Episode 48 - Edinburgh 🏴
Scotland! I finally made it!
I first heard about Edinburgh after a Rugby World Cup match in Paris. I went with the group of Parisians to a nearby bar, and chatted them up the entire way there.
Among this group of Parisians were two imposters — me and a Scottish bloke. He was from Edinburgh, and told me many tales of Cowgate Street, dragon soup, and the epicness of the Scottish capital.
Fast forward to last September, and my random roommate at the co-op, Finlay, just so happens to be from the University of Edinburgh.
And fast forward to now, and I’m finally here. Edinburgh! I have arrived!
If this is your first episode and you’re like “what in the world is happening”, start off here.
Saturday, April 19th, 2025
Once I was dropped off in Manchester (thanks again, Eleanor and Jacob), I had a few minutes to kill before the train left for Edinburgh. And that, of course, could only mean one thing.
A meal deal! The greatest invention of the UK!
Got a delightful pain au chocolat + regular coffee + sandwich selection, then headed to Manchester Victoria to catch the train. It was smooth sailing to Leeds, then smooth sailing to York1, and then smooth sailing to Edinburgh! I was told many times that the train route up to Edinburgh was beautiful, and it did not disappoint — stunning coastline, pretty flowers, and great vibes the entire way up.
I was particularly excited to visit Edinburgh because my roommate this year, Finlay, is on exchange at UCLA from the University of Edinburgh, and I’ve been pestering him with questions about Scotland all year2. And it was pretty crazy because 8 months after meeting him, it was finally time to visit his homeland3!
Scotland, here I come!
Right away, I was impressed with Edinburgh — the train station (Waverly) is right in the middle of the city, and as soon as you walk out, you’re greeted with the most gorgeous architectural facade of your life, that of the Old Town. I’m talking castles, huge towers, churches, you name it. I half expected a wizard to walk out and cast a spell on me, it was that awesome!
And I mean that in the literal sense of the word. I was just standing there in awe.
After immediately going to a haggis shop and ordering myself a nice haggis dish4, I celebrated my arrival to a new major city in my normal fashion and headed to the Apple Store. It was a pretty nice one, and I finished up my Liverpool/Manchester blog before being politely kicked out by the security guards for being too handsome.
And since my devotion to absolute objectivity is notorious, you know that’s exactly what happened.
In reality, the store closed at 6 and they were trying to get everyone out the building. lol
Once the Apple Store’s customer base was brought back to its normal level of handsomeness (translation: I left the building), I walked across Old Town to get to Rachel’s apartment. It was finally time to meet Finlay’s friend!
Finlay had told me a lot about his friend Rachel, and I had just barely missed meeting her in California when she came to visit for two weeks for spring break (I think I literally moved out the day before she arrived). I was particularly excited to meet her and hear all about her LA adventures, especially because the first text she ever sent me was “Hey Dennis, excited to meet the curator of such a famous art gallery, really gave the Getty a run for its money”.
The art gallery she’s referring to, of course, is the delightful E-Wing gallery that I spent 2 months curating in my co-op hallway5.
Boy, was I excited to meet Rachel.
And of my goodness, was that excitement warranted! Rachel is SO amazing, and we had simply the best time meeting each other and chatting — she’s from Banff (Scotland, not Canada), studies law at Edi, and loves her dogs very, very, very much. I think I saw her dogs on her phone lock screen about 75 times over the course of two days, and I wish I had seen them more. They were really cute!
Later, Finlay and Rachel’s friends Paulina and Stanley pulled up, and we had the best dinner ever. Rachel cheffed up some truly delightful food + baked some AMAZING garlic bread (I do love garlic bread), and we just had the best time chatting about everything and anything.
Topics of conversations included (but very much not limited to):
So much fucking co-op lore. The co-op might be the gossip and drama center of the universe, and Finlay is at the center of the co-op. Myself being Finlay’s roommate and also on the co-op’s board of directors (had to flex that) meant that I was privy to, let’s just say, an entire TEAPOT of tea. Someone had to spill that tea. And I was happily that someone!
