Ground Hog Day: A Day on the buses of Edinburgh

I (David) haven't been able to fully function without the use of our Canon camera. Sure we have an iPhone that takes brilliant, albeit somewhat limited photos (zoom is not really the iPhone's forte) but it's more the idea that I can't take a photo whenever the mood strikes me. Anyway, since the camera went south yesterday it's been an all consuming need of mine to get it fixed. OK, so here's the problem. First off, we were in a foreign city (English speaking at least, but in a VERY Scottish sort of way), so that's was a strike against us. Then you have to mix in how difficult it is to have anybody ACTUALLY do ANYTHING in this day and age. People just don't seem to want to do whatever their specialty might be. You have to talk them into taking on the project even though it's what they do! So the idea that we are just gonna find someone to magically work on our messed up camera with any sort of sense of urgency was ludicrous. It will be something like "We don't usually work on cameras like yours, and even if we did, we'd have to order the parts from Senegal, and most likely it will take from six weeks to three months to get the parts, and then the total cost would run you about 650 pounds, so no, we don't want to work on your camera."

Well if you thought we couldn't get our Canon camera fixed in Edinburgh you'd be wrong by golly!
We called up JP Camera repair in the Abbeyhill area of Edinburgh and spoke with the owner Joe Plahay who said he'd be happy to take a look at it and give us a quote if he felt he could fix it.

We figured out a bus route and then on our first day in Edinburgh we threw on our day pack and some cold weather rain gear and headed off in search of the bus stop.

We climbed a famous set of steps just outside our apartment building named the "Vennel" and stopped to take a picture of the castle. It was about 42 degrees and threatening to rain but the ambiance of Edinburgh helped keep our mind off the cold.

We trudged up the steep cobbled pathway taking in the 500 year old defensive wall and gatehouses and finally arrived at a busy boulevard where the bus stop was located. After about a five minute wait the bus arrived and we were off towards JP Camera's on the other side of town.

We wound our way through the streets of Edinburgh crossing the bridge that separates the Old Town from the New Town (The "New Town" is still decidedly old, just not as old as the "Old Town". There is a very real delineation between the two parts of city, and a different feel between the old and the new quarter.

After about a twenty minute ride we exited the bus in a rather less savory part of Edinburgh. A little gritty and rough around the edges, it certainly wasn't prominently displayed in any of the travel brochures touting the city. But hey, that's the exciting part of travel, you end up in some of the least expected places during your journey. Whoever thought we'd be poking around in a graffiti tagged part of Edinburgh with businesses with boarded and soaped windows and trash blowing along the pock-marked streets? Not us, that's for sure!

Believe us when we tell you that we had to work pretty hard to take a picture that made this area look inviting.

We walked a couple of blocks in a blustery wind as low gray clouds threatened rain. Turning a corner we spied JP Camera Repairs and ducked inside the amazingly small confines of the business.

Joe the owner greeted us after finishing up with another patron and he couldn't have been more gracious and welcoming. He said he would look at the camera later that day and give us a free estimate by text and if he had the parts he might be able to fix it by the end of the work day. AMAZING! Where on earth can you find someone willing to work on something as complicated as a camera and get it back to you the same day? We thanked him effusively, but said we'd probably pick it up the next day, if he could in fact repair it, because we didn't want to spend our first full day in Edinburgh riding on a bus.

Hungry and thirsty for a second cup of coffee we checked our iPhone for any Cafes in the area that had gotten good reviews. It was a small sampling to be sure in this corner of Edinburgh, so we decided on the Red Kite Cafe and sat down to a couple of nicely poured cappuccino's and some rather underwhelming filo wrapped chorizo sausage rolls. They weren't bad, they were just blah....At least there were firm chorizo sausages and not the white sausage that has about 60% filler. If you eat a sausage roll in one of those fast food places in the train station, the texture will be soft almost like a paste. It is utterly disGUSTING and how that passes for sausage is beyond.

