As I mentioned in a previous post, our apartment hunt was a bit of a nightmare with the explosion of students searching for housing in the city in August and September. In the first week we did occasional googling and sent out emails and virtual requests to the few apartments that hit our specific criteria: pet friendly, furnished, garden, no higher than 2 floors up, ideal neighborhood, TV in unit. But man did we come up empty. Those apartments definitely existed but everything was getting snatched up instantly, so in the second week, we turned house hunting into our job and spent the first 5 hours every day calling about flats as soon as they hit the GD market. We also changed our criteria to: pet friendly, furnished, includes toilet (optional).
But we found a place!
We actually got *three* places on the same day, one on the same street that Sean Connery famously tried to buy, and two on opposite ends of the city, both of which were in spitting distance of the two rival Edinburgh football teams: the Hearts and the Hibs. One of the flats had a balcony with a view straight into the Hibs stadium and the neighborhood floods with rowdy football fans every other weekend. Sign. Me. Up. So we bid adieu to the potential flat by the Hearts stadium and immediately became die-hard Hibs fans. No, I cannot name more than two players, and yes I have only been to one game in person, but I am a LIFELONG FAN and your team of choice sucks. Unless it's the Hibs. ’Mon the Hibs!
Football culture over here is intense and wonderful, and the Hibs are essentially the Cubs in that they won the Scottish Cup in 2016 for the first time in over 100 years. And also now they're not doing so great. I have to blame the Ricketts for both of those things. The Scottish Premiership is the main league for the country's best football teams, and it seems every local has a hometown club that they love. We've seen several pubs close to stadiums publicizing that only local football fans are encouraged to drink there, for the safety of everyone. My bar (more on that shortly) actually hires out security for Hibs home gamedays when they play the Celtics, Rangers, or the Hearts due to previous incidents between opposing fans.
Apparently our area used to be notoriously rough due to the proximity of the stadium as football hooligans would often *literally* bash heads on game days. But now, our neighborhood is much less volatile and a wonderful subsection of Edinburgh called Leith. We've got a host of small shops, cafes, pubs, and restaurants all within a short walk of our flat. and it's only a 25 min walk to the train station, 15 min walk to a giant park for Loonie, and only 30 minutes from the coast! So the aggressive rivalries are still in place, but they're mostly shown through songs in the street, middle fingers thrown back and forth across a fence, and the occasional smoke bomb lobbed onto the pitch. We get to watch it all unfold from our balcony, and it's an absolute treat.
Life Updates! Comcast orchestrated a few interviews with Sky Media for me as they're the parent company of the UK based broadband company, but the only positions available were in a call center or located outside the city of Edinburgh. We may only be here for a year or two so it seemed like a miss to spend 90 minutes every day in transit to a smaller city and even lamer to spend so much time outside of our new home city. It would be like if you moved to Paris and took a job in...not...Paris. So I politely declined their offer and immediately snagged a job at a local bar in our area called Jeremiah's. It's a dog friendly pub on Leith Walk (recently nominated for Best Craft Beer Bar of the Year) that is 15 minutes from our place and has 12 wings for 5 quid on Wednesdays, so yeah, it's pretty great. I've been working there for about a month now and they have already promoted me to Supervisor, so after a year I think I might get promoted to be Jeremiah himself.
Enter Katie! Katie's school is going well. She is a third of the way towards getting her master's in arts, festival, and cultural management from Queen Margaret University. This first semester was focused on leadership strategies and cultural governance internationally and within the UK. She often brings home interesting facts about the Scottish cultural sector to which Chris responds to things like, "yeah, we learned from Braveheart." Katie is so smart and has far exceeded Chris's intelligence and educational levels with this program. In other exciting news, she has started working at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Old Town! She's only been there a few weeks (and got Covid during that time) but is really enjoying being back in a theatre and seeing how they do things differently on this side of the world. She should be running that place any day now.
Luna is hurt! Girlfriend started favoring one of her legs a few weeks back, and we found out that she has a damaged ligament in one of her hind legs. To avoid surgery she has to stick to short 15 minute walks, no running, and never being off her leash. Needless to say, she is pissed. The vet suggested mental stimulation games to keep her mind occupied but this bitch wants to ruuuuun. She's been loving Scotland so far as there is a ton of green space, and the parks are all okay with offleash dogs as long as they come back when they're called. Just take a look at her dominating this countryside.
We try our best to keep her leashed when we're walking on the streets because drivers do not give a shit about you. NOTE TO ANY OF OUR FUTURE EDINBURGH VISITORS: You will get hit by a car, it's just a matter of time, so keep your eyes peeled and update your life insurance. It's hard enough just adjusting to the reversed traffic flow but then add in drivers that have no regard for people on the street. Even if you're walking straight and they are turning onto your side street, they get right of way. A couple weeks ago I had to literally JUMP out of the way of a turning car (it was very cool) and I gave him the rightfully earned and universal "what the fuck hands", but then he gave *me* "WTF hands", so I had to intensify *my* "WTF HANDS" so he knew he was in the wrong. And then just this week Katie literally got hit by a car as she was crossing the street and this chode just kept going as her leg thumped against his bumper. Animals. Luckily her legs are now made of steel since we do so much walking around the city.
All in all, we are loving our chance to live in a different country and experience a different culture even though I'm told this whole Corbin-19 thing is still blazing. Luckily for us, Scots take it seriously with Check-In QR codes, free lateral flow tests, and required negative tests for any large events and venues. Plus, even if we go into a lockdown, the vast majority of Scotland is made up of green space and the Highlands, and hunkering down in a cabin in Northern Scotland with several bottles of whisky and my two favorite girls wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
So please schedule your trips to visit us now because our social calendar is filling up!
Cheers,
Chris
Hi K&C -- thanks for the fun and informative posts. Looking forward to our next visit in a few months.
Love,
M&D