Journey 9: Freedom Part 2 (Return to Scotland)

For this last travel break, I was so close to not wanting to go anywhere. Traveling really takes it out of you and this close to the end of the semester, it sounded really nice to do absolutely nothing. Fortunately, I had already promised my friend, Kimberly, that I would go with her somewhere. Like it or not, I was committed. As it so happens though, it ended up being one of the nicest trips. If you remember back to February, Kimberly was supposed to have gone with us to Scotland the first round, but got sick the morning of and ended up staying in Oxford. So I found some fairly cheap flights back to Edinburgh and said, “Let’s go.” And go we did.

We left early Wednesday morning and arrived in Edinburgh around 10:30ish. Weirdly enough, when we stepped off the plane, it felt funny to be back in a place that was familiar. It brought on a sense of déjà vu and some nostalgia, like visiting an old friend. Strange for a place I had only been once before, but my experience there had been so great the first time that it apparently had a strong impact on me.

Round 2 was different but was great in its own way. First of all, simply traveling with one other person is heavenly after traveling in groups upwards of 8 people. It simplifies things so much. We could change our minds about what we wanted to do three times in under 20 minutes, and it didn’t matter one bit. It wouldn’t have bothered me if we had, but we didn’t do any of the same activities I had done last time. We walked around and I showed her some of the places on the Royal Mile I had liked and one of the restaurants at which we ate was the same. But most of it was brand new. We visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, which were pretty even though they weren’t fully in bloom, the Edinburgh Zoo, and the National Museum. It was fun to see the famous Scottish pandas (even if they were sleeping), but the penguins were probably my favourite part. They are just so darn cute. It was nice to have one big place to visit each day, but that most of the day we could go out to eat and spend a couple hours just talking and then do some leisurely shopping before taking the evening to relax. That was the theme for this trip: relax. And it worked perfectly for us.

The strangest thing (strange as in just completely unexpected) that happened was one afternoon, I went out to get some things from the store while Kimberly did a little homework. As I was walking back to the hostel, this guy (probably in his 30s) started talking to me, as we were stopped at the same crosswalk. He was nice and friendly and didn’t make me uncomfortable at all. He turned out to be this Italian traveling accordion player. Before we parted ways, he asked if I wanted to go grab a drink to continue talking, but I politely declined. He accepted my refusal with grace and a parting, “Well, you are very beautiful. It was nice to meet you.” Then he went off to go play his accordion. It was something that had never happened to me before, and I doubt ever will again. But it was a nice little surprise and encouragement for the rest of the day.

There were no particularly moving moments (like standing on the castle ruins in Loch Ness listening to a bagpiper play my school song), but there were many peaceful moments. It was a trip I needed. I can’t think of a better place to end my semester travels or better company with whom to share it.

Tian Tian, so cute asleep

My first live wallaby!