Edinburgh

At the end of last week, went up to Edinburgh. Timing was cunningly chosen to overlap with UK Globus Week at NeSC so that a few people I know from LA and Chicago were there, as well as a few people I knew from EPCC. Walked round Edinburgh in the day times, then drank with them in the evening. Managed to sort out some of the wierd 3d topology of the city centre in my head -- realised that for the past 5 years, I'd mistakenly merged South Bridge and Geo. IV bridge in my brain, which made it difficult for me to visualise where everything in between was to be found. On the last morning, got my friend Lisa up quite early to walk round Holyrood Park. She'd expressed distaste at the idea of being rushed to the airport so I left excessive amount of time and made her wake up for 0700. Black Medicine Coffee Company was still there (my favourite edinburgh coffee shop) so that gave me somewhere to sit each morning after getting up and before going to pester the Globus Week participants at lunchtime. One night ate at Howies near Princes Street, traditional for NeSC events (then chips in pita with too much chilli sauce); another at Mussel Inn on Rose Street for seafood; also some vegetarian restaurant (name escapes me) where I had vegetable haggis. Walking through the princes street gardens one day there, I saw some kids playing on the roof of what looked like an old signal box over the tracks outside the main railway station - I stood and watched for a while (the sick bastard in me hoping that one would fall onto the tracks or become ensnared in the high voltage overhead lines). Lots and lots of pictures, both of the city and of the train journey on the east coast mainline.