By the Sea Side

I had a good weekend here in Scot Town. I had thought for a while about going to Portobello to check it out. Someone at the local pub had mentioned it and said that it was Scotland's answer to the beach and that it is quite close to where i am. I was rather interested to see what the beach here would look like. I didn't expect to be able to go in the water but just to have a look. It had been a pretty miserable week in terms of the weather so i had given up on the idea of waiting till it was a sunny day before i went. I hadn't planned on going on Friday but thats the joy of not working. You dont need to necessarily have a plan for the day and can just change your mind. I saw a bus that said Potobello on it so i jumped on. It was about 20 minutes away from where i was so not far. Unofrtunately grey clouds loomed, so i had prayed they would hold off until i was at home!
Portobello wasn't such a bad place. It was like the sea side town that tried to be a sea side town. The fact you are i Scotland is where that falls short. I headed away from the town square and on to the beach. It's a huge stretch of sand and naturally there are no waves. There were a few people around, mainly parents with their kids building sand castles. No one was in the water. I looks to be the kind of place that had it's hey day many years ago and now needs a bit of a face lift. From what i understand it was a very popular vacation spot in the summer and was full of amusement arcades etc. Given how easy it is to now just fly to somewhere in Europe for the holidays i guess people dont take this option anymore. The sand wasn't too bad actually. Pretty much the same as DY Beach. So it was sandy with bits of rock n stuff in it. Along the walkway there were a cople of cafes and two arcades. It was getting to lunch time so i had a lunch in one of the cafes that overlooked the beach. It would be a nice place to go on a good day. Although i'm not sure how i'd go not being able to go in the water.
After lunch and with not much else to look at i got back on to the bus and headed to Ocean Terminal. I had decided that i was fed up with using the WiFi at Maccas and making the trek everyday to do that so i decided on biting the bullet and buying from mobile broadbrand from Carphone Warehouse. It turned out i could get it from 3 for 35 pounds so it wasn't too ridiculous. Now i just need to monitor the use and see if i bought enough GB's. Skype may use quite a bit and i like to stream Merrick and Rosso and listen to it at dinner.
Saturday i just hung around, did some house work and chilled out. I went to Totties bar early Saturday night for a few pints. People are very friendly and buy ou drinks so i drunk too much and felt pretyt worse for wear. I ended up going home about two hours later and just crashing. Having drunk too much the nght before i spent Sunday doing plenty of sleeping and enjoying a fatty lunch of KFC whilst reading Scotland on Sunday. All in all, not bad!
I have two job interviews lined up this week which keeps me on the edge, gotta love that. So i let Monday be a day of doing some research for the interviews and just keeping a low profile as the days that follow will be a bit nerve racking.

On a final note, this weekend definetly saw the start of the festival season which i am quite excited about! I walked over to the Grassmarket and saw that they were planning the day's Mardi Gras celebrations and then over at the Royal Mile they had a samba group playing complete with dances. All the signs are starting to go up and the crowds are definently pouring in. Cant wait!

Portobello



Amusement arcade along the beach



The Grassmarket gearing up for the festival



Samba!