Chillin' in Scotland

We began the next leg of our journey, driving into Belfast Airport.  Dropped off our rental car, a sleek, black BMW Series 3 stick shift, which I think Brian fell a little bit in love with!  No problem arriving on time, checking in with our plane tickets, and getting our luggage tucked away in the cargo hold of our little purple prop plane!  We had time enough before our flight to eat at a little cafe and taste a few different desserts. Then, through security (which made me throw away my AUSSIE MOUSSE, which is the ONLY thing that works on my hair to keep it curly...  :(  We'll see how I look in a few days.  lol).  Then upstairs to have one last Guiness before we left Ireland.  We looked a a couple of mini stores up there, one with HBA trying to find me some new mousse...  no luck.  BUT...  we took a seat just until they called our gate, which they did minutes later.  And we were RIGHT beside it, and were the FIRST people in line to check in and get on the plane.  That has NEVER happened to us before, nor is it likely to ever happen again.  But the luck of the Irish was hanging with us even til we flew off their soil.

After a quick 50 minute flight to Edinburgh, Scotland (UK) we arrived without incident and went down to "reclaim" our baggage and again, our luggage was the first ones off!  Had to navigate through the airport, which proved to be a bit challenging, as there was construction in a few different places.  Finally found where we were to load our taxi, and we were off to West Side tower apartments.  I was amazed how large the city was!  Row after row of sky-touching apartment buildings and businesses lined the streets.  Inter-strewn were breathtaking historical and architecturally perfect churches, clock towers, and a fortress of a castle, called, aptly enough, Edinburgh Castle.  Perched on the side of a rock mountain, it rose above everything around it, dwarfing our figures as we stood admiring it from below.            
As we continued to walk around the city, the winds picked up and a dense fog started to roll in, chilling us to the bone.  We began to search in earnest for somewhere to find some traditional Scottish fare to eat, but


since it was getting late on a Sunday evening, many places were beginning to close.  After countless restaurants that just wouldn't work, we stumbled upon Albanas. As soon as I entered the crowded place, I noticed a table for four open right beside the door and jumped on it.  We sat down and ordered some Irish coffees to warm our blood, and then decided to share a few of the meals.  Beef pie, traditional fish and chips, and a Scottish shrimp scampi made the cut for dinner.  DELICIOUS!!  Dessert was raspberries soaked in honey and whisky.  David tried a shot of "Lowlander" whisky and it was extremely smooth.

Continued walking the streets in search of where we had to meet up with our Loch Ness/Scottish Highlands tour, early tomorrow morning, and we so lucked out, as it was literally 5 minutes walking distance away from our centrally located apartment.  And we also noticed the train (which we will need to travel by on Tuesday) is right down the stairs from our place as well.  Thank you James and Alexis, you couldn't have found a better site for us to be! Well, it is getting late (12:04 a.m!) and we have to get up early.  It is so hard to go to bed early because sunset isn't until almost 10 p.m. every night!  So, g'night and cheerio!