After our less than stellar breakfast we made our way back to the bus stop to return to Edinburgh's Royal Mile and begin our "real" day of sightseeing. We had planned on buying some quality Scottish whisky and exploring the Royal Mile, which runs from the castle to the royal residences.

We had wanted to stop at one of the numerous classic pubs and maybe shop for some Scottish wool products. The day was going to be glorious, that was for sure. Scotland here we come!

After a twenty minute bus ride we chose a stop that let us out right on the bridge that separates the two sides of the city and was easy walking distance from the Royal Mile and numerous businesses we had wanted to peruse. We trundled off the bus with the anticipation of finally getting to do something a little more exciting than riding buses and getting our camera fixed and hadn't taken more than a dozen paces when Jerani said "Where's your backpack?!" I did one of those cartoonish pat-pats over both shoulders only to discover that yes, the backpack was not on my back where it needed to be. WTF!!! We both stood staring at each other, and Jerani said "Did you leave it on the bus?!" After several long seconds I realized with as much relief as I could muster that I had left it draped over the back of the chair in the Red Kite Cafe where we'd had lunch. We weren't out of the woods by a long shot but at least it wasn't rolling through Edinburgh in the back of a bus. Once that was worked out and we recovered from the cold feeling of terror! I did a quick mental inventory of what I had in the backpack. Usually we have the Canon camera in there but luckily (kind of) it was at the camera repair shop. That left our small travel bag which had our copies of our passports and credit cards, an extra twenty pound note for emergencies, some change and a first aid kit. Not too bad other than the copies... There was also my baseball cap, a pair of gloves and the backpack itself.

Jerani in the mean time had made a quick phone call to the cafe and sure enough it was still hanging on the back of the chair. We were really lucky in this day and age of terrorism that the cafe hadn't reported a bag left unattended and that a bomb squad hadn't descended on the cafe and blown our backpack up! Well shit! I guess we get to head back to the crappy part of town again. Understandably we were a little frazzled as we boarded a bus back to the Cafe that instead started heading in completely the wrong direction. DAMN THESE LEFT SIDED DRIVERS! So at the next stop, which turned out to be about four blocks in the opposite direction we once again disembarked and crossed the super busy road, wistfully passing by a dozen or so interesting shops that would have been enjoyable to look through if we weren't heading for a bus stop to head back TO THE CRAPPY SIDE OF TOWN!!! A fine rain had started falling and the temperature was hovering around 40 degrees as we boarded another bus back to the cafe. I scolded myself for not doing "The look back" which is something you always need to do when traveling. You get up from where ever it is you're about to depart from and before you head off you turn and check for anything you might have left behind. Say a backpack for instance...You have to force yourself to do this regularly so that it turns into a habit.

We rode in sort of a stony silence as the rain pelted down on the windows and we once again passed by the same run down businesses and litter strewn parking lots we had seen just a hour before.

Not exactly how we had envisioned spending our first day in Edinburgh. On the flip side, we were REALLY getting to know an area of the city that wasn't on our radar when we planned out trip, so that was good, right? Once again we got off the bus a couple of blocks from the Red Kite Cafe and walked down the same exact streets as before. The backpack was behind the Cafe's counter and I thanked them for securing it for us. Once outside I did a quick check and everything was still there.

Off to the bus stop we went once again. YaHoo! Fun in Scotland!!!

The rain had started falling a little harder as we walked back towards the stop, and to make matters worse we were heading to what had to be the only stop in ALL of Edinburgh that didn't have a cover nor a bench. By the time we arrived at the bus stop signpost the rain was really starting to come down. It was still in the low forties and you couldn't ask for better hypothermia weather. The bus was still ten minutes off and by now it was pouring.

We stood there with our hoods up over our heads and the water starting to soak through our aged rain gear, all the while shivering as errant drips found their way inside our jackets to run willy-nilly down our goose-bumped flesh. We didn't talk too much either; just letting the day speak for itself. Soon a roughened elderly man of about eighty plus years sidled up to us and in a almost incomprehensible Scottish brogue told us that the "buess wooont beah stooping err aht dis stoop" because of a detour (we couldn't make out that last part) and that "yoos shoood whallk doon ta da loowher stoop".

