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thanked the staff and was ready to walk
home. The walk home from the city was
about 20 minutes, and it was very calming
to walk in the brisk air and through the
beautiful streets of Edinburgh.
One thing about this trip is that I didn’t wear
my headphones at all after I got out of the
airport, which is very weird for someone
like me who gets very consumed in my
music. I didn’t really feel like it? I wanted to
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pay attention to the streets and the people,
the sounds of the city, and music felt like an
escape from all of that. However, I didn’t
want to escape. I walked home quietly and
found myself stopping at this incredibly
cute bookshop on my way. It’s called
Typewrongers, and it quickly became a
place I stopped by almost every day for the
whole trip. I bought a book and got a folded
origami dragon with it and made my way
home to Leith. It’s fascinating how a place
can feel like home in such a short time.
The second day alone consisted of a trip
to the Edinburgh Castle. It was raining a
lot that day, but lucky for me, I had come
prepared with my full rainsuit packed. The
castle was beautiful, and my inner history
geek had a blast. After that, I stopped by the
Greyfriar’s Kirkyard to satisfy the Harry
Potter fangirl in me, and then I had lunch
at this cute little bistro that my sister had
recommended. I was often surprised by
the fact that I didn’t feel lonely through all
of this. I genuinely had a great time with
myself, and I didn’t let the overthinking
part of me take over any part of this trip.
After lunch, I stopped by the National
Portrait Gallery, before I went home to take
a much-needed nap. I had dinner by myself
in the city in the evening at a restaurant
called Mowgli, and it was fantastic. My walk
home was quite peaceful, and I stopped by
the bookshop again and actually met and
talked to the owner, who is also a writer!
The pen pal and the places
The following day was finally the day I was
going to meet her, Aisha. I remember how
nervous I was right before it. I had never
met this person before, and I was kind of
scared? What if this doesn’t work out? But
to no surprise, it worked as well as I could
have ever imagined. She came with a friend
and scared the shit out of me by hugging
me by the Scott Monument when we first
met. I was surprised by how tiny she was
compared to what I had imagined in my
head. I’m not that used to people being
shorter than me. But the vibe was absolutely
amazing with both her and her friend, and
everything felt so natural and calming. We
checked into their Airbnb and chilled out
for a while before we set out to explore
some more. The following days I got to see a
lot of places before they left. I wasn’t really
alone anymore, not that it bothered me,
but it was nice to have someone to explore
with. We saw the Camera Obscura Museum,
Calton Hill, Dean Village, The Writer’s
Museum and some cute streets and cafés.
We also spent two of the evenings watching
romcoms at the Airbnb. Let’s just say that
I fell in love with Hugh Grant. We spent so
much time laughing and getting to know
each other and I treasure the time I spent
with these girls so much. I can’t even begin
to explain the impact they left on me.
I would go into detail, but I could literally
write a book about this whole trip. We spent
two and a half days together before they left,
which meant that I had one more evening
all alone. I spent the rest of the evening at
the National Gallery, and then I went back
to the ramen place for dinner and stopped
by the bookshop again on the way home.
The day actually got pretty emotional after
having left my friends at the train station,
but thankfully, I met a lot of kind strangers
on the last day, whom I had some lovely
conversations with. In Scotland people
actually aren’t afraid to talk to strangers,
like we are here in Norway so that was a
nice surprise.