Snow (Sort of)

It sort of snowed in Edinburgh earlier this week... though not heavy or wet enough to stick to the ground, of course. Still, it was rather pretty to watch the flurries float in the the breeze. I guess we are easily impressed by snow.

Hogmanay

If you do not live in Scotland, you may be asking yourself, "What is Hogmanay?" The short answer is that it is the Scottish version of New Year's Eve and involves music, dancing, and drinking. It also entails a huge street party on Princes Street. We attended said street party, along with approximately 100,000 other revelers, and took the following video. Enjoy!

London

Kellie and I decided to take a little post-Christmas excursion down to London earlier this week. It's something we've been meaning to do for awhile, given that London is only 4.5 hours away by train, but we just hadn't gotten around to actually doing it. Christmas break was the perfect opportunity. It was a short trip, but it was a welcome break from Edinburgh.

We booked a room in a little hotel just across from King's Cross Station (we got a pretty good deal AND they serve a complimentary English breakfast each morning) and spent our first day wandering around the British Museum. The number of things to see in the museum is mind boggling, so of course we were unable to do it justice, but I think we took in some of the highlights. Afterward, we discovered something truly wonderful. Although this may sound strange, we located a burrito restaurant that makes burritos quite similar to those of Freebird's or Chipotle. I was, of course, skeptical at first, but they turned out to meet and exceed our expectations. Pity they don't have such a thing here in Edinburgh. While pub-hopping later on, we also discovered the London Crown & Anchor (no relation to the Austin pub, I'm sure, but very cool nonetheless). Sadly, Shiner Bock was not on tap.

We spent the whole next day wandering the West End and taking in the sights - Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the River Thames, and the like. There's just so much to see in a city as historic and indeed massive as London, but my favorite thing to do is just to explore and wander. And we did... about 10 miles worth of exploring, actually, which made for a rewarding, but exhausting day. I found that I really like London. Big surprise, and somewhat trite, I know. Although it is a huge city, and filled with countless tourists, it doesn't feel confining or all that crowded. It has a very different feel than Edinburgh... for some reason, despite all its old buildings and bridges, London feels to me younger than Edinburgh. Strange.

We also took the opportunity to eat at the Texas Embassy, a Tex-Mex restaurant in central London honoring the embassy the nation of Texas had in London during its brief independence. It was more of a novelty than anything, as the food was rather mediocre, but it was still pretty cool. And yes, I realize that at least half of the food we ate in London was some form of Mexican, which is kind of a strange thing, but the fact remains that London simply does Mexican food better than Edinburgh. And I never thought that I would be comparing the two.

On the way home, we learned that it is actually very important to book your seats on the train ahead of time, as the first train we tried to board for Edinburgh was completely full, forcing us to wait an additional two hours. These things happen. Fortunately, this let us explore a bit more, and while killing time we found King's Cross Platform 9 3/4, where the Hogwarts Express supposedly picks up its passengers. Sadly, I don't believe Muggles are able to pass through.

In any case, the highlights of our trip are perhaps best highlighted in pictures, so without further ado, enjoy: