Back to work...

Back to work again.  We both are working for IKEA in Edinburgh and started a week ago.  It's been pretty busy getting to know how they do things here. 

But enough about work... we've planned the rest of our trip!  Yes, the end is nigh, the end of our year-long adventure that is.  I've updated the map/itinerary section with the dates and places where we'll be going so be sure to have a look.  For those of you who can't be bothered (you know who you are) we leave Edinburgh in early August, spend a week travelling in Ireland before we fly to London for the start of our two week long camping trip.  The trip takes us from London through France, Switzerland and Monaco before spending a week in Italy and finishing in Venice.  We fly from Venice to Berlin.  We're going to spend a few days in Berlin before flying back to London.  A few more days in London before we leave to go back to Australia via Bangkok.  Due to a mix up with our flight booking (and lack of funds) we won't be staying in Thailand as we'd hoped to.  Instead I'll have to make do with an eight hour stop over.  So we have a lot to look forward to.

Anyway, so this is the view that met us this morning when we woke up.  It was absolutely puking snow (a term I picked up in Canada).  The funniest thing was a pair of seagulls sitting on the roof looking disgruntled as all this snow came down.  I never, ever would have thought of seagulls in the snow.  Bizarre.

Last week we went to Princes Street gardens which are at the base of the castle.  There used to be a loch, called Nor Loch, at the base of Edinburgh Castle.  It was drained in the mid 1700s and when it was drained over 300 female corpses were found!  Apparently it was a popular spot for suicides as well as witch trials.  It would have stunk to high heaven, hence the nickname of Edinburgh: "Auld Reekie".  The Princes Street Gardens now cover the area of what was Nor Loch.








After walking through the gardens we "discovered" a cemetery.  It was pretty shocking to realise that a couple may have six or eight children but less than half would survive past age twenty-one.  The cemetery was peaceful and pretty well looked after.  Most of the people buried there were merchants, doctors, and military men and their families.

We catch the public buses everywhere and all over Edinburgh on the side of the road are daffodils growing.  It's really nice to see bright flowers after leafless trees all winter.

Cheers
Melanie
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