Frills 'n' Spills

One of the (many) reasons why I love Twitter and the blogging community is how helpful everyone is! After I put a shout out on Twitter asking for recommendations for places to eat in Edinburgh, I had lot of really fab ideas and a list as long as my arm, of places we wanted to visit. We were lucky enough to get some restaurant vouchers for Christmas (best presents EVER!) and saved them up for our hols. Apologies for the Instagram shots, I was having too much fun stuffing my face to take proper pictures ;) 

I know that St Andrews is not technically in Edinburgh, but this Sunday night pud set the tone for the rest of the week: award-winning mint choc chip from Janettas Ice Cream Parlour. 

After dumping all of our stuff in our hotel, we headed straight to the National Gallery and enjoyed some cake in the sunshine. Very expensive but a lovely way to ease ourselves into a week of eating and drinking huge amounts! ;)

We decided to go for breakfast at Beanscene on our first day as it came highly recommended by lots of people and we both loved it. Fab atmosphere, brilliant food and really reasonable prices too. Well worth a visit if you can get to one!

You can't go to Scotland without having an IrnBru (or two!) One of my favourite drinks, I blame my Dad's Scottish roots...

Wagamamas is one of our favourite restaurants and although we loved the food (as always) the service in the Edinburgh branch was pretty awful :( This was massively disappointing as I have never had a bad experience with them up till now.

I really don't think there is a better named cafe anywhere in the world! Has Beans was ace and really pretty inside, they had a gorgeous map on the wall that I wanted to run off with! 

You don't get better comfort food than scrambled egg and beans on toast! 

French martinis always remind me of the lovely Lil, my Aussie blogger pals and a certain Aussome night on the London Eye ahem. These were delicious, I could definitely get used to drinking them! I now also have a special fondness for Holyrood 9a, as the lovely Daisy recognised me and came and said hello which totally made my evening! ❤

Edinburgh is one of my favourite places in the world and I was super psyched to show Mark around. In total we spent 2 whole days (plus an afternoon and a morning) and 3 evenings in the Scottish capital and enjoyed every minute. We took far too many photos and found it really difficult to narrow it down so I have just shared my favourites here. Apologies for the Insta-spam over the last week too, I got more than a little snap happy! ;)  I was pretty impressed with how much we managed to fit into our few short days here but there was plenty more we would have liked to have seen, I guess we will just have to book another trip! Many thanks to everyone who shared their recommendations for things to do and eat/drink, I will be sharing some of my favourite foodie places we tried over the next few days too if you are interested?

The castle may be a bit of a tourist cliche but it is pretty darn spectacular, especially in the sunshine!

Although I was keen to show Mark around one of my favourite cities, the main reason for us heading up to Scotland was to go for a meal to celebrate my auntie and uncle's 25th wedding anniversary and we went for a lovely meal at Forgans in St Andrews. We got to St Andrews a little earlier and spent an enjoyable afternoon strolling around the golf course and town and it was very pretty indeed, if a little blustery! 

If your dad was ever into golf like mine was, this will be a pretty familiar sight... 

My brother and I were never ones to follow the rules ;) Can you tell who got the tall genes in our family?! 

Mark always was the rule breaker in our relationship! 

These steps were pretty pointless but I was very excited when I saw them, as you can see from my super smiley face!

Hilarious street names are just par for the golf course...

The university is absolutely gorgeous and I very jealous of the beautiful surroundings the students found themselves in! 

Despite this being a graveyard, it was very pretty and very peaceful. 

Precarious looking ruins make for some pretty dramatic photos. St Andrews, it may have been a flying visit but it was fun! 

Princes Street Gardens- apparently this is an ice-rink in the winter which I imagine looks beautiful. 

The highlight of the day had to be this guy who I mentioned in my last post. This guy was the most hilarious bagpiper ever. He refused to play until someone gave him some money and then stopped after about 10 seconds, I don't think he was very keen on actually bagpiping! 

I was so excited to visit the Scottish National Gallery - I love visiting art galleries but living where I do, I don't get to do it very often so this was a lovely afternoon out. 

The floor was absolutely gorgeous and I love how the pattern had faded from all the feet trampling over it...

When I walked in and saw 'The Kiss' by Rodin, it was just the icing on the cake. This is one of my favourite sculptures and it is even better in the flesh. Apologies for the gazillion photos but I was practically jumping for joy at this point!

SWOON

Can you believe that this is CARVED OUT OF MARBLE?! Insane.

I love me a good sculpture and these two were so elegant. I love the flow of the drapery!

Isn't Lady Agnew of Lochnaw such a babe?! I loved her dress and her pose is so challenging, I think I'm in love! 

Do you like visiting art galleries? Which artists are your favourites?

Apologies for the delay since my last post, I spent the weekend staying with two of my best friends up in Edinburgh. I haven't been to Edinburgh since I was about ten so I couldn't remember much of it but as soon as I landed, I felt like I had come home.  I will definitely be visiting again sooner rather than later. The weather was gorgeous (apart from Sunday morning) and I took so many photos that I will have to split them into two posts, you still have the National Gallery and the world's most hilarious bagpiper to come!

...but actually I couldn't get over how good the weather was, it made a beautiful city look even more gorgeous!

Have you ever visited Edinburgh?