Nick and myself in the pub when we first got to Edinburgh
Last weekend was my birthday and Nick (my flatmate) and my self kicked off Friday with a game of golf teeing off at 7am at the Castle course and which was a great way to kick off my birthday weekend. After the game of golf and some breakfast Nick, Lulu (Lewis), Candice and myself made our way to Edinburgh to meet up with Diego and Jess who were coming up from London. We met them at 12.30 at the Edinburgh train station and had a drink at the pub there before making our way around Edinburgh town showing them the sites and then spending the rest of the afternoon up the Edinburgh castle.
Diego and myself up the castle
We saw the crown jewels which were pretty cool but probably the best part of the castle was the underground prison cells which I found pretty interesting just how they kept the prisoners back in the day.
Front of the castle trying to photo bomb and didn't succeed
After checking out the castle we had a walk down the main road of the old town and had a look at the fringe shows which is a festival that is going on all month. It's just comedy shows as well as some live music acts etc. The city was the busiest I have seen it. There were people everywhere. Our original plans were to stay in the town for the night and go out clubbing etc but it was to hard to find a hostel because of the fringe festival. I went through 4 pages on google calling every hostel and all of them were booked out. The first train back was at 8am in the morning so I was not keen to do a all nighter to catch that train back. So we decided to head back to St Andrews.
One of the guys at performing at "The fringe" at Edinburgh. I've got a video of him which makes him look way cooler then in the photo
We arrived back in St Andrews around 8pm and just had a good time with some quality people. Saturday consisted of some games of football out in the park and some bantering around at home. We sent Diego and Jess down the round about 400m to get some food and we ended up having to go look for them as they got lost. What usually is about a 10 minute return walk ended up being about 40 minutes. So we thought we had better go look for them, and they had left there phones at home. But we found them :-)
Nick, Diego and myself have a birthday celebratory cigar... (I didn't get a birthday cake so cigar will have to do)
Sunday was a day where I showed Diego and Jess around St Andrews and also taking them to Anstrathur where the best fish n chip shop in the UK is. Funnily enough the cue for the shop was so long it would've taken about 1.5 hours to get served so we opted for the fish n chip shop about 100m down the road which is meant to be just as good. In my opinion it wasn't.
Diego and myself on the Links clubhouse rooftop
Diego, Jess and Candice infront of the R & A building
We also went to the golf course and I showed Diego and Jess the famous Swilcon burn and bridge as well as the Links club house where I stayed when I first arrived to Scotland. Following that we had a look at the cathedral ruins and the Lamma's market. The Lamma's market is the fair that is on once a year in St Andrews and the 2 main roads are closed off and rides and games fill the streets. I didn't even know about them until Friday which worked out perfect as it was something else to show my visitors.
Monday Diego and Jess left in the morning and Candice and I went back up to the Lamma's market and there were more rides up there and more stalls for food. We tried a Kangaroo burger as well as a Ostrich burger. They both taste similar but the meat is probably a bit firmer then steak. But I would try it again if the opportunity came up.
All in all my birthday weekend was great. My first birthday out of New Zealand and I have managed to find quality friends to spend it with as well as close friends coming up from London to spend it with me! Thanks heaps Diego and Jess! I video'd most of the weekend so I'll try put together something and upload so I'll be sure to let you know when I do.
This weekend has been the best weekend weather wise since I have arrived. Saturday I didn't have work so I met up with a work mate and we walked up to the town sat outside in a courtyard at a bar and had a cider and a burger then went down to the beach and had a couple beers down there.
Sunday I had work and the fog was so thick I couldn't see 50m infront of me. So work was interesting as I had to set the course up and I didn't know where I was pointing the tee markers too. That had all cleared up by 10am and during the weekends I finish work at 9.30am so I got home woke Candice up and we went on the Fife coastal walkway. It's a walkway that runs a long the coast of fife. If you really wanted you could walk all the way to Edinburgh. But we just walked for about 1.5 hours had some lunch on some rocks and head back to meet up with some friends at a Gala which was on just down the road.
Now I have just been grocery shopping and now I"m writing this blog to you.... So we are all up to date! Oh if you haven't heard already I have landed a job at Royal Melbourne which starts mid October. Royal Melbourne is easily the number 1 course in Australasia and ranked in the top 20 of the world! So I'm looking forward to that experience.
Till next time...
