From Reykjavik to Edinburgh, the Grand Adventure

Okay, not so grand. Or adventurous.

A more accurate title would be 'In which Chris takes ALL the transportation to go from one cold, gray island to another.'

At least I got to see a pretty sunrise.

My flight was at 7:30, which meant that my shuttle picked me up from the hostel at 3:45 am. I woke up at 3:15 and just didn't even pretend to care how I looked. I threw on clean clothes, skipped the shower, and basically slumped down the stairs to meet the shuttle. Being Gray Line (see my post about the South Coast tour), they picked me up in a tiny bus around 3:50, dropped me at their terminal, and we waited  until 4:40 before actually heading to Keflevik airport (if my last post sounded a little bitter at them, I confess this might be a factor as to why).

Anyway, once I got to the airport, Iceland Air was super efficient about getting me checked in. In Seattle, I had checked in and dropped my bag off in about one minute, fifteen seconds. At Keflevik it took about five minutes, because I had there was a two minute walk from the checking kiosk to the baggage drop terminal, and someone was in front of me there.

I like these guys.

Anyway, I swung by the VAT tax refund kiosk to get my tax refunded on the sweater and blanket I

One of the duty free shops had what can only be described
as a shrine to Brennivin

bought (that feels so odd to type, but they were about $125 apiece, so it added up to like $45 of refunded taxes), then headed for my gate. To get there though, I had to make my way through KEF's maze of duty-free stores. Seriously, I HAD to walk through two of them to get from baggage drop off to my gate, and had the opportunity to visit two others on the way. Once through, things were very typical airporty things. I made it to Glasgow without any sort of trouble, and bought a bus/train combo ticket to Edinburgh with the help of the help desk at the airport. The train between Glasgow and Edinburgh runs something like 6 times an hour, so I didn't have to wait long.

The Outsider was where I saw this little gem. 

I got to Edinburgh around 1pm, and I hauled my stuff up the hill to the hostel. I dropped my stuff off and got a lunch recommendation from the front desk for a place called 'The Outsider,' which was as tasty as promised and pleasantly cheap. By this point, it was already 2pm, so I decided to just wander and explore for the rest of the day. I walked down the Royal Mile for a ways and realized that I was going to have to try very hard to not buy all the scarves I saw (wool and cashmere are apparently a big deal here, and every shop's got about 800 scarves in every flavor of tartan plaid your heart could desire). I'm doing...okay at that.

One of the more interesting sights I saw was the Tron Kirk (or Tron Church, no relation to the movies). It was a church that's congregation eventually drifted away, leaving a large, historic building in the middle of Edinburgh completely empty. The city wasn't sure what to do with it at first, but it eventually got turned into the Royal Mile Market. It's kind of a cross between an art space, a cafe, and a bunch of vendors selling art and knick knacks, kind of like parts of Pike Place. None of the vendors really piqued my interest (though I did like the guy painting murals on the wall), but it was interesting to see what happens when a dead church gets a second life.

Tron Kirk, aka "The Royal Mile Market." Please note the man in kilt and Alice in Wonderland get-up painting a psychedelic
mural next to the 16th century stained glass.

I wandered the Mile a bit more, then went for dinner at a pub called The Fiddler's Arms that my hostel recommended. It was so-so, but was where I got to try haggis for the first time. I actually liked it! I got haggis fritters and highland chicken (roast chicken breast stuffed with haggis), both of which were tasty, but the veggies were water-logged and the beer was terrible. The neighborhood the pub is in is called 'Grassmarket,' which is between the Castle and Grayfrier's Church and was actually one of my favorite parts of Edinburgh. More on that in a later post. I was definitely starting to feel the 3am wake up time, so I settled up, went home, and crashed early.

HAGGIS. Like STROKKUR, it's a word best said loudly and angrily.