The Pentlands

Finishing my final year at the University of Edinburgh seemed like the perfect time to finally explore the Pentland Hills, just south of the city, with my friends Emma and Fiona. Early on a Monday morning the three of us hopped on a bus (£1.50 return, cheap date!) south to explore. 

There was quite a mist when we first arrived, in fact we couldn’t even see the hills! But we didn’t let that stop us. We set off on a walk near Flotterstone, past the reservoirs and some boats, which were unfortunately only for people going fishing! We walked up a (small!) hill, rewarded ourselves with some homemade lemon drizzle cake; ambled back down and had a picnic lunch! 

All in all it was a great way to celebrate freedom from exams, to be able to wander in the sunshine with good friends and only a few miles outside of the city.

North Berwick

Last week one of my dear friends Angi returned to Edinburgh for a visit. I abandoned the library (almost!) for an entire week and we had a wonderful few days of touristy fun. We drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of cake in the various haunts of Edinburgh. I could probably write a book on places to eat cake and drink coffee in Edinburgh!

On the Friday we took a trip to North Berwick, just outside of Edinburgh. In the nearly four years that I've lived here I've never made it over there, but have always wanted to. The day was gloriously sunny and incredibly windy! Before we hitched a ride to the beach, we climbed up the Crags and I was certain I'd get blown off at one point!







Then on we went to North Berwick to sit in a tea shop, naturally, and frolic about on the beach. We had a lot of fun wandering up and down the beach and town. It was such a breath of fresh air, literally, to get out of the city and just blow away the cobwebs. I'd recommend it to anyone!







Finally, we had a root around the charity shops. In Oxfam I was delighted to find two lonesome M&S stacking cups to replace two of mine that had been broken... now I have a full set of four again (it's the small joys in life!!) And then I bought an entire tea set of, what I think is fake Churchill stuff, for less than a fiver! It may not be the real deal but I think it's really pretty and I'm looking forward to using it for my birthday next week. Maybe one day I'll get the real stuff.