Like most people with a normal human anatomy, I’m not a morning person. I hate the sound of alarm clocks, being groggy-eyed, and I only like seeing the sun rise if I haven’t gone to sleep yet. This is why when we had a 6:30am flight Friday morning from Dublin to Edinburgh, Becca and I made the decision to just not go to sleep. By Thursday night we still hadn’t booked a hotel or packed, so once that was taken care of we headed towards Grafton for a few drinks. When we were still down town at 3am and had 5am alarm clocks set, there was no point in putting ourselves through all the early morning misery just for a 2 hour cat nap.
Despite sitting middle seat, I passed out before our brightly colored Ryan Air plane even took off. A short hour later and a drooling Remi in my lap, I was awoken by the flight attended as we approached Edinburgh. We took a cab to the hotel and sweet talked our way into an early check-in to catch up on sleep before sight-seeing. 5 hours later, we were more than rested and put on our work out clothes and tennis shoes. First thing on the agenda: hiking Arthur’s Seat.
Approximately 4 minutes into the hike with the street still in very close distance behind, we were already taking water breaks and complaining about being out of breath. My realization of just how out of shape I was became apparent when I was being passed by perfectly un-sweaty senior citizens. Why don’t they have 24-hour fitness’ in Dubin?
A little farther up the hill we stopped to take a picture of a decent mid-way view. When a woman approached us asking if we’d like one of all 3 of us together, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. We made small talk, and she was an attorney for an oil company in Dubai, originally from D.C. She was in her mid-thirties and seemed to have a very interesting life. We climbed the rest of the way, 830ft to the top, and shared our bottles of wine while talking amidst the gorgeous view of the city. We arranged to meet back up with Jaque for dinner and drinks later on. She made reservations at a well-known pub and we spent our night getting life advice while she told us about her experiences and lessons she’s learned since college.
The next day we went to the Edinbugh castle, did a bus tour, and Remi dragged us to one of those dungeon things where they were stage make-up and attempt to scare you on a 3 mph boat ride through a dark warehouse. We met back up with Jaque at a famous bar called Three Sisters for another night out with our new friend. She reminded me of my older cousins – older and more mature, but still in touch with her college girl ways. Looking through pictures on the way home, I realized this was what travelling is all about. You meet amazing people all around the world whom you would’ve never talked to in a local restaurant or shopping at a store. Jaque shared some valuable wisdom with us and is probably someone I’ll never forget meeting. Our weekend in Scotland was my favorite so far, and I look forward to making many more new friends this summer that will inevitably have impacts on my life.
 |
| 3 of us climbing Arthur's Seat |
 |
| With Jaque at dinner |
No comments:
Post a Comment