Paulina and Stan’s post-grad jobs in London — Paulina at a fintech, Stan at a video game company that basically clones board games into online versions. That man loves video games and is 100% going to start his own studio one day. Please let me invest in it because I know it’s gonna be the greatest video game studio of all time. I must also mention that he’s stalked the DELIGHTFUL pentolla.com for UI research purposes and that his company’s adaptation of the Settlers of Catan is called colonists.io6
Scotland’s free university education for Scottish students and the semi-related financial difficulties of the University of Edinburgh. You gotta love those financial difficulties
The UC system, and how it might be the greatest engine of upward economic mobility ever (besides just all of America lol). I get so patriotic talking about California when I’m abroad
Perplexity, Cursor, and the creation of DennisGPT. Paulina was very excited that my sister works at Cursor, and what can I say? I have a goated sister :)
Blogging and writing, and how it’s so nice to have a blog. So nice, in fact, that I’m writing about how nice blogs are… on my blog. I then showed Stan Nathan’s piece on his blogging style, which I can’t recommend enough for someone looking to chronicle their thoughts and adventures but keep it more private. Nathan, you’re the goat (but you know that already)
And after a lovely evening of dinner, conversation, lore, and laughter, it was off to bed! I had the good fortune to sleep on the most comfortable floor in existence (Rachel’s), and had a sock thing full of water to hug all night to keep warm. It’s so cool — you fill a sock contraption with boiling water, and it keeps you cozy and snuggly all night long.
I already love Scotland!
Sunday, April 20th
I woke up around 9, and chilled until Rachel came back home around 10. She has two 5000-word papers to write in the next week7, and then she’s all done with her undergraduate studies! The momentous visit of mine doesn’t put a stop to that deadline, unfortunately, especially considering that Rachel already spent two of the six weeks she had to write the papers balling out with Finlay in LA.
You gotta do what you gotta do!
Rachel and I had a lovely breakfast and a nice coffee (her espresso machine is really nice), and went off for a nice stroll around Edinburgh. It was Easter Sunday, so we headed in the direction of Bruntsfield Links to see if we could find an Easter Egg hunt.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t one (despite Perplexity telling me there was supposed to be one there), but fortunately, there were a bunch of golfers out and about doing their morning golfing. It was quite fun to watch them play (they weren’t very good), and clap dramatically when they made a nice shot.
I can be quite dramatic when the occasion calls for it. Such as Scottish golfing on Easter morning. What can I say!
It was already around lunchtime at this point, so we continued our stroll in the direction of the university to get some falafel wraps near there. Along the way, Rachel and I discussed in DEPTH the Scottish legal perspective on my sock dilemma8, and there were even some features from Roman law. Rachel does love her Roman law.
We eventually made it to the kebab shop, where we had a grand decision to make — Nile Valley, or Africano’s. Both are wrap shops on a street corner, and they literally are adjacent shops with the exact same menus, pricing, and (effectively) taste. Each student prefers a different shop, and becomes a cult-like customer of that shop and derides everyone who eats at the other one.
I absolutely love it. Random competition and tribalism over wrap shops?? Yes, please!
Stan (from the night before) told me that he prefers Africano’s, but Rachel and Paulina preferred Nile Valley9, and since I was with Rachel, I decided to have Nile Valley, too. It was delicious, and cheap! HUGE dub at the falafel shop, with a great conversation in Edinburgh plaza about school patriotism and my axioms of existence.
After lunch, Rachel showed me a bit around the university (the old court buildings and golden boy with his torch of knowledge were cool), and then we parted ways — she was off to write more words, I to explore the city!
I started off with a scenic hike up Arthur’s Seat, the extinct volcano in the middle of Edinburgh with 360° views of the entire city. I walked up a random scramble approach straight up the main face, took in the views from the top, and walked quickly down the touristy path. On the descent, I also found a very well-hidden D5/T4.5 geocache in the cliff face, then chilled on the grass to read some more of the book and enjoy the really nice weather!
Again, the weather on this entire UK trip has been nothing short of amazing (aside from Liverpool), and it’s pretty crazy that I’m visiting places that experience rain and cloud coverage 300 days of the year, and it’s perfectly sunny when I’m there. Lucky me! Or maybe it’s just me bringing California weather over to the Isles. Who knows
Besides hiking up Arthur’s Seat, the other main touristy thing to do in Edinburgh is to walk the Royal Mile, the main street in Old Town with a bunch of cute shops, churches, and eventually, the Edinburgh Castle. And so I found myself walking up this Royal Mile, where I walked into the 900-year-old St. Giles Church, with some of the most beautiful architecture ever.
But that was not the main reason I was impressed by St. Giles Church, no no no! The highlight of that experience was that scattered all throughout the interior of this ecclesiastical wonder were electronic card readers, where you could donate to the church by card or ON YOUR PHONE without having to actually having to take out any physical cash. This church was ancient, but its money collection was as modern as could be.
With churches doing their cash collection like this, I have no doubt that if Jesus were alive today, he’d be wearing a quarter zip Patagonia and ordering salads at Sweetgreen.
