be honest, it starts a couple of days before departure and quickly escalates to unbearable levels. There is no way back. You know you have been infected with what is scientifically known as the Caledonia fever if you have the following symptoms: insomnia, the urge of playing bagpipe music for at least a couple of hours a day, your accent getting stronger (and your voice lower, apparently), the need to mention Scotland/Edinburgh at least once every two sentences (the Scotch Tourette's syndrome).
Regardless of how acute the symptoms are, it all gets better once the plane starts flying over the green pastures dotted with nice wee sheep. Your muscles relax, your breathing gets deeper and your mouth shapes into a wide smile. Once the initial state of quasi-Nirvana is over, you realise you need to hurry up and get rid of all the unnecessary clothes you were wearing and get ready to give a big hug to the welcome committee members who never fail to wait for you at the airport.
From then on it's all very exciting:
"Oh wow! The buses are so efficient and wheelchair friendly" (and "Oh no, they are 20p more expensive than last time I was here!").
"Oh, look at the grass! It's SOOOO green!"
"Oh, and the people are so friendly! They keep smiling at us!"
After stage 1 comes stage 2: the excited traveller and the welcome committee members reach their destination and while there is still room for amazement ("Oh, look at the flat! It's so tidy!), our minds are already busy making plans for the rest of the holiday. These involve choosing at least one place where to eat every day (ranging from our favourite cafes to restaurants we have never tried and friends' homes). Once that is sorted and we have made sure that we are going to get sufficient food reserves for the next 5 months, we move on to stage 3: planning where to go and what to do (mind you, stage 2 and stage 3 very often overlap).
I am probably one of the very few people on the planet who think that the food in Scotland is amazing. This is probably because I have friends who like eating and cooking just as much as I do. This time my top three dishes (in order of ingurgitation) were:
- M. dad's strawberry & limoncello tiramisù
- C.'s scones for breakfast
- J's curry
- T's babaganoush
- T.'s rhubarb and strawberry jam with plain yoghurt and cereal on top
While the highlights of the trip (excluding the culinary ones) were most certainly:
- the great weather (not one drop of rain in 7 days, would you believe that?!)
- the long talks and laughs (and the consequent sleep depravation which made everything even funnier)
- discovering new parts of Edinburgh (and going: "Aw, how come I had never seen this before!" My own answer to myself: "Because your sense of direction is as good as that of a toddler!")
- deciding to buy an island off the West coast and live there (the selling price - 3 million pounds - is just a minor detail not worth dwelling on).
The down sides?
NONE (if we exclude stage 4: having to leave - very early in the morning, may I add).
The good news is that I am now well into stage 5: planning a comeback. As soon as possible.
