Return to Edinburgh

As I mentioned earlier, I went to Edinburgh Friday night. What I didn't mention is that, other than meeting up with sweetthesound, I was there to hang out with Gus. I had three items on my agenda:

meet up with sweetthesound and her buddies for dinner and the haunted tour

get a grid for my 2004 hostel

attend the Scotland vs. South Africa rugby match

Bam. Nailed it. Gus and I even found some time to enjoy some whisky at the Balmoral Bar and a few minutes in the Prince Street Gardens, where we got some pictures of Edinburgh Castle. From there, we started walking to the rugby match, and ended up walking nearly the whole way with one of Britain's wounded warriors. It was a bit of a hike, I don't mind telling you. As we got nearer to Murrayfield Stadium, a delightful young lady painted our faces with swaths of blue-white-blue to help us cheer on the Scottish national rugby team.

Still nearer to the stadium, there were a variety of groups hawking for donations for various causes, and I donated to, and got my picture taken with, a bunch of Royal Marines, one of whom had been to my home state! Holy smokes! A bunch of Royal Marines Commandos joining me in a shout of "Go [mascot animal]!" Totally awesome! Have you ever gotten three Royal Marines to shout the name of your school's mascot before? No? That's what I thought! Suck it, [intrastate rivals]!

The view from our seats (36 and 37 in Section 38, Row UU - nearly the last row!) was spectacular, despite the odd fellow in the salmon-colored jeans and black sport coat who sat next to Gus. We got another couple of pictures of ourselves...

... and cheered Scotland to victory! Well, Scotland didn't actually win the game, but the South Africa Springboks are supposed to be a very good team, so I was satisfied with the 10-21 loss, even though a win would have been a scoche better. All in all, it was a great whirlwind trip to Edinburgh, and Gus and I parted company near Haymarket Station so that he could get some food and I could catch the train back to Aberdeen. Then, I wound up joining the first two legs of the One Pub Crawl to Rule Them All (Part 2), before bidding an early (midnight) farewell to the group and finally getting some much-needed sleep. Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

Next stop: Glasgow. (Probably.)