Continuing up the Royal Mile, I popped into a witch shop, skimmed a cool history book about Scotland, and chatted with the very friendly door greeter, Matt. Another customer asked him where the Harry Potter store was, and he helpfully pointed out directions to them on how to get there.
I didn’t know that there even was a Harry Potter store, so I, of course, asked Michael how to get there, too:
After a failed attempt to get into the Edinburgh Castle (the tickets sold out weeks ago, so that solved that problem), I headed back down the Royal Mile to see that aforementioned Harry Potter store. Along the way, I saw the funniest sight of the entire trip so far: a tiny Asian lady taking a picture with a tall Scottish man. It was quite the scene:
You just have to love tourists.
I eventually made it to Harry Potter store, which had a long line outside the door to get in. 15 minutes later, I was inside, and it honestly wasn’t even that cool — the one at King’s Cross in London is way cooler, though I did buy a butter beer for the vibes. Yes, I know it was a tourist trap. But, as I’d like to point out, I am a tourist, so it makes sense that I got trapped.
I must also add that the butter beer was terrible. Please don’t buy it.
It was also outside the Harry Potter store that I saw my favorite plaque in all of the UK. In every British city I’ve been to so far, there are plaques on nearly every building saying things like, “Billy Bob Joe lived here” or “Priscillita Lebronita wrote her manifesto in this cafe”, and I know the person/event about 3% of the time. Then, I saw this plaque, which was such a breath of fresh air that I had to laugh:
After the Harry Potter store and fun plaque adventure, I continued strolling around Edinburgh — I saw the cemetery where JK Rowling got a bunch of her Harry Potter names from10, had a nice espresso and pastry in a coffeeshop I was recommended by my sister’s former co-worker (long story), saw a portrait of a guy who was on the wrong side of a civil war and subsequently hung, drawn, and quartered on Edinburgh’s High Street (longer story11), and was given a morality lecture by a pro-Palestine grandma from New York in a random bookshop over my reading habits (longest story of them all12).
Wow, what a crazy sentence. And what a crazy day.
At 6, I met up with Rachel and Paulina at St. Giles Church (back here again!) to enjoy a free organ performance that the church was putting on for Easter Sunday. I saw a sign for this performance when I was in the church that morning, and invited Rachel and Paulina to come watch the performance with me.
It was amazing. I actually cried during the first song (it was that epic), and I can totally see now why everyone was religious back in the day. Imagine being a Scottish peasant 500 years ago, doing backbreaking work in the fields all day, and then you come into this amazing building and hear that music. No wonder everyone believed in God.
And for me, it was just so crazy to me that I was there, on the other side of the world, with people who were strangers yesterday but already friends today, listening to some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard. What a truly special moment, and what a crazy feeling that was. I don’t think I’d ever forget it.
After taking a picture with the Master of Music13, Rachel and I dropped off our bags at her apartment, changed into running clothes, and were off to the beach. You know what they say — no better way to celebrate a 14-mile walk with a 6-mile run!
Once we arrived at Portobello, we had some delicious pizza at Civerinos, called Brooke and Finlay, and watched the beautiful sunset. That entire beachfront really reminded me of San Diego, and felt just like SoCal. Wild.
We took the bus home, bought some chocolate14, and went off to bed. What a day!
Monday, April 21st
Monday morning, Rachel and I had a bit of a lie-in before a delicious scrambled egg and coffee breakfast. And then we were off!
The first stop of the day was the Future’s Institute, probably the coolest building I’ve been to in all of the UK. It was recently renovated, and it is this massive, multi-story study space with tons of tables, chairs, nooks, crannies, and rooms to study and collaborate in. Kinda like YRL, but way, way nicer. We’re talking nice stone floors, wooden banisters, stained glass windows, artwork everywhere, simply wow.
The best part of the Future’s Institute is its Tea Points — all throughout the building, hidden in little side walkways, are mini kitchenettes with tea bags, mugs, and kettles to make tea when needed. I found it so funny that all throughout this British study space are ample resources to make an emergency cup of tea whenever needed. The stereotypes about British people loving tea seem to be very, very true!
After a bit of studying, blogging, and installing WhatsApp on Rachel’s computer15, we split ways as she went off to another library to continue studying, and I went off to lunch.
And in my effort to be an unbiased and thorough anthropological observer of the UK, it was clear to me that I just HAD to go to Africano’s to try their wraps, too.
I must say, I’m now Team Africano’s — the wraps there were tastier, and I respected the hustle of its workers more than Nile Valley’s. Stan, I’m 100% on your side! Those Nile Valley fans have no idea what they’re missing over there at the adjacent shop16.
After lunch, I walked back across Edinburgh to check out the Modern One Museum (highly recommend), then walked along the river from Modern One over to Stockbridge to try out some delicious pastries there.
