Anticipating Spring*

A blue door somewhere around Broughton. The beautiful blue sky is not in the pictures, unfortunately

After weeks of grey sky, rain, heavy wind and a bit of very wet snow that did not stay for long, now and then, we had such a nice day here in Edinburgh, today! Seriously, I hadn’t thought that I was such a “weather” person that needs the sun to be happy and feels depressed when it’s raining (in this case I would probably not have come to Scotland) but today, I simply couldn’t stay in my room, went outside just to walk around a bit, and I was just sooo happy. Everyone’s speaking about it and “look how nice it is here”-photos are coming in on facebook. People driving around in open convertibles, roof-top/balcony parties, sun glasses, nice, not that super-warm clothes and everyone seems so light-hearted! Actually the temperature was still below 10 degrees, but that deep blue sky…

I first couldn’t decide between walking around in the city and taking a bus to the sea, but then chose the first option and went to Broughton and Stockbridge, which is not too far from my place, but somehow I’m just never there. In Edinburgh you have two centres, the gorgeous Old Town, full of authentic (and less authentic) pubs, students, and tourists, and the New Town (also old, just newer than the Old Town) around George and Princes Street with its many, many shops and chic, expensive bars, clubs and restaurants and also loads of tourists. And then there are numerous parts of town that we (me and my friends) for whatever reason never go to. Maybe because most of us live close to University in the Old Town and so we have pretty much everything  within a walking distance and don’t feel taking a few more steps to new places? Anyways, I went to Broughton and Stockbridge, don’t really know where one ends and the other one begins, and it was just so nice! Georgian architecture, many nice, charming cafés, organic food, art galleries, the water of Leith river (see posting), apparently the gay quarter, individually dressed people. This probably sounds terribly exaggerated, but I almost got a London-Shoreditch vibe. Once a week, every Sunday, there is a little market at the heart of Stockbridge, where you can get various kinds of home-made and/or organic food, some arts and crafts, and even a new accessory for your dog. To keep it short: the perfect place for a day like this!

Let’s see what next week will bring in terms of weather. The forecast looks not too bad, just colder. Moreover I’m going North in the middle of the week, fingers crossed that we’ll have at least a bit of sun!

* Having written down the title of this posting, I now have Laura Pausini x James Blunt’s Primavera in Anticipo, which means pretty much the same, in my head. Could be worse…