Haggis, horses, honeys, hijinks and homeless...

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Wow, that was a long day!

It's a good thing he slept all last night without waking up.  It's about five to ten and we just put him in bed.  No screaming and crying so we are hoping for a repeat of last night.  After about screaming and crying for about half an hour, he fell asleep and didn't wake up until 8:40...

I, on the other hand, haven't been sleeping too well.  I'm sure it will even out at some point but it still kind of sucks.  The room is hot and I have to have something on me to sleep.  Luckily, they brought over sheets for the extra double bed the other day and I should be able to steal one of those for the next two nights rather than the friggin comforter.

Which reminds me - in Europe, they shy away from the top sheet and usually go with just a blanket and duvet cover.  I don't get it.  You sweat your ass off and when you stay in hostels, it's kind of gross.

We almost made it out of the place by 10:15 but Jess couldn't stop the proprietor from talking to her and we finally left at about 10:45 to our first stop of Craigmillar Castle - a proper medieval castle as our hosts stated, and it was.  For being abandoned since the 1750's, it is in pretty good shape.

From the ramparts at the top and even from the bottom, you can see Arthur's Seat and Edinburgh Castle - two things we did not go and see today.

So we went around the castle, exploring every inch that we could.  It was the place Mary Queen of Scots used to go hunting and she also stayed there when she was very sick to recuperate.

After checking out the castle, we headed back to the gift shop to get some info on our next stop, pick up a sword for his Holiness and we ate our lunch in a field near the castle.  The Pope spent the bulk of the time flirting with these two girls who were also eating their lunch.

It was here in this very spot that we were confronted with a very real and very scary life scenario.  It's not often, but when it does happen, it makes you pause and think and be thankful that you pay more attention than your wife does when packing.

Yes, Jess had two different socks on.  Sure they're the same color (mostly) but they're not the same socks.  We headed back to the car to get ourselves together and take the ride over to the car park near Edinburgh Castle.  We stopped in the shop one last time so Jess could pee and the girl started telling us a story about how she used to dress her little brother up in dresses and Neil reminds her of her little brother.  She went on to explain that they were four years apart and she did this when they were younger - not like now that she is an adult.  People tell you weird shit here and then try to explain it away.  Earlier, she told me how she used to play with cars a lot when she was his age but that was probably because her dad wished he had had a boy.  Revenge with the dresses?

His Holiness fell asleep on the way to the city center and so we took a few minutes to relax and snap some shots - it's probably one of the top five best photographic opportunities from a car port:

We headed to our destination, sans stroller - which was probably not the best idea.  There was less cobblestone than I remember.  We were headed to Gladstone's Land, which is like the Tenement Museum in NY only waaaay older.  Thomas Gledstanes built out the building in the hopes of making it nicer so he could get some wealthier tenants.  He also did it for purposes of the shop that was there.  People didn't go in to your store, rather they shopped from the outside and you could see everything you needed to from there.  They explained that if you cheated people on their goods, they took you down to this post and nailed your ear to the post.  You had to rip your ear off it and hence it left you "earmarked" so that your customers knew you were a cheat.

We couldn't take pictures in the place but what I was most impressed with were the beams in one of the rooms - the decorative paint was very well preserved after being covered by plaster for years - it was quite impressive.

After this we headed to check a few spots for baby kilts with little luck.  There's not a good chance of finding MacNeil of Barra because the clan is small so, we will have to see if we can find a place to get a cut of the tartan and make our own.  I was able to pick up come MacNeil cufflinks and I am looking forward to sporting them.  The guy in the store was very cool - and he and all the girls who worked there loved the baby.  He even told us a very scary story about one of the MacNeils ("all you MacNeils are the same to me," he said) where the guy was not paid his full dowry.  I believe he said they had not consummated the marriage and done a few other things and he finally got her to go fishing with him and he allegedly tied her to a rock so that when the tide came in to Castlebay, she would drown.  One of the servants felt bad and cut her loose.  With what I've read about the clan, they were real rough - I am not surprised.  I told him that's how I got Jess.

