I’ve finally caught up on my blogs that I can finally update you all properly as to what I’ve been up to lately since I’ve left a beautiful life in Galway, Ireland.
After Jonny and I made our way across the Emerald Isle and spent a couple nights in Belfast before we took the ‘rail & sail’ from Northern Ireland to Edinburgh, UK we settled into our new residence, Budget Backpackers in Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland. Ironically, after a full day of traveling with way too much luggage than I could barely manage, we had two smiling Canadians to welcome us at the reception of the hostel – Dani and Mich…a friendly face from Galway as he was also the first friendly face to welcome me when I first moved to Galway...and soon-to-be a great friend to have along my travels. Small world? Not really, for this small-town Canadian gal, as it seems to happen to me quite frequently in life, or so it seems. Mich was kind enough to pull some strings for us and get us straight into long-term residence at the hostel so we could save some money on the rates.
Just another beauty sunset off Princes St
As expected, we had to lug our bags up to the second floor of the long-term hostel building and into our 4-bed room. Also expected, both bottom bunks of the beds (yes, I was back to living in ‘bunk-bed style’) were occupied so we had to settle for the top bunks until someone moved out. It was definitely an adjustment from living in a spacious, 2-floor, 2-bedroom apartment with a balcony and having as much privacy as I wanted to living with approximately 60 other people, sharing toilet facilities with my flatmates, sharing one kitchen with the whole building and trying to get some sleep amongst the Monday-Sunday party environment. But, I prepared myself for some big changes compared to my life in Galway, Ireland and I can honesty say I have adjusted quite well and a lot better than I thought I would.
Our new shared-room - tiny but temporary
My new flatmates were two Spanish guys – Gonzalo and Sol. Gonzalo had a degree in English so could speak pretty well where Sol pretty much traveled to Edinburgh to learn English so that’s pretty self-explanatory. They seemed to be happy living with two friendly Canadians as apparently (and I soon found out later) that the hostel had been pretty much occupied by many other Spanish travellers with some Aussies, Kiwis and Frenchies mixed in. After we somewhat unpacked (or as much as you can in a tiny hostel room), we decided to get out and meet our ‘neighbours’ and with having Mich as a mutual friend, we quickly fit in. It can always be tough, just like the new kid in school, to fit into a group where solid friendships have been formed, inside jokes, nicknames, etc. but 3 months down the road now it’s all been a blur since and a fun one for that matter.
Hawaiian night at Budget Backpackers
One-sie Party night
Being me, quickly after a few days at a hostel, I started to panic about not working as it’s not like me to go a few days without employment so I started to get on the ball with getting back in touch with a couple recruiters for some advertising positions in Edinburgh…not knowing that my path would quickly change down the road (yes, I’m blog-teasing…if that’s even a thing). I decided to pick up some temp work with my friend, Lauren, who referred me so I could at least bring a bit of income while I hunted for work in advertising. I quickly learned that doing 8-hr shifts on your feet all day at banquets/conferences for £6.20/hr is just not worth it but I stuck it out till I went back to Canada for the Christmas holidays.
My new backyard - Grassmarket
Over the course of November and December I pretty much just got to know the people in my building, spent a lot of time walking up and down all the hills in Edinburgh, frequented the Edinburgh Christmas Markets in New town which made the Galway Christmas Market look like a small-town Farmers market – which is about accurate if you think about it seeing Galway is 75k in population where Edinburgh is just over 500k. The markets were full of delicious food vendors serving anything from bratwurst, crepes, homemade candies and pastries, beef brisket, hot mulled wine/port, and many many other scrumptious and tempting items. It also served as a location for many great retail vendors selling Christmas items, hats, scarves, mitts, other clothing and trinkets. But it had a few things that made it that much more spectacular – a massive ferris wheel, other fair rides and full-sized outdoor skating rink that we eventually tested out when we got a group together showed some Aussies how to skate.
Edinburgh Christmas market and skating rink
Shona & Shannon do our own Rose St Xmas Challenge :)
All in all, November and December flew by in a second filled many fun memories and friendships already created and before I knew it, I was on a plane heading towards to Toronto for 10 days in Ontario to spend time with my entire family including my BFF. I was slightly sad that I wouldn’t be able to ring in the new year with my new friends in Edinburgh but I also knew being back home and ringing in another year with my BFF and family would make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside too.
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