Edinburgh is Scotland's capital city. not a massive city, but they have huge and beautiful old buildings that makes me feel like walking back in time. the buildings are built in a way that to me they look like a massive wall with rooms that people can live in, it has windows and doors and tunnel like alley ways. this 'walls' are separated with each other by main roads, and winds along with the road along Edinburgh's hilly terrain. with almost always gloomy weather, things look almost creepy but beautiful, like nothing, no city, i've even seen before.
so carrying on where i left off..
arriving in Edinburgh
from Newcastle, we took the 6.08pm train to Edinburgh. we arrived at Edinburgh Waverley Station and my wife's friends who live there came pick us up and we went to their house just outside the city. we stayed home, chatted and i went to bed while my wife stayed up catching up with her friend till late. the next day we started out early to Edinburgh Conference Center in Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, the place where the conference will be.
the Conference Centre
the uni was pretty big.. and has 2 kinda nice place to go have a walk on a nice day called 'the lawn' and 'the loch'. the loch is an area with a pond where birds and ducks swim happily. the loch is like a garden on a hilly area. our friend told us that during winter, when snow covers the whole area, they'd go there to play in the snow. wow that would be fun, especially to us who grow up in a country that has summer all year.
during the stay, food was not really an issue. halal restaurants are everywhere (as compared to Adelaide), and if i dont feel like travelling to the city (which i always dont), the student shop at the convention center sells microwaveable halal food at their halal food fridge thingy.. and to keep costs lower, we brought some canned food and instant noodles all the way from Adelaide. hehe
on the 3rd day of the conference, we went to dinner in the city with a big group from the conference. there were around 20 of us.. of different nationalities - malaysia, australia, USA, poland, kenya, canada, brazil, and others i couldn't remember where they're from.
the next night, the conference dinner was held at this place called 'Our Dynamic Earth'. it is sort of like a science centre but tells the story of our earth. it has a massive lobby with glass walls around it where you can see Arthur's Seat behind you and Edinburgh's skyline around you.
the last day, the water heating did not work. knowing we have a long day ahead of us (we had to check out in the morning, and i have to wait till the conference to end at 2pm) we showered anyway. it was, although summer, a very cold day. it's always cold in Edinburgh i think. later that day i came down with a cold.
that really sucked because we planned to stay in Edinburgh city the next two days and spend time sightseeing. in the end we did all the sightseeing that i can endure. we went to Princes Street and Royal Mile for shopping, for souvenirs mainly. the Princes Street Garden is a very pretty garden with an awesome view of the castle from there.
on the next day, final day in Edinburgh, we went to Edinburgh Castle (theres a very long queue for tickets, but the line moves rather quickly. spent 45 mins in line). there are lots of museums in the castle, and at no extra cost at all. later we hiked up Carlton Hill and had a mini picnic with a very beautiful view of Edinburgh city.
then we went to shop for more souvenirs and head back to the place we stayed, our friend's house. at 7pm we went to the train station and took the train to Glasgow^^
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