DESEMBER_UNIKUM_WEB

OPINION DEBATE
Edinburgh:
a love letter
Anjali Mariampillai
Web Editor
Photo: Unikum// Anjali Mariampillai
When I told the editor in chief that I would
write an article about my solo trip, I didn’t
expect that I would come back with so many
mixed feelings to write about. I thought it
would be a simple rundown of my trip and
what I did, but at the Edinburgh airport I
realized that my life had changed just a
little. If you haven’t done a solo trip yet, this
is your sign. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Why did I do it?
This year has been a rough one to say the
least. I have had many good moments,
wins and memories, but it has been an
exhausting year, mentally and physically.
I was tired and run down and I felt really
out of control. Nothing felt in my control,
and it just felt like life was passing me by.
In shorter terms, I was having a bit of an
existential crisis. Some people cut their
bangs, some people start stress-knitting,
some people talk it out with a friend. Me, on
the other hand, I decided to spontaneously
book a solo trip. Any sane person would do
that right? Yeah? No. I just had a strong urge
to run away from everyone and everything,
so that’s exactly what I did. On the 1st of
October, I booked the plane tickets and an
Airbnb in what became one of my favourite
places, Edinburgh.
I had heard a lot about Edinburgh from my
older sister who had been there in early
September, and she came home and said,
“this is literally the place for you, you’d
love it!”. I trust my sister’s judgement far
more than my own, so I took her word for
it and booked the tickets. In the following
month after I booked the trip, I saved
countless of TikToks and posts, I saved
recommendations on what to see and do in
the city.
I did have another motive for going to
Edinburgh too, which was the chance of
meeting my lovely pen pal, Aisha, who’s
from the UK, for the first time ever. Aisha
is a long-time internet friend of mine, and
we have sent each other a lot of letters over
the last year. Sometime in September, she
sent me a brochure about Edinburgh in
the mail with a note saying, “I do hope you
visit sometime”. She had been there a lot of
times and always told me about how lovely
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