The Pontiff was excellent the entire time at Gladstone's and the mill shop and he was clearly sweating his ass off, so we stopped and got him and Jess a smoothie and me some ice-cream.  We sat at the top of Fleshmarket Close in the shade and hung out for a little bit - it was like our old bummy lunches, only we had a baby.  After this, he perked up a bit.  We have been making him take a drink every chance we can so that he will stay hydrated and I think this did the trick.

We were going to head up to Arthur's Seat which is a big hill that over looks the city.  We headed down the Royal Mile and after a little bit, we said screw it.  It was hot, our feet were hurting and the baby was getting a lot of sun - there's no cover on the hill (we hiked a good portion of it the last time we were here) and we decided it would be best to do something else - so we headed to Greyfriar's Kirk to give him some space to run around.

On the way, we stopped at the National Museum to let him look at some of the animal exhibits.  He loved it and just ran to each one over and over again, babbling, tell us what, we're not really sure.  It's a good thing he has that index finger or we'd never understand him.

Turns out he weighs as much as a red fox.

We still headed over to Greyfriar's and hung out with the homeless and local hooligans and tourists.  This boy has no fear and continually we pretty far away from us.  Perhaps because he is the Pope today, he does not fear death but he was Stayin' Alive in Greyfriar's

No big deal, just pooping and eating a pretzel.  In a cemetery.  In Scotland.

We decided to try to find the bar we had gone to the last time we were here because they had good haggis and vegetarian haggis.  Now, on principle alone, I don't think they should call it haggis when there is no meat, however, it's about the spices and how it is cooked.  

Since we weren't sure where it was, Jess and the baby decided to find another place.

The homeless guys were yelling as we made our way out of Greyfriar's - at what they were yelling, we had no idea.  We grabbed a very inconspicuous geocache on our way out.  We made our way back down the hill on the Royal Mile, me with the backpack full of stuff and Jess with the baby. It was a long walk, almost the entire length of the Royal Mile.  We got to the pub, feeling quite happy and looking forward to talking a load off, literally.  Only, the bartender told us that we couldn't stay because he was under five and they had no changing table in the bathroom.  Really, who gives a shit?

Apparently, there is some law that says it is not a family restaurant or something and you can't serve food to kids under five because you have no changing table and no license to do so.  They have separate licenses for changing tables.  We would come to understand why this was so a little later on.  So now, we had to hoof it back up the Royal fucking Mile, up the hill to try to find a place they suggested, while also stopping along the way to see if other had the proper fucking license to serve 19 month olds.  I'm mean really, he's not drinking.

We finally made our way to the Royal Mile Tavern, who does have the correct license and we order up a table of water and get ready to order our food.  So we are sitting hanging out and this chick comes over and starts talking to him and us, sort of.  He flirts with everyone, so we let people engage him if we are there because he is pretty freakin' adorable and he makes people smile and happy.  She has a few face piercings and tats in a number of spots.  She's telling us how she's not weird (just a hot mess?) but has a 2 and a half year old and she finds him totally adorable.  The veggie haggis balls come back and she comes back a few later and is flirting with him again.  Then a little while later she comes back and tells us how she can't stop talking to him and sorry she doesn't mean to be a pain but she and her boyfriend are separated for 6 months so they can both have fun and then they are going to try to have another kid.  Yeah, idea worse than the plane ride, letting him sleep on the fleer, etc....  We also know she's banging at least one guy in this bar tonight if not more.  

He's no help either, she's at the bar and he's talking to her and this goes on the entire meal.  My sone picked up the 20 something on the left hand side in the blue:

We finished up our meal and the haggis was damn good.  It looks like ground beef and the spices give it a nice little kick - some tatties and neeps and you're good to go!

We raced back to the car park so that we wouldn't be changed a bunch of extra coin and headed back to the house.  Someone was really wiped out, all that sun, chick chasing and haggis can really knock you out:

We decided to kick the soccerball around for a bit - but then hear a horse so we decided to head down through the yard and the farm below to hang out with the horses.

Afterwards we went inside for some more hijinks before bath and bed.

After some minor protests, the Pope went to bed without and crying.  This made us all happy.