When in Edinburgh

As in any big town- Edinburgh has many sections or neighborhoods. I live in between Crammond and Barnton, which is on the west side of Edinburgh, and about a 15 minute drive (30 by bus) to the down town area. Now when you say ''I'm going to town'' this most definitely means downtown. If you are going somewhere other than DT, you name that specific neighborhood (even if it is a block away from DT). Anyway- after a short weekend and a long beginning of the week, I had yesterday morning off, so I decided to head to town. (not like it is a rare occasion or uncommon event... I do it about 4 times a week). The predominant reason for going to town was to pick up my bank card from the BUNAC office which had finally arrived after about 3 weeks. As I excitedly walked across the street from the BUNAC office to the Royal Bank of Scotland (posh huh?) I was turned away and told that I couldn't deposit any money into my account without having my passport. I was angry for two reasons... 1 Because who walks around every day with their passport in their pocket? Besides the fact that I emptied my wallet to show my driver's license, student ID and credit cards... they didn't believe me. and 2. I was depositing money.. not taking it out- I don't understand why I couldn't put it IN.

Anyhow- I continued to walk down the Royal Mile and my anger at the bank soon dissipated when I remembered how much I love this city. Every time I go 'to town' I see something I haven't seen before, discover a shop or museum or gallery that I haven't visited. There are so many hidden alleys and passageways and stairways (which all lead to something spectacular... but which you wouldn't know unless you just took the time to explore them). At first glance they look a bit dodgy- just an arched opening between the strings of shops on the Royal Mile. They all have a white metal sign above them, displaying the name of the passageway (which is called a Close), and there is no way you would know the difference between James' Close or Mary King's Close or Brodie's Close or White Horse Close unless you spent a week traveling down each one of them. They lead to amazing tea shops, little courtyards, arcades, fudge shops, and I'm sure many other fantastic things that I haven't discovered yet. It is these little passageways and stairways that make Edinburgh unique to itself.

Today I am housebound with Michael who is 'sick.' He is quite a funny character- and asked me what sort of things we would be doing today (once Mom and Dad left and Ben was at nursery). He suggested many marvelous things; a bike ride, a walk to Lauriston Castle, a play in the yard. I kindly reminded him that his tummy hurt too bad to do those types of things. Instead, after we dropped Ben off at nursery, I dragged Mike along to the post office and the bank (where I was able to deposit money) before heading back home. In the car on the way back he asked me if I had a job. I told him it was him. Anyway- we moved on from that topic to him assuring me that he would be OK if I wanted to take a nap. How kind.