Visiting the Wee One - Exploring Leith and the World of MacDougall - Part 1
A very sad event took place last March - Yes - our Nat flew the Ipswich nest and migrated back up to Edinburgh. We were gutted - we were going to miss her loads, but at the same time we were equally excited about the possibility of going to visit her in the future.
As with most things we did a lot of talking about visiting, but nothing ever really materialised! Months ticked by and then one Autumn evening after a killer day at work Sadie suggested we just booked tickets and went to Edinburgh to catch up with Nat. It was perfect timing and we found cheap tickets for a weekend in January 2017. Buzzing that we had finally arranged a weekend to go we started the countdown! Having booked the flight in January it also meant we all had something to look forward to in the New Year. The post Christmas period can often seem rather bland so having this trip booked up gave us something exciting to focus on.
January quickly arrived - suitcases were packed and off we ventured to the airport! After a little bit of chaos over where we were supposed to be parking we safely arrived for our flight! Compulsory breakfast with a beer was consumed! (after all any airport carries international drinking rules yeah?) It certainly set us up for a weekend of adventuring, drinking and fun!
The flight took us just over an hour - just enough time for a dodgy cup of tea from Ryanair and some mini eggs. This flew by and we were quickly being hugged by an excitable Nat at the arrivals gate . She then drove us back to Leith where she lives! For those of you that are unfamiliar with Leith - it is about ten minutes walk from the main city centre of Edinburgh. It is also famous for the film ' sunshine on the leith' - which surprisingly I have watched - it wasn't fab! They are also proud that a large section of Train Spotting was filmed in the local area - (obviously being heavily advertised at the moment).
After not seeing Nat for several months Friday was all about catching up. We quickly started to learn all about Nat's life in Leith as we started to explore the local area. We initially took a walk down the river towards Leith Docks- there were numerous bars and restaurants along the river side - some of which we frequented later that evening.
Our walk took us down to the Ocean Terminal - this was a local shopping centre with amazing views out to sea. With the weather in our favour we risked sitting outside in the January breeze to enjoy the view and the winter sunshine! We quickly realised that Nat wasn't lying when she said she could easily just stay in Leith and rarely needed to head up to Edinburgh City Centre. There was everything she could need right here in Leith!
Now one of the highlights of my whole trip was getting to visit the local pub where Nat works! The Malt and Hops is (for those of you who know Ipswich well) a mini version of Mannings, but a million times better. It was an old man's pub at its finest - lots of locals - a log fire burning and some fine ales on tap!
We were promised the opportunity to try some Edinburgh gin as the Malt and Hops had three versions we could try. The first was Rhubarb, the second was Raspberry and the third was Elderflower. All were super tasty! I was hoping that they would sell some of the flavoured versions in the airport on our way home! Needless to say I was disappointed as they only had the plain version.
While enjoying the gins we got to meet a number of locals and friends of Nat before the pub started to fill for Friday night festivities. It was a really warm, friendly and inviting pub. Nat had found a true home and it was clear the locals and staff all loved her as much as we do. We certainly could have spent all night tucked up in here, but we had plenty more exploring to do.
Our night continued with a quick pit stop at Pizza Express - where I swear we had the biggest beers in the world! I honestly will never ever ever order a large beer again from a pizza place! It took us forever to get through the shear volume! It meant we had sobered up a little before hitting our last destination on our Leith tour. We ventured to the Constitution Bar - which I would thoroughly recommend. The atmosphere was lively, but you were still able to sit and have a good conversation with those out with you.
Brilliantly Nat's day time work colleagues had decided to have their first ever night out while we were visiting. This meant that we also got to meet all of them and get to know some ins and outs of daily working life in Leith.
It was wonderful after just one afternoon to be able to put names to faces, link place to where Nat goes and really get to understand what it is like to live in Leith. We were really taken by Leith and it was lovely to see Nat so at home with so many lovely people around her.