Edinburgh – Day Three

It was a very cold, rainy and windy day but we weren’t going to let the weather stop us! We caught the 45 bus from near our apartment and it took us to Lanark street nearby the address that my dad gave us so we could see the house he was brought up in as a kid.

He lived in the downstairs section of the building and there was a corner shop next door that is now a restaurant. We took photos out the front and the restaurant owner came out and asked if we needed any help so we explained that this was a place my father lived and they were so happy to hear this that they asked me to sign the guestbook and tell the tale of what brought me to the area. It was very sweet, a little strange, but I guess now I am a little bit of the history there now too!

We went over to the pub across the road, the Kinleith Arms. This was the pub that my granddad used to go to with his retriever. Being in there and trying to imagine him or my dad drinking here was pretty amazing. I wonder if all of the decorations are original and if this is how my granddad saw this pub many years ago! We had a nice lunch. Rhys got the steak pie and I got the deep fried camembert and we had a drink. There was a wifi network in the pub so I thought it was a better time than any to skype dad and chat to him to let him know where we were 🙂

After we were fed we headed back out into the cold and walked behind my dads old house toward the water of Leith. This was where my mum and dad used to “court” as they call it? Really I think they just kissed a lot there haha.

It was nice walking along the water, rain dripping through the leaves. The plant life was pretty interesting too, moss and fungi growing on trees and branches. If only it weren’t raining I would have spent all day taking photos.

We walked all the way up along the river until we reached a main road and then we left the path and found our way to Foulis Crescent which was nearby. Foulis Crescent is a street in Juniper Green, where the houses were prodominently built by my granddad!

I felt very honoured to be able to see them. I don’t think I ever got to meet my granddad but seeing something tangeable, in front of me, that was made by his hands was a great experience.

The weather started to get wilder so we went to the nearest bus stop to get back into town. There were road works and 2 buses didn’t show up, luckily the third came but we had been waiting a good 45 mins and we were freezing!! The bus took us into the Haymarket area and we couldn’t resist getting off the bus to have a drink at the famous Haymarket bar.

Famous because it was a place my cousin used to drink and actually worked at for a while and I have heard many tales about the place! It has recently been revamped and it very fancy, it may have lost its original charm, since I don’t think my cousin drinks there anymore, but we had to see it for ourselves! We got some pork scratchings and a couple beers and then we got on the next bus headed the way we needed to go… or so we thought, yes I know we are almost at the end of our trip and we are still just hopping on buses without much thought about where they go! We ended up a little further out than we hoped but a cheap cab ride later we were home so it didn’t matter too much!

On the way home we stopped at Sainsbury’s and bought a load more ingredients so I could keep cooking throughout the week. With what we bought I started to make a sausage casserole, which I never actually got to eat myself because as the night went on I started to feel unwell and couldn’t stand without the urgency to vomit! Not nice. A little nap in bed cured me but when I woke it was quite late in the evening and we thought it best if I rest for the rest of the night. The casserole wasn’t wasted. Rhys ate a whole small casserole dish to himself!

E