edinburgh: the most magical city in the world

it is difficult to write about how a city impacted your life in retrospect. actually, its hard to write how a city impacted your life at all. that feeling you get, the vibe that a city gives off is impossible to recreate in words, or in a blog post no less. it had been three years since i had traveled to edinburgh, scotland and i had forgotten how truly enchanting the city really is. though much of the city was either under construction or setting up for the christmas festival (i contemplated traveling back there just to witness their 'winter wonderland'), there was something about it that just made it special; unlike any other city i have been to before.

we had five full days in edinburgh so we rented an apartment with a view of edinburgh castle. it was such a perfect way to spend our time there, rather than dealing with hostels, no showers, and large rooms with strangers. what a wonderful way to start the day with a cup of tea just staring out the window ! here is michelle and jake with the castle behind them !

most of our time spent in edinburgh was roaming the city, ducking into cafes for hot chocolates, with a little bit of sightseeing in there too =) the architecture in the city is surreal: you truly think you are walking around in a fantasy world ! like i said words cannot express how magical the city really is, so i'll let the photos do most of the talking::

the city is full of the most adorable coffee shops. this is my friend julia in front of our first hot chocolate stop when we arrived in edinburgh at 9am. notice the shop window... adorable !

our first night we decided to head to the elephant house, the cafe where j.k. rowling supposedly wrote much of harry potter. i must admit that i am not a die hard fan, but the city itself screams 'harry potter' and most of the time i felt i was walking around in hogwarts ha =) we went on a free ghost tour that night as well... edinburgh is apparently the most haunted city in the world too !

this ghoulish guy randomly interrupted our tour to jump in our photo?! ha strange.

the next day was spent roaming around edinburgh castle, in and out of cashmere stores in new town and old town, and to a park with a fantastic view of the entire city. we were so confused when it was four o'clock and it was dark already !

i recognized the lion at the castle from my previous trip to edinburgh with heather and alex so i had to take the same photo three years later !

[below: heather, alex and myself at edinburgh castle in june 2006]

my favorite part of edinburgh was getting lost in the charm and beauty of the city itself. the cobble stone streets cover old town as the royal mile (or high street) is lined with shops and cafes that i would stumble in and out of all day long. im pretty sure that instead of a pub crawl, i completed a very thorough cafe crawl during my time there. my favorite was one that was slightly dark inside, but they had little white lights lining the windows with candles on the tables. the whole time i thought about how much mom would absolutely fall in love with edinburgh. the little shops were perfect and just reminded me of the artsy trinkets and cute stationery that my mom and i love so much. one shop near our apartment even had bubbles coming out of it ! [see below !] my words hardly give meaning to the magic that permeates through edinburgh. but by ending my second visit to edinburgh, i truly cannot wait to go back. though not the biggest city i have been to, not the most sophisticated or posh, not the city with the best food or the most pubs, i think it is safe to say that edinburgh is my favorite city in the world... at least for now =)

coming back to edinburgh is, to me,

like coming home.

[charles dickens]