19
It was for first time when I left my country, looking for new opportunities to study, exactly what I want and what I like. I arrived at Edinburgh Airport on a nice summer day, around 12.00 PM.
To my eyes a lot was completely new: the people, the architecture of the buildings, the cars and the way that people drive, which was opposite to what I was
used to – in one word: everything b
was different.
Me and my girlfriend took the bus from the airport right away to meet our future flat mate who we had met on the internet and had just chatted to via email..
After the first 30 minutes in Edinburgh, the rain started, pretty confusing at that moment.
It was like dreaming, and it took me a month to realize that I wasn't home anymore.
In August, Edinburgh was vibrating, there were thousands of tourists and the city was very busy because of the Fringe Festival.
On the first week I started moving around to explore Edinburgh by walk, as I believe is the best way to learn about a new place.
Every morning, I explored new streets and areas from Scotland’s capital city, and of course, being in a new place, I got lost for mostly every day. We started our day from Marchmont Street; at 9.00 AM we were up, had the breakfast and then went out for new adventures.
I always guided myself by the Edinburgh Castle as it can be seen from nearly all locations and in my first day I explored Princes Street, Edinburgh shopping street, that I had only seen before on Google Maps.
The atmosphere was exciting: music, dancers, performers, painters, Scottish tradition, I saw so many in just one day but also when the day was finished we felt that we’d
seen nothing. The bad part came when I was supposed to return home, from Princes Street to Marchmont Street. The time record was around three hours, but usually it took me around two hours. I was lost and confused by the street names. I tried to find shortcuts from Princes Street to Meadows Park, through buildings or Princes Gardens but was in vain. Every single time I got somewhere different, in a different side of it. I even got to Newington once! I have no clue how that happened, and if I am supposed to go now, I will definitely not find it again.
Back home, in Romania, our street infrastructure allows you to cross through a building and get from a street to another, while in Edinburgh this is different, but at that moment I was too early for me to know this.
What we did in the first day was what we did for one week: looking for our way back home from Princes Street.
In conclusion, the shortest way is always the one that you know, and for me that was a two hour journey.