I arrived home last night (Tuesday, August 17) after exactly 23 hours of travel from doorstep to doorstep. Though I'm home, I'm hoping that those of you who were following me might want to continue following me, even though these posts are OF Scotland but posted FROM the US. Given how I filled every minute out there taking in all I possibly could I didn't have time to blog in the way I would have wanted, so now I hope to put up posts in a slower, more methodical, logical way for my own memories and for those who are interested. Classes begin for me Monday, and I've got a boatload of meetings and prep this week, but I'm going to make blogging my relaxation choice in my day. I think it will help me start the busy school year to be able to take some time out and reflect and remember. As well as having done SOME posting to this blog while I was in Scotland, I also did SOME posting to Facebook, since some of my friends are only "there," and some of my friends are only "here." On one Facebook post I was asked why the cars on the side of the road are parked facing in both directions. Well, the streets are pretty small, and you do what you can. I asked my host about this, and he expressed being aware of how uptight Americans are about direction of parking! Apparently he's been asked that question more than once before! The street above and the street below are both 2-way streets.
In the picture above you see us pulled to the side a bit waiting for the car going the other direction to pass. It happens seamlessly, and I think if you're brought up here you just have a sixth sense about it. The drivers actually go pretty fast, and it just comes naturally to know when to slow a bit and move a bit, and then zip on along your way again.
As I'm sure everyone knows, the direction of traffic and the manufacture of cars is reversed here from what it is in the US. Above you see us driving on the left, and below you see the driver's side of the car on the right. I took this picture after I opened the door to get in and realized that, once again, I had gone to the wrong side. Some habits are hard to break!
Not all street parking was parallel parking. I'm including the photo below for the church, actually, which was a wonderful landmark for me as I initially got oriented to where I was. The tenements in the New Town all look so alike, that it was nice to have landmarks! And it was just nice to see this lovely church.
Here I'm looking across the street from "my" front door, and you cans see the church tower over the row of tenements on the other side.
These dwellings all kind of looked the same to me, so I was very grateful to whomever it was that put the pink flower pots outside their windows, which became a landmark for me as well! Notice the level below street-level. When these places were first built, I believe those were servants' quarters; now they house homes and businesses, and I've seen some lovely gardens of potted plants while looking down into them.
And having a blue front door was also helpful (and beautiful, I think).
Here is a view looking left from the front door - to me, very interesting architecture.
Stairs on the outside - stairs on the inside!
"My" flat was up three flights of stairs. A lot of people live like this, and I imagine they are healthier than most people in the US with having to climb these stairs multiple times a day. Additionally, the town itself is very hilly - much like San Francisco - so there is lots of strenuous walking as part of everyday life.
Even inside the flat there is climbing to do. The steps below lead up to the office space.
The steps are in the hallway shown below.
And they make very good use of all their space - a bookshelf in the hallway - I love it!! I cannot imagine a better use of space!
There is a tiny clothes washer (though no dishwasher) in the kitchen, but there is not a drier, nor did I see a drying rack folded up anywhere. I should have looked above my head! There is a drying rack that can be raised and lowered with the rope on the left.
It comes down for easy hanging.
And then it goes back up and out of the way so your clothes can dry up high (where it's warmer) above your head and out of the way.
The kitchen is barely wider than the small chair you see in the picture below. The clothes washer is in the cupboard on the right between the drawers and the refrigerator. Some lovely meals were made for me in this space - I mean, seriously, what I considered to be gourmet meals!
Above is the entirety of the "living space" - a combo living room/dining room. I had many wonderful meals at this table with wonderful conversation to go along with them. If you look closely at the photo above you can see red gladiolas in the window of my bedroom at the far end of the flat. Below is one of our meals - lamb, potatoes and squash.
My hosts thoughtfully put gladiolas in my room. I loved looking up from my work (yes, I did do school work here!) and seeing the uniquely Edinburgh buildings out the window with the colorful gladiolas in front.
I am so grateful to my hosts for sharing their space with me. What a precious gift! I live in a humongous house with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms (oh, AND two living rooms, a bonus room, a dining room separate from the kitchen, a dining area IN the kitchen, a laundry room, and yard space) and it makes me nervous to host people - never sure if I have enough room for everyone or if they'll be comfortable enough - yet these guys, with 2 bedrooms and ONE bathroom and tiny spaces in general, fully and freely opened their home to me. I am so, so very touched and grateful! It was an amazing experience, and it was particularly wonderful to be able to live as someone who lives there and not as a tourist.
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