Visitors Week

It was a week of visiting guests for us here at Churchill House last week. My cousin Dimple and her husband Ed decided to book a last-minute trip to Edinburgh the day before my big exam. Craving for anything familial and familiar, I was excited to meet them Tuesday afternoon even though I had to rush out of work at 4 to view a flat at half 4, then rushed out of that to go to Hollyrood Palace where we decided to meet. I told them to go around the Palace while they waited for me but unfortunately, royalty was also in town which meant that the Palace was closed to visitors until the 25th of June.

To welcome them properly to Edinburgh, I had Ed and Dimple try Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties (translation: Haggis, Turnips, and Mashed Potatoes) at the local pub, the World's End. Haggis is Scotland's version of what we Filipinos call sisig. It's sheep's heart, lung and liver cooked in a pig's stomach for a couple of hours. It sounds gross but like sisig, is actually pretty good. After scarfing down our food, we walked around the city, touring Calton Hill then the Princes Street Gardens. Around 8pm, I rushed back home and crammed for my Acoustics exam the following day.

Scottish Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties

The dreaded Wednesday came, and my exam was actually not that bad. For the first time in years, I took an exam which asked me what I know. I guess I am really miles away from De La Salle. Anyhow, I met with Dimps and Ed that afternoon and we did the Mary King's close dungeon tour which personally, I found disappointing. I have been on other ghost tours before and I enjoyed them more than this one. That night, to celebrate their last night in Edinburgh, I took them to another famous local pub, called The Royal Oak. It was smaller to the pubs I usually go to but this one is famous for its folk music so for the ultimate Scottish experience, I decided to take them there. Every week, a bunch of old Scottish men would sing these folk songs either in acapella or with a guitar and violin in the background. They would encourage us to sing along, muttering the lyrics so we could join in. Even the bartender would play the mandolin if he wasn't busy attending to the customers. I was told that all the people who worked there knew how to play at least one instrument. It was really cool and we found ourselves singing with the old men and having fun.

Inside The Royal Oak Pub

Megan's friend Sarah was also visiting that week. She is a bit quiet but she is an awesome girl and for her last day here, we took her to Portobello beach where we had proper fish and chips facing the sea, because, as my friend Gwen would say, that's the only way to eat fish and chips. True enough, it was the best fish and chips I have ever had since I've been here. Being in Portobello made me all warm inside even though it was about 14 degrees. And even though the weather wasn't perfect, it didn't rain. So I took off my shoes and ran and skipped and dug my toes on the sand like I did back home. I have never been happier in weeks.

My food and my feet

Oh Holy Week...

It's Easter Sunday today and although I have plans to cook dinner with a few friends tonight, I can't help but feel homesick. In my family, Holy week comes second to Christmas for the most important holiday to look forward to during the year. While other Catholics fast, reflect and pray during this time, my family likes to go to some remote beach paradise so we can bake in the sun and drink the night away while singing cheesy telenovela-inspired love songs with the karaoke machine.

This is not my first time to miss one of our annual island get-aways but I suppose being in a non-religious country during the event that practically inspired my faith just didn't feel right to me. And since being in this God forsaken country means never having to enjoy a warm day at the beach anyway, I decided to do a religious practice that I have not done in years. I messaged my Maltese friend Julienne and convinced her to do the Bisita Iglesia (7 visits to churches) with me on Good Friday. Julienne, who is also a Catholic, tells me that they do the same thing in Malta and since she was homesick as well, she said yes to my brilliant plan. The only problem is, can we find 7 Catholic churches in Edinburgh? With the power of Google earth, I had a list of 9 potential Catholic churches within minutes. But then, I found out that 3 of these churches are so far we would need to take a bus in order to go there. We don't have the time or money to do that. So, Julienne and I decided to just walk around in the hopes that maybe, we might just discover a "secret" church while going to the other 6.

And so began our mission to go to 7 churches around the city. We braved the Scottish wind, encountered homeless weirdos, tripped over the cobblestoned streets, and endured starvation (okay, LIE, Julienne was the only one who fasted, I couldn't last 5 hours of walking without food). The point is, we were the only idiots in the entire city who seemed to be doing the bisita iglesia. And that made me sad. There was even one church that was closed! On Good Friday! And they call themselves Catholic. Tsktsktsk. It was actually funny because we ended up praying outside the church door, using its cross carving as the well, altar cross and we couldn't stop laughing. We counted that church anyway.

Around 5 o'clock, we have already visited 5 churches and just needed 2 more. But it was too late to go anywhere else and the bus times have been changed due to the road works around the city. We decided to cheat and had tea at Starbucks instead. It was the best damn tea ever. Around 7pm now fully recharged, we walked to St. Mary's Cathedral where we joined the congregation for the Stations of the Cross completing our Bisita Iglesia. Well, minus one.