I was also recommended this walk by Stan, and he is 2/2 on Edinburgh recommendations (Africano’s and now this) — it was stunning! I didn’t listen to any music on that walk, but rather just enjoyed the sounds of the birds chirping and the water rushing the entire way.
Once in Stockbridge (a nice trendy New Town part of Edi), I got myself a nice rhubarb pastry and coffee at söderberg, finished reading my book17 while the two girls next to me gossiped excessively, walked back across New Town18, checked out a botanical shop that sold terrariums (they were pretty neat), climbed up Calton Hill for some epic views, bought some pain au chocolats, got some easter egg stickers19, and headed back to Rachel’s.
And it was so nice to be back with her. It was honestly pretty crazy that we had met less than 48 hours prior, but already were such great friends. It’s crazy how that can happen!
After another legal discussion about my sock dilemma (during which Rachel whipped out her Scottish law textbooks and found me an amazing legal loophole under Scottish law)20, we walked back to the Waverly station, I got in the first-class carriage, and I was off to Kirckaldy!
Thank you so much Rachel, Paulina, and Stan for the amazing time in Edinburgh :)
Some more anthropological observations:
I love that in Scotland, everyone uses the word “scheme” to describe any organization doing a thing. For me, “scheme” just sounds so much mischievous, and it's really funny to me that everyone's like, “Yeah, we're organizing a scheme”. Whenever I hear that word, I just think of Uhtovio Scorandum and the ECO. iykyk
A lot of Scottish rooms and bathrooms have their lights on the outside of the door. That’s pretty funny to me, because it makes it so easy to prank someone by turning the light off while they’re in the bathroom, and then they can’t do anything. “Oh no! I’m taking a shit and someone turned off the bathroom light, and now I can’t see when I wipe!” My goodness, it’d be so fun to prank my siblings like that
Rachel thinks that Americans overuse the word “cool” way too much, and that so many things we say are “cool” are not cool at all. I think that’s a pretty cool observation
Media appendix:
The original York, not the new one!
You’ll hear much more about Finlay in Episode 49, don’t worry!
Finlay was born in Yorkshire, so one could (and many have) argue that he’s actually English, not Scottish. But Finlay will NEVER admit that he’s English, not in a million years
Haggis is a Scottish dish that is basically just cooked sheep intestines and other assorted yummy ingredients. You actually can’t get it in the US since the import of sheep intestines is illegal, so I made sure to eat one upon arrival in Scotland. There’s also an epic poem that is read to the haggis itself on special occasions, which, of course, I made Finlay recite to me in a very Scottish accent back when we lived together at UCLA
There’ll be a much more in-depth post just on this art gallery soon, don’t worry!
That’s what happens when the founders don’t speak English as their first language and use a thesaurus to find a synonym for settlers 😭
I love that European students describe their workload by how many words they need to write; Joe and Emma do the same thing!
This is a veeeeery long story that I won’t go into now
I later learned she’s never actually tried Africano’s lol
I had no idea, but JK Rowling basically went to a cemetery in Edinburgh, read all the tombstones, and got the names for most of her main characters off the graves. And now there are a bunch of guided tours in this cemetery, pointing out these different tombstones and what characters they inspired. Kinda crazy tbh
It was in the National Portrait Museum, for which I saw an advertisement bulletin in a nearby park. Seems like the ad worked!
Long story short, she couldn’t fathom that as a straight white man, I didn’t spend all my time and energy advocating for Palestinian liberation
He was the one who played the epic organ music
Rachel really wanted me to try to jelly belly chocolate, but I wasn’t the biggest fan
Can’t believe she didn’t have that before this weekend lol
In the interest of preserving my methodological accuracy, I must disclaim that I only tried the chicken avocado wraps at both Nile Valley and Africanos. Jury is still out on the falafel wraps
It’s called the Meth Lunches, highly recommend
The urban design in New Town is very Parisian, though the building material seems to be Bath Stone-esque
The story here is that the day before, Paulina spotted that a store was giving out a prize if you could find all the easter eggs on display in their windowsill, and I came back today to get our prize since it was already closed the day before when we walked by. I could only find six, but it turns out that there were actually ten
It was also during this sock discussion that Rachel and I learned the Pope died. R.I.P. Francis
AFRICANO NUMBER ONE NILE VALLEY FOOLS TREMBLE AND BEGONE BEFORE AFRICANO’S SUPERIOR FUUL AND LUSTROUS BABA GANOUSH
Hahaha so surreal to see you in Edinburgh with MY friends! Hi Paulina and Stan and Rachel!