wedding
Today was the wedding - I'm not going to go into great detail, because you don't know my friends so you won't be interested in their outfits, but suffice to say it was brilliant, I got to dance at a ceilidh (Scottish Country Dancing, and great fun) and every midge in Scotland welcomed me home. I even survived the two hours sleep, and sitting next to my ex in the church. For the whole service. Actually, I cried right throughthe whole service - I was tired, emotional, adn my firends were so obviously still head over heels in love with each other... well, I'm an eejit, and the only way to survive the photos was to borrow exes new girlfriend's make up mirror. Classy! Making up for it slightly was the fact I was sitting next to a really interesting guy at dinner, who has travelled a lot, and was just back from Malawi. I may have been slightly hyper by now - three glasses of champagne on three hours sleep is neither big nor clever - I do hope I didn't scare him!
Midges - well, I'll post a travel tip, but they are very friendly mini-mosquitos. As far as I know, they don't transmit diseases. But they hang out in clouds and they do bite. A lot. Beware of midges. The next morning I gave up counting at about 56 bites - no exageration - and they scar. Sigh...
There are several National Galleries in Edinburgh, including the national portrait gallery on Queen Street, the National Gallery of Modern Art near Dean Village, and the one that everyone knows about it in the neoClassical Building on Princes Street. I think that's probably the one that htis title refers to, so it's the one that I'll talk about here, but all of them are worth a quick trip.
Stunningly located just under the Castle, with a recent refurbishment that added under ground links to the Royal Scottish Academy Building in front of it adn a new shiny cafe, the National Gallery is well worth a look. As well as the obvious names (there is a room up some stairs, pretty well hidden, with some top notch Impressionists and a couple of pretty good Van Goghs of trees which I love) there are some lesser known Scottish artists, including some of the Colourists and the Glasgow School.
There is a free cloackroom, so it's also quite handy if you have an hour til your train and need to do something with your bag.
