Well . . . I'm Here

My intent has been to create all and only really elegant, artsy posts with beautiful pictures and interesting history.  This isn't one of those posts. After 22 hours of travel I'm a little punchy and just want friends and family to know I'm here safe and sound - tired, but safe and sound.  And maybe even to get  good laugh.  We'll see  .  .  .

It felt like a particularly rough travel day, but it probably wasn't rougher than most at this distance.  (How on earth did I ever do a 7-week travel sabbatical to 9 cities?!?!)  Regardless of how rough today felt, at least the really bad things that could have happened didn't happen - like flight delays or lost luggage or crashes or not being able to get communication up and running (am staying in an airbnb, so I actually NEED a cell phone at the moment - took about 45 minutes at Heathrow to get a SIM card initialized - good thing I had a long layover).

 ANYWAY, I did arrive.  The picture above is of the front door where I'm staying.  It reminds me a great deal of the entrance to The Leaky Caldron - invisible to muggles!  Thankfully, my host, Andrew, was standing outside the door when I arrived so the cab driver and I would recognize it.  (It's a downtown area with lots of shops on the ground floor and apartments above.  I'll get another picture later showing perspective.)  Not only was Andrew standing there, but he was holding a half-gallon of milk so I'd be all set for breakfast tomorrow without having to shop tonight.  He also has box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes on the counter for me - a brand he thought I would be familiar with, being American and all.  How sweet is that?!?!

 Andrew's apartment is on the third floor - so, up, up, up the winding steps we went.  One of the things I always liked about Edinburgh during my previous visits was that I never, ever, ever felt lost or disoriented in this town, but as Andrew pointed out landmarks from the windows of the apartment, I felt backward and sideways entirely!

Though I was so tired, and though it was getting dark, I decided to venture out.  I'm IN EDINBURGH!  I don't want to waste a minute of it!  Well, that may or may not have been a good idea  .  .  .

Because I'm in a part of town that is unfamiliar to me, and because the building and door are so subtle and hard to recognize, and because this is a very busy area with multiple roads coming together at lots of funky angles, I decided after walking a bit that it would be a good idea to turn my head and look back so I could recognize landmarks on my way home.  As I, in all my wisdom, turned around and looked back for a couple of moments, I ran smack-dab into a light post - full on - right in front of a bus full of people (two buses full of people, actually).  Well, I guess I made their day!

 I just held my head high and kept going - headed straight for St. Cuthbert's (once I got re-oriented).  This is the place I said I would be tomorrow, and I will be, but I couldn't resist going tonight too.  The old picture in the previous post is better.  This is just to prove I'm here, in the exact spot I said I was going to be!

The shot above is taken facing south from St. Cuthbert's (of the castle).  The shot below is taken facing north from St. Cuthbert's (of St. John's, which is just a stone's throw away).  I'm going to spend a lot of time in this area.

I need to get myself off CA time and onto Scotland time.  It's nearly 1:00 am out here, and running into a light pole isn't the only stupid thing I've done, so I should probably get some sleep.  It's good thing I work hard at figuring things out for myself before calling for help, or Andrew would have had a lot of calls tonight, and I would have looked really stupid.  One apartment-related example: I tried for about 20 minutes to follow the directions for turning on the oven.  It finally dawned on me that the switch on the "right side" of the refrigerator is, in fact, the switch on the "right" side, not the switch on the left side, of the refrigerator!

And now to bed  .  .  .  hopefully tomorrow I'll know my left from my right and won't slam into any other large objects!