How Not To Kill A Dragon

So Kerry is leveling his experience levels today, but I am trying to figure out if we even squashed a dragon shaped bug. If you don't know what I am talking about, read Kerry's blog first.

Today was a difficult day. At first impression, I was very frustrated, but now I think it was good. I must recount what we did and did not do today to explain my view of our first full day in Edinburgh. Yesterday we flew in, and in the blur of tiredness checked into a youth hostel. This is kind of like a dorm, except we stayed at one in which we got our own bedroom. The accommodations were not luxurious, but we crashed at 7:30 and woke up 7:30 the next morning.

After a really good night sleep, I thought today would be a fantastic day for dragon slaying. We had seen a little of the town yesterday, but I was overwhelmed with people and city. I also had no idea which way I was facing and would have depended on a map had Kerry not recognized everything. Our first dragon to slay today was to find a furnished flat. The issue of permanent accommodations has been a source of stress for me since this is a very important step toward truly getting settled. I think every woman needs a nest, especially one three months pregnant. To get to the very first flat we were to see, we walked from the south center portion of the City Centre to the northwest portion of that same area. We began our walk through Meadows Park which was refreshing and beautiful, and I thought that this was very charming. After a hour and a half of walking up hill, after which we were over a half hour late to the appointment, I decided there was no way I wanted that apartment anyways. In fact, I was seconded guessing my “not getting a car” idea and was sure their were too many people in this city. I also had expected the streets to be straighter and longer. How can you call an alley a hundred feet long a separate street? Before I completely made that decision about the apartment, Kerry called the agency to reschedule the appointment, but they could not return until Monday. Fine. So we walked back towards the University to try to slay our second dragon, get Kerry registered.

As we walked our way back, I grumpily noticed we were still going up hill. How was it that we went uphill to get to the flat and then uphill to leave it. As I discovered throughout the day, the whole city is uphill!

Anyways, Kerry did get registered, and pretty quickly, but not completely. It turns out there are three steps. One step was done, but two more to go. It turns out that the University is spread out throughout the city, most of the hard part was completed at Old College in a very busy area of town, the attendance registration was in David Hume Tower near where we were staying, and meeting with his adviser would happen a New College near the castle. We ate lunch nearby as I watch a bunch of over stylized teenagers bustling around. I think these are the only people in the world who actually wear what they show in style magazines, and all of them seemed to be between 16 and 20 years old. It is strange to feel “mature” at the age of 27.

Then came the second flat that we saw. This one was up a zillion stairs and was unfurnished. We walked around in circles for about 15 minutes to find an elusive door number 24. The agent did find us and showed us where the apartment was. Inside it was on the top floor with no elevator. Even though we were kind of eager to sign a lease, that apartment just wouldn't work. Leaving there, we passed Holyrood Park with the enormous dormant volcano, Arthur's Seat. We did not attempt to climb it, but somehow it relieved some of the disappointment of the apartment. We then went to Starbucks, of which this city has one on every corner. The glorious oasis provided us with life giving caffeine and free internet, by which we were able to scope out potential other flats. Even though we would not be able to see any of them until Monday, it was good to get this dragon wounded at least.

We actually did the second step to Kerry's registration at this point.

Meeting his adviser would have to wait until Monday. This still left it on the to do list, so this dragon was not slayed, just seriously wounded. After that we went back to the hostel to find out that because we did not reserve our room for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights, we were going to have to find another hotel and move all of our baggage there. I was very depressed, but Kerry actually killed that dragon by bidding on a Hilton on Priceline and winning it. Fantastic! It is a little far, but we will get a taxi to move our stuff and we will be moving up in niceness for the same price. Now that is some major dragon slaying, but I can't take credit for that.

Even though I felt frustrated at not meeting our goals, we did start getting familiar with the city, a little less overwhelmed with the pedestrian traffic, and really picking out the nice areas which differed from online. So at least we have two wounded dragons and one dead one between us. Not too bad.