This is just a proximity of the elderly Scotsman, not a true representation

We all just sort of stood there, with him eyeing us expectantly, obviously waiting for us to hustle down to the other stop. I informed him that we had just been let out at this exact stop and had in fact caught the bus here just an hour earlier, and that we were going to take our chances here. I'm not sure if he understood us any better than we understood him because he just stood there with us in the rain for a minute or two longer eyeing us, and finally just shook his head and clucked and mumbled something we couldn't quite make but which by his body language and look of utter disdain must have been something to the effect of "sooot yersealves idyuts" and ambled clumsily off into the deluge. Ten minutes later, that's ten minutes past the posted arrival time, the bus pulled up (THANK GOD) and we boarded trailing water as we squished our way down the aisle to splop down in our seats. My pant legs and Jerani's skirt were plastered to our legs, soaked through by this time. Water dripped off us onto the bus floor and the windows nearest to us immediately fogged over. Guess we'll give this another go. And off to downtown Edinburgh we headed once again.

Well, from what we could see out our steamed up windows during our fifth bus trip of the day on the SAME EXACT ROUTE, Edinburgh looked very nice. Boy it sure would be great when we got the chance to actually see some of it other than the Red Kite Cafe and the interior of buses. We exited the bus at the same bridge stop we had visited about an hour before, and this time after making sure the backpack was securely on my back made our way towards the Royal Mile.

Needing to warm up, but in even more need of ALCOHOL (and yes we know, it doesn't solve all your problems, just helps to deaden the pain...) we ducked into the first pub we came to and ordered a couple of pints of what would become our go to Scottish beer, "Innis & Gunn". Man those didn't last long. We came to the conclusion that it would behoove us to look back in the future and make sure we hadn't left anything behind, and that although no one was to blame for the prior circumstances, it was undeniably clear that it was completely and utterly MY FAULT AND MY FAULT ALONE. Now that we had sorted that out over a couple of beers and our clothes had dried out from soaked to just mildly damp, we had caught our second wind and headed over to a shop that boasted "Fine Scottish Whiskies".

Well the shop was beautiful and the staff warm and welcoming. We asked a bunch of questions about the difference between Scotch (which we don't like) and Whisky (which we like VERY much) and they gave us an easy to understand explanation of the differences and a short history on Scottish spirits. We then were treated to a tasting of several types of Scotch Whisky he thought we might enjoy and we finally narrowed our choice down to a mid-priced but yummy tasting bottle of "Mortlach" 15 year old single malt Scotch Whisky.

After purchasing our bottle of Whisky we headed over to one of about a thousand shops selling Scottish Wool products in a startling array of tartan patterns. I was in need of a scarf now that I was in the grips of low level hypothermia. While we were crossing the street Jerani checked an in coming text message and low and behold it was from Joe Plahay of JP Camera Repairs letting us know that the Camera was repaired and that it was only going to cost 60 pounds. He would be opened until 4:30pm (actually some sort of military time would be inserted here, but who can understand those...) and we could pick it up if we'd like.

Well the day had pretty much been shot riding buses and it was already 3:00pm, so what the hell. The last thing we wanted to do was get up the next day and start doing this all over again. So ten minutes later we were back on the bus and heading towards JP's Camera Repair. In for an inch, in for a mile.

After our seventh bus ride of the day we finally made it back to the Royal Mile, our newly fixed camera tucked safely in the backpack that would never again leave my sight. We walked up the "Mile" towards the castle and our apartment in Old Town taking in the sites along the way.

We arrive back home to the Wee Palace and had a Wee spot of Whisky and then headed across the Street to Biddy Mulligans, which would become our pub of choice for the remainder of our time in Edinburgh, for a wonderful dinner of traditional Scottish Steak and Ale pie with peas and tatties washed down with several pints of Innis & Gunn!

And yes we DO realize that Biddy Mulligans is an Irish Pub in the heart of Edinburgh, Scotland. We can't help it, we REALLY liked it!