Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland since 1437. It is the seventh largest city in the United Kingdom and the second largest Scottish city after Glasgow. Edinburgh is one of Scotland's 32 loca government council areas. EK we only fly to GLASGOW instead of Edinburgh, personally, I prefer Edingburgh rather than GLA. We stayed in Glasgow downtown for 1 day, a short layover basically, however, I already made the plan to go to Edinburgh as soon as we arrive the hotel. Finally, 3 of us came to agreement and all of us were keen to visit this historical city in Scotland!
Edinburgh is also a busy, noisy place with a spectacular landscape of hills and crags. The buildings of this vibrant capital city, from the historic houses of the Royal Mile to the elegant Georgian terraces and crescents of the New Town, offer the perfect complement to the natural setting. The city's layout is linear, in a pattern set by Castle Rock and Castle Ridge, down which the Royal Mile descends to the palace of Holyroodhouse. North of this lies a shallow valley holding the lovely Princes Street Gardens, with Waverley Station, the city's main railroad station at the eastern end. Above the gardens, and to the north is Edinburgh's main street, Princes Street. This is an ideal vantage point from which to view the castle and Old Edinburgh.
We took the train, 45 minutes later we were in front of those gorgeous contemporaneous arquitectures, just like pictures, I loved them sooo much! Walking on the elegant streets brough me such a feeling as if I were born in the 15th century...The weather was chilling, cold, but not windy...between 1 and 0 degree...freezing! I bought 2 scarf with typical scottish design at only 12 pounds!
Edinburgh's famous castle is especially beautiful. Upon entering the city, it commands immediate attention. The eye of the visitor is drawn to the impressive structure rising high above everything else on its sheer granite cliffs. There are incredible panoramic views from the upper stories of the castle, including a clear view of the distant sea. The castle sits high on the huge rock formation that juts out as if in defiance of any who would seek to invade Edinburgh. Castle Rock, as it is known, is inaccessible on three sides, and has a long, descending ridge on the fourth side.
This flight most of the times is full of tourists and local people and the way back to Dubai was demanding as hell...don't know why? Drinking the way tooooo much and almost ran out of our wine stocks!!! By far this is the most demanding flight ever...Ok, back to the beautiful Cape Town, since we only have 24 hours layover for a 9 hours flight...uhhhhh~so annoying! I was damn tired after that sector and still had to meet up the crew in the lobby after getting changed in my room. Felt so sleepy and exhausted but couldn't waste my time on the bed...so yeah we took the shuttle bus to Water Front in which you can visit the harbour, shopping centre and nice restaurants...of course you gotta taste the authentic South African wines! Semi-sweet wine...which a lot of passengers had asked me for it on board~I am not a wine lover, so whatever~heee hee...
After clubbing the whole night, believe me~on Wednesday night everywhere was dead...not much to see plus we had a silly crew only brough his basketball short and one T-shirt to this beautiful city...I felt so unconfortable because most of the bars don't allow you in with shorts and tennis...but 3 of us went to have some drinks and he specially had his HOT TEA, because he was not feeling well and had sore throat...lol...plus his dress and hot tea...can you picture it???!!!
The next day one of the crew woke me up and convinced me to do a quick sightseeing with HOP ON & HOP OFF bus which I have never done before...and I definitely loved it! Only cost me 120 rands, so we left the hotel around 9:20am to catch the bus heading to the Table mountain and Camps bay beach!!! As shown on my photos below, as of a sudden, i falled in love with Cape Town, such a beautiful and charming city I have ever seen! Blue sky, blue water, white sands, table mountain, lion head, plus lovely people...there is a antique quote in China saying that: The perfect place always comes with mountain and water! which is true! no doubt! Hopefully I can visit Cape Town on my own in the near future!!!
At night we went to have a typical morrocan tea which is made of mint, taste sweet but refreshing at the same time~! Unfortunately people in morroco don't speak much english, only arabic and french...sometimes italian...anyway, none of us speak their language therefore body language was applied once again to get our meal choice! This is the funny thing travelling around the world meeting different culture and people. That's how I like being a steward!
