more walks in Edinburgh (2005-06-10 - 1:26 p.m.)

I have been doing so much walking lately! Walked across town to the Meadows on Wednesday, and then last night I met up with Andrew and we went walking once again. It's been so beautiful lately that I can't stand to be inside (except I have no choice because of work, sigh), and the daylight lasts till 10 pm so there is tons of time to go walking. It's brilliant.

Andrew is (sadly enough) one of my only Scottish friends. I seem to mostly know other expats. Anyway, Andrew is good fun and one of the more interesting people I've met. He claims he's not a goth but you wouldn't know it from the long black hair, black eyeliner and outfits made entirely of black velvet.

So last night we wandered around the Stockbridge and Canonmills area for a bit (just east of where I live) and then walked along a disused railway line straight north until we hit the Firth of Forth. I actually had never been to that area of the city (the Leith area), and although I've crossed the Forth to get to Fife I had never walked along the Edinburgh side of it.

Interestingly, when I was in Waverley Station on the weekend to go to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I noticed a blocked-up tunnel in the station with a sign saying that it was the site of the old line that ran to Trinity. I had no idea where Trinity was, but when we were wandering around furthur north we found the remains of the tunnel that used to go out there, and there's now a track where the train line used to run. We walked all the way to what used to be the station, down a long green path and through a horrible tunnel. It wasn't long, but in the middle it was so dark we couldn't see the person next to us, and freezing cold. We ended up way over by the water, and wandered around past the fake lighthouses and horrible condo developments (the gym had 10 tennis courts inside!) We ended up wandering randomly around a building site before catching the first bus we saw, which took us back to the city centre.

Not only have I been walking during the evenings, but I figured out it only takes 50 minutes to walk home from work, roughly speaking. This is a while, but it's not much more than catching the bus to the West End and walking from there (have to allow about 40 min for that). So when the weather is nice, I may as well walk. I have found a route which partly follows the Water of Leith, a sort of river (or stream) valley, so that bit is particularly nice. Then I cut through the National Modern Art Gallery, which is also cool because there is an outdoor installation called the Landform which I really like. All in all, well worth doing (and saves me 80p in bus fare each time!)

backwards ~ onwards

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Missed anything?
moved! - 2008-05-12
Sunday = time to ramble on - 2008-05-11
apparently I'm doing monthly updates these days. Sorry. - 2008-05-04
watershed - 2008-04-06
end of trip - 2008-03-31

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