Arrival

Okay, this is only three and a half weeks late...

I left London by train at 7am on a Friday. The plan was to stay in a youth hostel, but they were all booked up so I found a self-catering flat that was cheaper than staying in a bed and breakfast. It was such a gorgeous flat! It was on the top floor of a nice building in Leith, the coastal neighborhood northeast of the city center. I immediately pulled out my camera and took a picture of the view:

That's the Firth of Forth (the sea) out there.

Carina's friend, Tom, texted me the day before saying that his friend might have a flat I could live in, so even though I felt shy, I texted her to meet up. I'm so glad I did because she is super nice and wonderful. Sadly, her flatmates didn't want her to sublet her room, so I couldn't move in there, but we had drinks anyway. Then we went to meet a bunch of her friends in a pub, and I got chatted up by a boy. Bear in mind, I'd only been in the city for 12 hours.

In the bathroom at the pub, instead of the usual trashy graffiti, I found this and it only further validated my feeling that I'd made the right move in my life.



After three days, I had to leave the self-catering flat. I moved in with Corrado and his partner (who knits!) and their friggin' adorable two-year-old daughter, who calls me "Ciocia" (Polish for "aunty"). It was so nice of them to let me stay, they are my saviors! But I was having trouble finding a flat, and after two weeks with no luck, I needed to move on before I became a guest of indefinite duration. You know what they say about house guests and fish: both start to stink after three days.

So I talked to Sian again (Tom's friend) and she said her flatmates wouldn't mind me staying in her old room for a week, so that's where I am now. It's an enormous flat, and this room is the biggest. It's absolutely massive and has two big windows with window seats. And I managed to find a studio flat that is decently nice, not extortionately expensive, and really close to work (in the nice part of town)! Yaaaaaaaaayyy! Unfortunately, I can't move in until next Monday, which means another week of living out of suitcases. Oh well, it could be worse! I could be in a youth hostel. :-S Grim.

Now I can't wait to move, and use all my pretty new dishes, and decorate my new place, and start knitting again, and have lots and lots of lovely people come visit me!