Hi all,
So today I thought I would try something a little different, I haven’t tended to share my more personal experiences on account of my day job (I work in a school and don’t like to make much stuff public!) However, seeing as it is almost Christmas (10 days, eek!) I thought that some people may be looking for a little festive spirit and where better to get it than some Christmas markets! I normally go to Manchester Christmas Market, however work sent me up to Edinburgh at the end of November (Black Friday to be precise… more on that later!) and so my friend from work and I decided to try out Edinburgh’s Christmas Market for ourselves.
We took the train up on Friday afternoon and went to check into our B&B, which was the Gilmore Guest House about 15 minutes walk from Princes Street. It was a very basic room, and unfortunately our shower was out of order (which to their credit we were compensated for), however there was a communal shower on our floor. After dumping our bags and changing into cosier clothes, we head for Princes Street, which is the main shopping street outside the train station. Here we spent a bit of time mooching around the Black Friday sales, from which we came away with mittens and DVDs. Hard core shoppers we are not. By this time the market was quiet, and we got a good chance to wander round the stalls. There were a few hand craft stalls, with items such as Russian Nesting Dolls on them, there were LOTS of food stalls (we had an Aberdeen Angus burger a piece…amazing!), the usual sorts of fudge and mulled wine stalls, and some lovely knitwear stalls. As the market doesn’t shut until 10pm, it was worth going at 8.30pm(ish), as we missed most of the crowds and definitely most of the children!
At the bottom of the market we found… a Christmas Tree Maze. Now we may have been in our 20s but that did not stop us returning the following night to take part. There was also a lovely play park area for children, which I’m sure my nieces and nephews would have adored had I taken them with me. All of these things are paid for activities.
On Saturday we got up nice and early and headed into town for some brunch. We stopped at The Filling Station, which is one of my favourite places to eat in Edinburgh. It is located on Rose Street, which is right behind Princes Street and filled with bars and restaurants (and the odd tartan shop). Although we waited 45 minutes for our food due to the morning rush, we went away without having to pay a penny, which certainly was a fantastic start to our day. We spent the day wandering Edinburgh, due to how busy it was, we avoided the main shopping areas and instead took ourselves up to The Elephant House, which is known as the ‘Birthplace of Harry Potter.’ I love this coffee shop as the cakes and coffee are delicious, as well as being reasonably priced, and I have to say there is something a little bit exciting about being sat in a place you know one of your favourite authors has been. For the full Elephant House experience, make sure you take a trip to the bathroom. No, really.
Following our refuel of coffee and cake, we went to the graveyard behind the Elephant House to find the graves of ‘Riddell’ and ‘McGonagall’, which are two names well known to Potter fans. From the graveyard you can also see the boarding school that inspired JK. Although we didn’t visit any of them on this day, I know from previous visits that there are some wonderful vintage and gift shops in this area, it is definitely somewhere worth exploring.
On our return to Princes Street, we booked ourselves a table at a restaurant ready for supper,which is something really worth doing because everywhere is so busy around Princes Street. There are lots of lovely places, but we chose a Mexican restaurant called Chiquitos- I absolutely love their flatbreads, especially the goats cheese and roasted vegetables, and their sweet potato fries. It is also really reasonably priced in my opinion.
Sunday was unfortunately St Andrew’s Day, which made for a VERY busy Edinburgh. My friend and I sought refuge on George Street, which is behind Rose Street, where all the high end high street stores such as Joules and Cath Kidston are. We spent a lot of time in Paperchase, which is dressed as a modern store, but if you look up you can see all the old painted walls and beams, it’s really rather beautiful. We then found that Waterstones two doors down had a little Costa, and went in there to find coffee and have a peruse of the books. It was here that I made the exciting discovery of a signed book by one of my favourite authors, Anthony Horowitz. After chatting to a sales assistant, I found out that authors quite often sign some of their books in bookshops, as a little surprise for their fans- so keep an eye out folks!
At the bottom of George Street there was another section to the Christmas market, with a stall doing fandom based jewellery and watches, plus lots more food stalls, a helter skelter and a pretty amazing looking ice rink. I cannot stand ice skating (why I would spend all that money for a wet bottom and a bruised ego I shall never understand!), however if you went over the top of the skating rink, there was a nice bar from which you could watch your friends and the general public. There were a lot more seating areas here, with picnic tables so you could sit down and enjoy a cuppa and a mince pie, which was a lovely idea.
All in all, it really was a lovely weekend and definitely one for the memory books, however I think that if the market is your main focus of a visit, Edinburgh probably wasn’t the place for it. The atmosphere was wonderful and so were all of the people, however there wasn’t much shopping to be done on the stalls, which is one of the main reasons I love Manchester- there are all sorts of unusual gifts to be had! I hope you enjoyed this little insight into my life, and I shall be back very soon. If you enjoy this sort of post please let me know, and I will try and do as many as my job allows.
Until next time,
B xoxo
neverbetoobusytobebeautiful 