Edinburgh Part 1

Thursday September 30, 2010

Looking towards Edinburgh Castle from near the hostel.

I was woken up fairly early by the sun shining in through the window. At least the sun was out today though, hey?
I had a good free breakfast of cereal and vegemite on toast (was pretty impressed they had vegemite too), and spent the morning in the hostel, trying to catch up on my blog, making use of the free computers, so that I can use a real keyboard and not have to type on the iPhone.
In the afternoon I had a chat to my housemate in Melbourne, Jim, on Skype, then went to the post office to investigate how much it costs to post stuff home. Looks like it will be reasonable, as long as it's less than two kg it only costs £13 or so. So I think I'll do that before I leave Edinburgh.
I was thinking about taking a free walking tour of the city, but I was too late for that today. I just went for a short ride around the city until I got too hungry and had to head back to the hostel for a late lunch.

West Princes Street Gardens and Edinburgh Castle.

West Princes Street Gardens.

Back in the dormitory, I had a chat to a French girl called Sophie and a Chinese bloke called Wang. It was interesting discussing language, culture differences, future prospects, traveling, etc. I had a look over Sophie's resume for her, she wanted it to make sense in English but not be so well written that it looked like she wasn't French. Sophie is a chef, both her parents own restaurants in France, she's from the Alps and is into some extreme sports like rock-climbing and skiing. She was keen to improve her English, she reckoned her English was pretty poor, but that most French people don't have very good English. This could be a problem when I go there...
She was looking for a job in a restaurant in Edinburgh, but didn't want to work in a French restaurant because she wanted to improve her English by working with English speaking people. I guess that's the best way of learning a language, by immersing yourself amongst people who speak the language.
After that we went to the supermarket to get food for tea, it took a few supermarkets to get what we needed, because the ones near the city centre are all quite small, and close quite early (10 o'clock). We cooked a lasagne for tea (or rather Sophie did).

Sophie cooking a lasagne in the hostel.

Wow, they use so much fat! This lasagne had two containers of sour cream, a block of butter, and cheese. Sophie said her mother puts in as much better as meat, and that you should be able to see all the oil floating on the top. And I couldn't believe how much salt she put in, it ended up being very salty, too salty for my taste. I never add any salt to my food or cooking. I still ate it of course, I was very hungry at midnight when we ate, and aside from being salty it was quite good. The Chinese guy Wang, and another French bloke, Ben, were also in for the meal.

A large serve of lasagne for tea.

Sophie and Wang eating tea.

Ben, a French bloke, eating tea.

Afterwards we chatted into the wee hours, with Sophie's boyfriend Terry as well.

In the common room of the Caledonian Backpackers.

In the Caledonian Backpackers common room: Sophie, Ben, Terry and Wang.

Terry's English was quite poor. I could converse with Sophie no problems, but not with Terry. Ben's English was good, and he's a civil engineer like me, doing his masters this year in Edinburgh. Sophie, Terry and Ben are all looking for a flat together.
I've also met a few other people in the hostel so far, there are a few Australians here actually, some from Melbourne. One guy was from Deniliquin and knew one of my friends, Bianca Hurn. Another guy was from St Kilda. Some were at Oktoberfest. There are a few kiwi's around, and some Spanish, Canadians, etc. I love staying in this hostel though, more fun than riding long distances. I was only going to stay in Edinburgh for two nights, but since I didn't achieve much today, I booked in for an extra night (Friday night) as well. I know I need to keep on the move though, so many places to see!

In the 38 bed dorm, my bed is the top centre.

Ride stats:
Distance: 5.59 km
Average: 13.3 km/h
Maximum: 36.8 km/h
Time: 25:10