Today we visited with a friend and fellow blogger who’s also a transplant to these isles. Our friend Diane is originally from Toronto and relocated to Ireland a year ago. She’s visiting Edinburgh for a few days, so we took the train out there to have lunch & a chat, and to compare notes about the differences we’ve found in living where we do.
Diane, of course, has found the population of Ireland to be overwhelmingly Catholic, whilst we’ve found the Scots to be underwhelmingly Presbyterian. There are any number of differences other than religion, of course, but I realized that we’d forgotten to mention one of the differences: 30% of Glaswegians smoke. To us, coming from the San Francisco Bay Area, the clouds of smoke everywhere were the biggest shock. Surprisingly, though, that is apparently something which we didn’t feel the need to mention in our conversation. Could we have grown used to it, somehow? Resigned ourselves to it, perhaps.
Edinburgh is quite a different city, compared to Glasgow. Edinburgh seems to have a much more diverse population, and a higher degree of disposable income. The populace seems to go a bit faster, as well, and to be a bit more … well, intense. It’s funny – we both noticed that we were not really as visible to the Edinburgh-ites as we are the Glaswegians – people didn’t stare at us, since there seemed to be many more people from other cultures around, but we also felt strangely ignored. For all that Edinburgh is much smaller than Glasgow, there’s a big city feel about the place — it’s full of a sense of action.
It’s also full of street performers. Edinburgh is definitely a tourist town. We saw kilted pipers and players and sadly, quite a few beggars out in that bitter cold. We also met a lot more people selling things or giving things away — not just in the shopping district or train station areas as they seem to be in Glasgow, but all over. We were buttonholed by a nun from some religion or other (Bhagwani? Bhagita?) who went on and on and on and on, and we could not extricate ourselves from her rapid-fire conversation for at least twenty minutes. (We have got to learn to disengage, or else we’re going to end up hearing about every random charity and fringe society in the UK.) In a way, Edinburgh is a bit exhausting because there’s so much to see. We will have to visit a few more times before we stop looking like country yokels, eyes wide and mouths agape.
And while Edinburgh is smaller and more compact, it’s all set upon a series of hills, and it seemed harder to get a feel for where things are. Though we generally roll our eyes at doing the touristy thing, we took a bus tour after lunch, to get above the foot traffic so we could get a feel for where we were. The architecture is gorgeous, and even the modern sections have a feeling of immense age. The very few buildings which weren’t made of stone still managed to incorporate quite a bit of the local feeling, not sticking out with their own character so much as the buildings in Glasgow. In some areas, the stone was almost oppressive, topped as it was by brooding wall of cliffs and the castle, looking like a siege tower glowering down over the narrow streets of the town. It will be interesting to see it on a sunnier day. (And we do have better photographs taken with the actual camera; these are just the quick snaps from the phone.)
Note to others who wish to tour Edinburgh: Do not sit on the outside deck of a double decker bus in -2° weather. The wind isn’t so bad until it starts to rain — (and it will, inevitably, rain) — and then we didn’t get warm again until we got home hours later. The theory is that we got some great pictures, but they’re not processed, and we’re not thawed out enough yet to tell if they were worth it!! Next time we’re in Edinburgh, we’ll be there to look at the university, and we hope to do a little more on-foot exploration.
We really enjoyed meeting Diane, and after we parted company, we looked at each other and said in unison, “Doesn’t she seem like someone we know?” And then we laughed. Something about Diane reminded us of our lives in California. It wasn’t just that she also likes Dr. Who, or that she also complains that she can’t easily find decent tofu in the UK. There was something more… Something that made her like an old friend… T. finally figured it out at the train station. “She sounds like Helen Buttigieg! Helen is the host of a Canadian home DIY show called Neat which has quite the U.S. following. Diane’s precise Toronto vowels are just as aurally pleasing as Helen’s, and we’re sure her house is just as tidy and pulled together!
– D & T
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Every student that I’ve talked to who has performed at the Fringe Festival has absolutely loved Edinburgh….perhaps being there in the summer helps.
Edinburgh lives on in my memory as being extremly cold, and when we went into a pub for lunch, i also found that it was a place where whiskey flavoured condoms were available! The mind boggles.
Glad that you were able to meet with Diane. and glad that you are willing to go back when it is warmer. It has to get warmer!