Day Nine: At Rest in Edinburgh

Having spent a quiet night recuperating, watching tv, and generally existing in a “powered down” state, we were ready to tear through the sites of Edinburgh, right? Right. Wait. I’m bad at words. No, that was completely wrong. We awoke to a dull, gray, rainy day and decided almost immediately to succumb. I mean, we looked at the tourist map and plotted a route – Edinburgh looks to be a very walkable city, at least the central tourist-y bit. Nevertheless, our absolute best plan for the day was to go past some interesting looking things… on our way to a movie theater. To see The Avengers. Yep.

Look, we aren’t proud of it, but honestly we were tired, plus it’s not like in one day we could really do that much of Edinburgh. So, we resolved ourselves to coming back some time and really digging in to the city, and in the meantime acknowledge that this was just a pit stop before beginning the Irish leg of the trip. We walked from our flat to the city core, through the rain (waaa waa, I know) and into a tourist information center, for the information we sought (plus internet access, cafes were not abundant here) was surprisingly hard to come by. Once situated, however, we made our way to a quaint local institution known as “a mall,” to view our film at “the multiplex.”

Actually, funny story, despite being in a country that ostensibly shares a language with ours, we accidentally ended up seeing the movie in 3D, despite Lisa’s long-held opinion that she did not like 3D and it would give her a headache. Turns out that she liked it fine and it didn’t hurt, so we’ve unsworn-off 3D movies going forward. So hey, that’s a plus.

So we watched the Avengers. Despite me writing this travelogue as though we just kinda got back, I’m not going to review a movie that’s a year old. Afterwards, we scrounged for food. Being in a mall, it was exactly as non-authentic as you’d guess, so we didn’t even try. In fact, we pulled a criss-cross and went to a cheesy joint with all “American” themed decor and food. The next time somebody rolls their eyes at how badly an American movie/tv show/commercial/whatever mangles something Scottish, roll your eyes right back; it’s a universal phenomenon, apparently, and they were just as bad at Americanisms. Not a bad meal, mind you, but seriously goofy takes on what signifies America. (And any excuse you might make for them, reverse the nations and you now have the excuse for when it goes the other way.) After dinner it was a stroll back to the flat and another quiet night of television and packing.

Tomorrow we switch into high gear, with a flight back to Dublin, another car rental, and an immediate immersion into real Ireland… for better or for OHMYGODWE’REGOINGTOCRASHLOOKOUT worse.