Southbound

Sigh. Well, that certainly went quickly. Typing this on the 1430 back to London, just heading out of Edinburgh. It's always a funny thing, coming back here. It's one of the very few places I go from which I don't want to go back to London. I don't know what it is about this place. I've wondered before if maybe it was because it was where I studied abroad, or if it was because it was where I had my first kiss (I still know the guy, btw; he lives not far away from me now). I don't actually think that's it. I've changed and the city has changed. It was actually a little bit weird staying back in the dorms. It felt a bit incongruous, somehow. The city though still has a grasp on me though I can't shake. Last night, after a lovely dinner with Doug and James, I walked, through the rain, to the top of Calton Hill, from where the city spread out in all directions. I could see north, across the Fifth, to the distant Highlands, and the blue and pink late evening glow of the sun below the northern horizon (the rain was clearing by this point). I don't know, I hate to use words like "special" or "magical", because they are dorky and cliched and overused, but it kind of was, to be honest. Anyway, Jennifer and I spent the afternoon yesterday wandering in the pouring rain, her in a sensible long raincoat and me in my screamingly fluorescent waterproof bike jacket. We climbed Arthur's Seat, which is actually a little bit dangerous in cycle shoes with metal cleats, on wet rock. Still though, no one died, but it's quite possible that we got very very very wet. No matter. I still showed up to the nice little restaurant for dinner with Doug and James, looking like a drowned rat. I told them that Jennifer was going to a poetry reading, to which Doug said, "is she a lesbian?". No, just literary... So, not much sleep again last night. Princess and the pea could feel all the springs in the surely well loved dorm bed. I really am a delicate flower. Anyway, I got to have the minor thrill this morning of stealing food out of the dorm cafeteria. It wasn't as much fun though as when I was a student, when they actually had old women stationed at the exit to prevent such thieving. Now they just have signs. Cutbacks, I'm sure. ;-) So, yeah, it was a pretty cool time, and has convinced me that yeah, I want to cycle all the way to Berlin. Tomorrow though it's back to the splendour of Hackney and back to work. Yippydoo.