Newcastle is just a 1.5 hour train ride from the wonderful Scottish city of Edinburgh. So yesterday, Bret and I decided to head on up to the lowlands to experience the much talked-about city. And we had a great time…The fun started at Harvey Nichols. Well, my fun, rather. Harvey Nichols is a very expensive, very haute couture department store. There is a doorman. There are Balienciaga handbags, there are 800 pound Chloe dresses. It’s the kind of place where you go to a ‘Champagne Nail Bar’ to..surprise surprise…get your nails done by thin asian woman who serve you champagne. It’s the kind of place where an eye brow shape costs 30 pounds. It’s the kind of place where you see many people looking and few people buying. Being a shop assistant at Harvey Nichols has got to be the most boring job.
But being a browser was great, as I said, for me…you see, Bret is the kind of shopper that likes to buy. If he can’t afford it, it’s no fun. I’m the kind of shopper that likes to see and touch. And for me, ‘shopping’ at Harvey Nichols is like going to an art gallery. The colours and designs fascinate me. I know I would never have an occasion to wear a Moschino 2 piece suit, nor would I even care to really, but I admire the craftsmanship of the clothing. Bret sees a Moschino suit, and he thinks stiff and asexual. Fair enough. I see his point. Needless to say, I had an impatient, huffing man reluctantly trailing behind me, until I realised that the poor man had had enough, and we should do something we could both enjoy: eat!
So Bret’s fun started when we went to the Underground Café and had our first (and only) traditional Scottish breakfast. It’s the same as the English Breakfast, but somehow much much better. The mushrooms were a little fresher, the egg a little yolkier, the bread tasted homemade, and the sausages were meatier. Satisfied by our meal, we decided to take in a bit of culture at the National Museum of Scotland. It was very lively with people of all ages! Musicians played their violins as gentlemen with tophats paraded the museum atrium. While there, we saw exhibitions on British animals, Ancient Egypt, the Instruments of Science, transportation throughout the ages, and typical rooms of the 19th and 20th Century. I was surprised that a typical room from ‘The Swinging Sixties’ looks like a typical room at IKEA, complete with paper lantern. I also really loved the 1 person 3 wheel car.
But we still hadn’t gotten to the truly Scottish bit of our trip: whisky and haggis. So we strolled down the Royal Mile (very fun, busy touristy pedestrian street in Old Town Edinburgh) and went into the Edinburgh Scotch Whisky Experience to learn the subtleties of fine whisky. We started off with a 10 year Auchentushan, which is a lowlands whisky and known to be quite easy to drink. According to the menu, it was sweet with a hint of tangerine and toffee, but Braudia could not detect such undertones. After, we had a highlands whisky, Ben Nevis 10 year. We noted that it was, indeed, quite smokey. But again, we could not detect the supposed ‘chocolate’ flavours in the drink. Feeling like we had had enough hard drink, we opted for a whisky liquor to finish our session. We chose the Lochan Ora, made with aniseed. This was undoubtedly the most delicious of the three!
3 whiskies and a good buzz later, we decided no trip to Scotland would be complete without first tasting the famous meal: haggis. Haggis sounds absolutely disgusting: it’s ground meat mixed with oatmeal. It is usually served with a rich whisky gravy and ‘neeps and tatties’ (turnips and potatoes). Our only problem was that it was 3pm: not lunch time and not dinner time. First we tried the Stac Polly, which 2 Scots recommended to us. But it was closed. We then went from pub to pub, restaurant to restaurant for about 1 hour. Until finally we found a nice restaurant which served it. And believe it or not, it’s delicious! Only thing is, you kind of feel like you should be toothless, cuz the food doesn’t require any chewing. Oh well, the swallowing was very satisfying…
Post whisky and post haggis, we knew we needed to take a little rest before we hit the shops for some actual buying. Luckily the sun was shining and it was about 60 degrees. Bret and I threw ourselves on the grass for a good half hour and for the first time in many months, actually enjoyed the weather. Half an hour later, feeling refreshed, we hit Prince’s Street for some good ole fashioned credit card swiping. Bret got two shirts at H&M and a pair of very nice walking shoes at Jenners of Edinburgh. I got some body wash at LUSH and some perfume from Penhaligon’s (the company that supplied our toiletries at the Mandarin on our wedding nite!). And with that, we hopped back on the train and headed back to Newcastle.
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