Edinburgh

This text has been updated. See below for photos and additional text.

Amit the photographer..takes a photo of a tourst at the Edinburgh Castle at the latter’s request.

People had told me two things about Edinburgh: 1) The place is very beautiful. 2) It is very very cold up there. If you think London is too cold, take a lot of clothes with you if you are going to Edinburgh.

The first piece of information is correct. I admit that the hills are not as tall or big as I had imagined them to be but this place is beautiful and it feels nice to walk around. If these small hills (thumkas not dandas) look bigger than they actually are it could be because they are so close to the sea. Who has seen their reflection on sea water? I think I took more photos here than I took in London.

On second point: weather has been so very kind to me. I arrived here on Wednesday afternoon. Beautiful day, clear skies, great view and it’s so warm yesterday and today that, for the first time since I arrived in the UK, I took my jacket off. I couldn’t have imagined walking on streets of London and York without wearing a jacket.

I know those people who predicted cold Edinburgh were not trying to scare me off the place. Reality is when you visit a place for a couple of days, you only get to experience a tiny bit of life there. That could be very bad or very good. Here in Edinburgh, I am lucky to have experienced the best of weather.

The following text, along with the photos, was added later:

I had expected the hills in Edinburgh to be slightly taller and bigger. Like some of our medium sized hills. Hills disappointed but the weather didn’t. The weather was great-sunny and warm that provided clear views of the city and made it easy to walk. This was unexpected because everyone I had talked to had warned me how cold it could be in Edinburgh and that the weather in general at this time of the year would be horrible. London was very cold, York was rainy (so couldn’t walk much) but here in Edinburgh clouds and rains had completely disappeared. It was where I was able to take off my jacket.

Amit Gautam had agreed to host me during my two nights stay in the city. Thank you Amit! Like Bishnu, he is a former Budhanilakantha student (same batch). He is finishing his PhD from University of Edinburgh in Cell and Molecular Biology in June and will start postdoctoral research immediately afterwards.

The best and most enjoyable part of my stay were Amit’s nonstop chattering through which I got a sense of the local Nepali community and some interesting characters. It was his idea to take me to the Royal Botanic Garden where a Nepali researcher he knew well worked. That was another highlight.