After a fun packed Glasgow day, we had to go to the Capital for a few days even though it was minus Leo. I have to admit being a tourist in Scotland may be my new favourite thing ever! We (mum, dad and me) managed to borrow our next-door neighbours flat which is in a truly fab location in Edinburgh CBD for a few nights so we could go explore, act like tourists, eat all the good food and really just get outa Largs for a few days. I’ll start with the food scene as it’s truly wonderful. Now, we don’t eat anywhere fancy but I want to give special mention to Cult Espresso where we ate breakfast both mornings (even though we had brought all the DIY breakfast items we would need for these 2 mornings). The coffee scene in this place is wicked, it’s so well done, the boys in there really know how to pour the most delicious flat white. As for the food, I experienced the best waffle I have ever had in my life. It was so good I had it both mornings, while mum had smashed avo and dad the almond croissant - a little nervous as the breakfast menu items all contained some sort of fancy words and flower petals. Well, the second morning we ended up all having the waffles and I converted my parents into eating in cool, hip places with great vibes and try new things! – DELICIOUS! 10/10 highly recommend dining here. For dinner, we went to Zizzi’s, a fancy Italian food chain but it was super tasty and as a recommendation got for the Skinny pizza – half pizza, half salad but with all the flavour. Now, for our last dinner in the city we went to 10 to 10 delhi which is a super Indian restaurant which has the best indoor décor and seating I have seen in a long time! So comfortable, it’s like dining in your lounge but with great food! We also ate in Rocksalt in Leith, as well as a few drinks in Bannermans and Wetherspoons.
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Let me continue with my love for Glasgow ramble. Glasgow has a rich and varied architectural heritage. The city's wealthy past has left a legacy of some of the finest Victorian architecture like the iconic City Chambers which sits majestically overlooking George Square – the heart of the city. Glasgow Cathedral is one of the finest examples of medieval architecture I have ever seen in Scotland and adjacent to the Cathedral is the mesmerising Necropolis – a cemetery which is generally a sad place to be, but nor this one… it’s full of wonderful sculptures and fascinating stories. We managed to tick off all 3 and I will explain these plus more below. George Square – we stopped here to take some photos, immerse ourselves in this fantastic architecture and also managed to get a fantastic dinner deal that evening at the Millennium hotel where we sat in their conservatory – essentially a glass room , private to just us which overlooks the square and the heart of the action. It was wonderful and the food was also pretty special – highly recommend!
I can’t believe I have been home now for just over 2 weeks! The time has flown. We have had the visit from Leo’s parents where they finally got to meet mine and it went REALLY well (if anyone knows me you would know that I have been mildly freaking out for months). Both set’s of parents seemed to really like each other and overall despite lost luggage, the torrential Scottish weather and the language barrier, we had a BLAST. Leo also left nearly 10 days ago to head to his Vipassana meditation retreat – a 10 day silent meditation retreat where he cannot use eye contact, speech, writing or reading, essentially no outside influence whatsoever…and consequently no contact with me at all, which has successfully triggered a weird separation anxiety in myself which I felt for the first few days. I can only try and convince myself that it is totally normal as we have literally spent every waking moment together for the past 7 months, so I am actively pursuing enjoying this time and hoping it is entirely normal! Back to Vipassana - In short, the idea of a Vipassana retreat (often colloquially referred to as a “sit”) is that you sit around all day long and learn to sharpen your awareness of what’s actually going on inside your body at the level of sensations. Over the 10 days you train yourself to stop reacting to the vicissitudes of life. If you want to understand more (as I have been asked a lot) then I have added how it works below:
It sounds truly wonderful but since I suffer from high functioning anxiety as is, then we discussed me joining this retreat would actually not do any good, in fact it would probably make my already overactive monkey mind freak out even more. If you are interested and want to learn more or even try a course out then all the info can be found here. Back to Scotland, I wanted to write about Glasgow – which I will do over 2 blog posts as I have already rambled on about meditation and me missing Leo… |
AuthorHey! I'm Ally. I left the UK in 2011 to move overseas and ended up in New Zealand - my new home. This year we are taking a gap year to loop the world stopping in some AMAZING destinations - and I'm passionate about sharing these adventures with you! ArchivesCategories |