Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful time with your families and friends. Unfortunately we weren't able to celebrate in person with our loved ones this year, but the internet did allow us to at least partake in the festivities. We spent lots of Christmas Day on Skype or FaceTime, and it was wonderful to see everyone's smiling faces. Missed out on a lot of good dinners though!! Strangely, they don't sell pre-made eggnog here, and we were going to make some, but then we realised that our fridge was too small! It was already crammed with our Marks & Spencer turkey breast (awesome, btw!). We also attempted to make pumpkin pie, but finding all of the necessary ingredients proved to be too much of a chore, so we abandoned it for another time. In lieu of pie, however, we did bake some fantastic shortbread and sugar cookies, which are already gone :). So now we are just gearing up for Edinburgh's world famous Hogmanay celebrations, which should be very interesting indeed.
In the days leading up to Christmas, and on Christmas itself, we took a bunch of pictures, many of which you can check out below, to give you a feel for an Edinburgh Christmas. For reals, this place takes Christmas very seriously, and by seriously, I mean seriously good times.
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| Edinburgh puts on this awesome little carnival in Princes Street Gardens. They shut down the street, have rides, games, a German market and several other handicraft markets and food vendors. Plus, this has been going since the END OF NOVEMBER. Unreal. |
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| A pool of water where people can crawl into bubbles and attempt to bash into each other. A lot of falling down occurs, and it's great fun to watch. |
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| One of those reverse bungie dealies with trampolines, etc. |
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| "Europe's largest outdoor ice skating rink". I can't imagine the power required to keep ice frozen when the ambient temperature is anywhere between 10 and 15 degrees, but boy do people love this. It's so popular that when you buy a ticket you get a 45 minute skating shift. |
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Bumper boats! Yep, outside in the wind/hail/sleet/rain.
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| Roller coaster, mini drop of doom, tilt-a-whirl, and a funhouse. |
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| Mulled wine was a VERY popular beverage with the crowd. |
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| Pizza restaurant made out of double decker buses. |
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| Horse drawn carriages took patrons up and down Princes Street to check out the revelry, Christmas lights, and the zany shoppers. |
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| Or you could pop on the holiday train and listen to Christmas carols . |
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| Fantastic ferris wheel that's set up right beside the Scott Monument, and is just as tall. |
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| Swing of the century! These must not be very popular in Europe because lots of our friends commented on how frightening it was. Due to the screaming you can hear miles away coming from this ride, I believe them. People here are pretty tough though. There's kids on this thing from the moment the park opens to the moment it closes, wind, rain sleet, what have you. |
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On the other side of the Scott Monument is this cute little lighthouse slide for kids.
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| Even Walter Scott himself was in the zone. |
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| Gorgeously gorgeous Christmas tree. I'm elevated while taking this photo, so it's rather gigantic. |
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| The interior of the bar at the Scotsman Hotel. For an essay break and Christmas cheer we headed to the Scotsman, which has a theatre in the basement, to check out a screening of the Muppets' Christmas Carol. |
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| Another shot of the roof of the bar/lounge. Beautiful. |
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| The screening room! All the seats were these giant leather armchairs, and we got mince pies and ice cream for snacks. Very lovely indeed :). |
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| Fellow LLM students Stephen (from Canada) and Aiko (from Japan), with Brian. |
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| LLM student Martin and his wife Sabrina from Zurich. |
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| This is the walkway down to the public washrooms at the Scotsman. Floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows, fully marbled and just a little bit posh. |
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| Christmas morning!! Mmmm, coffee :). |
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| Brian, doing an excellent job of displaying the Kindle from his dad. Brian had a geektastic time figuring out how to work the little device and uncovering all the stuff it does. It really is a nifty little thing. We just might have to take a relaxing trip somewhere to try it out properly :). |
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| Brian bought me this lovely purple necklace from the "ethical market" on Princes Street, where all the items sold were not just handmade like all the other markets, but also sourced from renewable resources and fair trade practices. I also think it's purty. |
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| Happy display of the jammie bottoms and Strathcona Farmers' Market moccasin slippers from Brian's mom. |
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| Ties! |
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| You know you've hit a new phase in life when you get ties and dress shirts for Christmas, and you're not pissed off about it :). |
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| The swanky coat Brian got me :). Very fashionable with my bedhead, jammie jams and slippers :). |
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| Brian's sister Heather sent us these lovely cushion covers made out of tea towels. Our flat is devoid of colour, so these will brighten the space and be super comfy! |
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| We attempted to put together a traditional Canadian Christmas dinner, complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and vegetables. Brian did it all and it was awesome! We still have leftovers and we only cooked one turkey breast. |
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| Classy-as-ever dinner setting. |
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| Our friend Aiko came over for dinner, and we forgot to take photos until the very end! In any event, it was a really fun evening coordinating internet chats with the families, dinner, spontaneous Skype-ings with other family back home, and sharing a Canadian Christmas in Edinburgh with our Japanese friend. |
Hope you enjoyed this little sneeky peek :). We're pretty pumped to see what happens 'round these parts for New Year's, and hope to have more adventures to share. Stay tuned:).
M
