The sleep deprived and jet-lagged first few days

[nwhiker]

The trip started out inauspiciously with being stuck in the back row on Icelandair. That was not fun. OTOH, this plane had enough space that that back row, despite being against a wall, could recline. It's nice to recline and not feel at all guilty about it. People queuing for the toilets was a bit more annoying but eh, it's a flight.

Perry and Linnea got a good amount of sleep. Dh got some. Anne-Chloe and I pretty much got none.

Transit in KEF was much too fast, didn't have enough time to get water, barely had enough time to hit the bathrooms. That leg was short if very bumpy. I got about 20 minutes of sleep, Anne-Chloe barely a bit more, we were both woken up when we landed.

Luggage, then off to pick up the rental. This was an overnight rental: just needed it to get from Glasgow to the hotel, which wasn't far from the Edinburgh airport. The seats in the back were fine, but the front seat had those Recaro seats which are totally uncomfortable for people with hips. I mean, I fit in the seat, but one you remove the space taken up by the wings... I may still fit, but I'm damn uncomfortable, and the seat is digging into my hips. Not fat lady friendly to say the least. So I sat in the back.

And then... dh had to drive out of the car lot. On the wrong side of the road. He had to deal with multiple roundabouts. All going in the wrong direction. He had to make turns that looked totally wrong. Of course, this is my spouse, so he dealt with it. Not easily, and not always happily, but he did fine. But man, he was stressed, poor thing. Anne-Chloe, who was sitting up from in the nasty Recaro seats did the navigating. Beautifully. Note to self: driving a standard again after a long time with automatics and on the wrong side of the road is not an easy adjustment!

Got to the hotel, which was pretty damn basic and pretty damn cheap. Which was fine. We were tired, we tried to get phones and data set up. Verizon and their pathetic sorry excuse for an international plan really pissed me off. I had gotten an EU sim from my sister, and my phone was able to "activate it" but not use it, and needless to say, no useful information as to why it didn't work. Right now, I'm tired of dealing with it, so I'll just use the measly 5GB of data Verizon allots me for SMS and leave it at that.

We were so tired we just ordered pizza from the hotel "kitchen". I suspect it was bad pizza, but we were so hungry, and it was hot and cheesy, this it was perfect.

We didn't sleep in too late. First order of business was getting to EDI to swap the uncomfy car for the one that we'd rented for the two weeks with the kids. Took a bit, but we got into the new car. Which also had the nasty Recaro seats, though at least they weren't as poky as the ones in the other cry. I was pretty much crying because the thought of two weeks in that seat was not pleasant, and I pretty much hate myself already. Dh and the kids noticed that the car had not been cleaned. There was sand all over the backseat, some sticky stuff on the steering wheel. So he went back to ask that it be cleaned again while we waited. The gal he talked with was apparently horrified when she saw the state of the car (I'd gone to go pee). She offered a clean same car or, if we preferred, a slightly older upgraded car. I took one look at the flat seats on that one and decision made, LOL. Plus she got my driver's license, so I'm good to drive if I want to. LOL, I don't.

Back to the hotel, where we argued a bit about the best way to get into Edinburg, which was our plan for the day -now afternoon-. It was hot, a lot hotter than we all expected, and we were all tired and cranky so some snippiness happened. The knee that I annoyed doing god only knows what the week before I left had gone full on angry, so I was concerned about too much walking, but in the end, we decided that tram then rail into the city was the best choice. And really, it was.

Edinburgh:

-- the bad: too many people (*), too much smoking, OMG, I'd forgotten how many people smoke nonstop, making for a haze as we walked up the Royal Mile to the Edinburg Castle, which we knew we weren't going to visit. There was a temporary and being torn down BIG arena structure at the Castle which completely blocked our view of the city, which was sad. (*) That's the problem with cities. They'd be SO much nicer if there were fewer people in them!

-- the good: even in the little we saw, so much interesting stuff. The statue of Adam Smith (the dude who is to blame for capitalism) with the cone on its head. St Giles Cathedral. Heck, Waverly Station. Bits and pieces, alley ways, just the general feel of being in an old city, the beautiful old buildings etc.

In general: it was HOT. HOT and sunny. A lot hotter than we expected and hotter than the forcast said it was going to be. That was a bit disconcerting. Though, TBF, we left nasty hot weather in Seattle too, so it just might be a bad summer for everyone.

Everyone was starting to get a bit cranky, hungry, and tired, and we could not agree on dinner. Finally, just by change, Anne-Chloe said "what about here?" We ate there. Price was reasonable, especially considering Royal Mile, and what was incredible? The food was actually good. Not just decent. Good. So yay.

We got back to the hotel, and after a bit of work on computers still fighting to get my phone to work, went to bed.

Next day the plan was to get out of dodge, aka the Big City, we needed to buy a few things for road tripping, get to somewhere to get a view of the Firth of Fouth, and make our way to Falkirk, and eventually Oban. That was yesterday and since it's late and I'm tired, I'll have to write about that tomorrow.

I miss my kitties.