Joyce to the World: Edinburgh, Scotland

It's my second time in what has become one of my favorite cities in the world, and things were just as beautiful, probably even better, since I had the pleasure of meeting up with one of my good friends from Manila, Claudine. She grew up in the UK and went to art school in the Philippines, where I met her while I was in Iloilo for a TED Talk event. Just a few weeks after going back to be based in the UK, I hunted her down and made her take the train to Edinburgh to spend the weekend with me. Haha.

People often ask what I love so much about Edinburgh, and I can never fully explain my answer. It's just the whole old-new world vibe that it gives. With semi gothic, fully vintage, partially modern - buildings that crawl its cobbled streets, musicians and performers posted in different parts of the city, its vast mountains and castles that envelope the center, the tram that lines it from one end to another, the sea that one can see when you stand on the North Bridge..everything about the place is beautiful, most especially its people.

The best way to discover this city is to literally just walk everywhere and ask the locals. They're some of the friendliest and most helpful people you will meet and everyone is drunk by 6pm, so more often than not, you'll get a good reco. Claud and I just went into different buildings, ate and pub-crawled by ourselves. It's also helpful to have your Google Maps on, as it has this new feature which can direct you to the nearest fave spots for local eateries, pubs, clubs, museums, etc.

We had great timing, as a lot of the games were happening that week so most of the pubs were busy and teeming with crazy Scotish, Irish, English, locals and tourists, who were happy to welcome 2 Asian girls crashing their tables.

After going to pubs and eating everything we could find on the streets that looked delicious, we stumbled our way upon one of the clubs, danced, then went home to our super-pretty, super-cheap, Air BnB!

The next day we bought our train tickets to Leeds, (which I already posted about and you can find here,) then went around a bit more through the shops before heading out.