March in Review
Wee Local Adventures
In March, our only trip outside Edinburgh was to the Isle of Iona (more below), but Elisabeth’s Aunt Carol and her friend Brenna came to visit us as part of their horse-riding vacation. We had some fun days being tourists in Edinburgh with them and got to see lots of new sights and visit new bars and restaurants. We wandered through lots of Old Town sights and found a couple fun Leith walking routes, complete with whiskey tasting and great pizza, for our next visitors!
First, before we get into the adventures, it’s time to talk about the word “wee.” Scots love this word, and it can be added to pretty much any phrase or word, meaning some variation of “a bit [of a]” but also way more. There’s seemingly nothing that can’t be “wee” — we find it delightful hearing perfectly serious sentences like “I’m taking a wee trip to Sweden this weekend” or “Did you give it a wee go?” [Did you try it?]. With no real evidence to back this up, it seems that the thicker one’s Scottish accent is, the more often “wee” will get used. “Wee” is one of those stereotypes about Scotland that exists because it’s just real, and it’s great.
Sight
On to the adventures: The tiny island of Iona was at the top of Elisabeth’s list for Scotland trips, so we’d planned to go the weekend before Easter to visit the famed, historic abbey there at the start of holy week. Iona is where St. Columba landed in Scotland from Ireland in the 500s AD, establishing a monastery and bringing Christianity to the larger island of Britain from Ireland. It’s thought the renowned Book of Kells was created at Columba’s monastery (though Ireland claims it as a national treasure now).
We had a bit more of an adventure than we counted on with this trip, though. If you ever plan to travel to Iona, it’s very worth it! Just don’t try to get there in the off season. The weather was probably the worst we’ve experienced yet this year. Iona is a tiny island right next to Mull, a very big island, so traveling there requires two ferries (plus buses and trains if you’re not driving): an hour ferry from Oban to Mull and then a ten minute ferry over to Iona. Well, when 50 mph winds hit, as is apparently not uncommon in the variable spring weather, alllll those ferries get canceled. We had ferries get canceled on us both directions, but the homeward direction cancelations meant we ended up stuck on Iona for an extra 24 hours.
We tried to make the most of it, and the disruption did mean we got to visit the abbey for three services instead of zero, which was a plus. When we tried to go out to explore the beautiful island, we got to experience a combo hail- and sandstorm, because we foolishly looked at the sky, thought, those black clouds probably won’t make it here, and headed for one of the island’s gorgeous sandy beaches . . . only to, moments later, get absolutely pelted with hail and sand blown everywhere from the intense wind. But the weather “cleared” enough to allow a few hours of sun in the afternoon, and we hiked to two beaches, Bay at the Back of the Ocean and St. Columba’s Bay, both of which were stunning.
Eventually we made it home, and while not driving was nice, the many hours on different kinds of public transit for the six-leg trip were pretty exhausting. We do hope to go back to Iona in the summer for a (planned) longer stay some day.
Taste
A highlight of Elisabeth’s aunt’s visit was a Leith distillery crawl we put together, starting at a gin distillery right down the street from us, Lind & Lime. We learned tons of interesting facts about the gin industry in the UK and Leith (our neighborhood of Edinburgh) in particular. And the gin was delicious! Next was the Port of Leith distillery, which is in one of the only high-rise buildings in Edinburgh and sits right on the edge of the city — meaning it has incredible views of the ocean! They distill whiskey, so we had a fun time listening to live music, eating dinner, sampling their spirits, and enjoying a stormy sunset on the ocean.
Sound
Not a concert this time … the wind on Iona was so intensely loud, not only did it keep us from sleeping, but we really understood where myths like banshees originated! It was so wild and truly sounded like a person screaming at times, with a voice that was trying to communicate something. Columba and his monks fighting off devils seems a lot more plausible when you hear that wind, combined with driving rain and hailstorms every few minutes. (And during many stormy moments, seeing the entirety of a rainbow with both ends visible in the vividly teal ocean was another reminder why legends around natural phenomena proliferated in these countries.)
Sight Pt. 2
My reviews have definitely slowed down in the last month, with trips, visitors, and essays coming up. I posted a review of The Secret Agent to catch up before the Oscars, but I haven’t posted any since then. I have caught up on a few this past week: we watched Project Hail Mary (Gosling is a blast, and I’m thrilled for more people to be introduced to Sandra Hüller), and I watched A24’s The Drama, which is sure to spark some—hmm—controversy, or at least polarizing takes. I’ll say it worked for me way more than I expected. Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are so adept in these tricky roles. Reviews to come on both of those movies soon!
Sight Pt. 3
