Swan Song

After writing about all of the adventures the protagonists went on from the novels I wrote about for exams, I realized I hadn't been on any adventures myself lately. So instead of spending the first day after exams traditionally oversleeping, my friend Caroline and I ventured out to Stockbridge.

Stockbridge once was a village outside of Edinburgh named for its timber bridge (which we somehow failed to find), but in the 19th Century it was incorporated into Edinburgh proper. Its a fitting metaphor for Caroline and I are both exchange students (from the US and Germany respectively), who have made Edinburgh our home this year. We've explored the city through cafes so naturally we cafe crawled through Stockbridge too. Above is a photo from the charming cafe/art gallery Bon Papillon in New Town where we stopped to refuel with some Earl Grey tea and delicious shortbread nibbles before heading off to Stockbridge. It was nice to finally have a conversation that had nothing to do with how stressed out over exams we were.

It started downpouring when we finally found Stockbridge so sadly I don't have any photos of the quaint little town full of delightful little pastry shops and boutiques. We didn't see one student in the area which was a refreshing change. Instead Stockbridge felt very family oriented with old women having lunch together and strollers running us off the streets instead of harried students trying to return library books before they are overdue.
[Sorry, the only evidence that Caroline was involved is her stirring her tea and reading the guidebook.]

We wandered over the one of Edinburgh's largest urban parks at 54 acres, Inverleith. In the 17th century it was a private estate owned by the Rocheid family, but the city acquired it in the 19th century and quickly turned it into a public park complete with ponds, playing fields, and eventually residential gardens. I mistakenly thought the rugby pitch was an American football field, but despite the cultural confusion it was still nice for a stroll. Caroline and I quickly discovered that it had one of the best views of the city we'd ever seen.
See Calton Hill in the background.
The large hill is Arthur's Seat.
And the Edinburgh Castle.

Here is the entire view. What once were imposing landmarks of the city are laid out flat like some corny tourist t-shirt of the city. It's easy to get sucked up into the grandeur and history when in Old Town, our regular stomping grounds, but from afar it made me realize just how small Edinburgh really is. Somehow we've managed to conquer quite a bit of it, which made me feel accomplished and like there was so purpose to all of my gorging on cakes and coffees throughout the city. After all, if we hadn't wanted to sample the cafes of Stockbridge we may never have made it all the way out there. It was a fitting last outing with Caroline.
We also made friends with the swans. Don't worry I didn't get too close to snap these photos because I've heard of some truly vicious swan stories, perhaps its because under British Common Law's Royal Perogative, the current monarch owns all of the open water swans. No need to irritate Her Majesty one week before I need to successfully leave the country.