It’s reassuring when you go away for 13 years and people and places are the same as when you left them.
Take my football buddies Cello, Rino and Davy who are still as fit and adept as ever they were – I’m still taking fresh-air shots.
Our old stomping ground, Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh where Ian and Lachie Stewart, and Liz Lynch lit up the 1970 and 1984 Commonwealth Games is gone.
And high-end houses are sprouting up in their place…
I dare say the builders would love to tear down yon big castle on the hill as well.
Of course I copied some of my old routines as I reintroduced myself to my Monday morning football game.
Which means a brown sausage and egg roll and a pot of tea afterwards.
Now if you’re expecting me to now say: in a tartan-clad, pipe-playing kitsch cafe on Princes Street you’d be wrong.
I prefer the honest, down-to-earth Snax Cafe.
To Cafe Royal, all wood and fancy glass but stuffy and impersonal where they think they’re doing you a favour!
And so you want a doubler (£4.40 after 11am, £3.30 before) which gives you a choice of bacon, sausage, eggs, haggis sort of thing.
And the sausage you want is a square one…
I’m not having you on… it’s not as if Scottish pigs are square.
But that reminds me of a trip to my old home in Aberdeen a couple of years ago.
When our host Stevie teased the young Irish group by apologising for not taking them to the haggis farm because he didn’t have time.
And I had to remind him ten minutes later to tell them that haggises weren’t small furry creatures.
Just in case it went into the article.
And here’s why you should go off the beaten track to visit one of Scotland’s truly great cities, Aberdeen… Aberdeen – a light in the north.
Also check out www.edinburgh.org and Edinburgh City Pass www.edinburghcitypass.com which gives you free entry to 22 city attractions.
I’ll bring you more misadventures from my homecoming but for now…
And remember Aer Lingus www.aerlingus.com and Ryanair www.ryanair.com.
MEET YOU ON THE ROAD
18 thoughts on “Edinburgh – an old friend”