Edinburgh: Part 1 - Day 1: Arrival

For my birthday this year, I travelled to Scotland. This country has never been in my bucketlist to visit. Heck, I have never even thought of this country before. Then, my boyfriend mentioned that he would like to visit Scotland to do a castle tour. So, I thought why not travel to Scotland for my birthday then. I was not enthusiastic about visiting the country. I was just happy that I will be travelling to a new country! I bought return tickets for 4011kr, after utilising a 905kr discount (by using my flight points). It was definitely not cheap although I bought the tickets 3 months in advance at the end of June. It was a direct flight with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and it will take about 2 hours. During the trip, I noticed that there were lots of tourists and I understand the reason now why the flight tickets are expensive, although it was after the summer holidays. I just checked on Skyscanner and you can get cheap flights about 2400kr in July but there are not direct flights - long layover in London for about 12 hours. Anyway, we did not do any castle hopping tour because staying in a castle is way over my budget. 

Here is how our trip looked like:

Edinburgh (2 nights) --> Rented a car and drove to Isle of Skye (3 nights) --> Drove back to Edinburgh and stopped in Inverness (1 night) --> Edinburgh (1 night) --> Flight back

Day 1 (Evening)

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 1 Evening.

23/9 Day 1: Airport --> Airbnb at Leith --> Dinner at Innis & Gunn pub

Costs

(A) Transport and accommodation

(1) Tram return ticket from terminal (airport) towards New Haven. Alight at The Shore station - £9.50

(2) 2 nights in AirBnb in Leith for 2 persons - SEK3107,69 including service fees of SEK466,10

(B) Food

(1) Dinner at Innis & Gunn - Fish and chips £16.50, Sour beer £4.65

The Story

23092023: Our scheduled flight at 2.05pm was delayed to 6pm. We got a 75kr voucher that we used to buy sandwiches and a drink at Pressbyrån, a convenience store in the airport. The flight was delayed as the technicians were repairing a broken sensor on the left wing of the airplane. We landed in Edinburgh airport at about 7.10pm Scotland time, instead of the intended 3.20pm. We waited for our luggages and by the time we came out of the airport, it was 7.35pm. We bought the tram tickets from the ticket machine that were right in front of the airport exit. The airport is small, so it does not take long to exit the airport.

Update to the post: As we reached our destination 3 hours later than planned, I submitted a compensation request in SAS website (upon our return to Stockholm) and I heard back from the customer service 10 days later. They approved my compensation request and we were compensated EUR250 each! 

A train attendant came and check the tram tickets. She manually ticked on our tickets to show that they were utilised. We kept the tickets so that we can use the return ticket on our way back. There is no deadline to use the return ticket. Otherwise, a single ticket will cost £7. The tram ride took about 50 minutes. 

For Airbnbs in Scotland, most of them are shared with the owners, as in the owners live in the house too. In all the Airbnbs that I have stayed during my travels, I stayed in places that were rented out as Airbnbs. For this Airbnb that I booked, the owner was away for the weekend so we did not meet her. We were careful to use only the items that were allowed. The apartment did not have any heating switched on but we got very thick blankets and I felt very warm. The apartment is located in Leith which is near the waters, so it is apt that the station that we alighted is called 'The Shore'. Leith is located in the outskirts of town. It was quite difficult to find an affordable place in Edinburgh. Everything costs so much!

We were allowed to use the kitchen so I used it to boil water. One can drink water directly from the tap. The owner said that we could help ourselves to coffee and tea but we did not make any as we were out the whole day. 

It was 8.45pm when we finally checked in our bags and we were hungry. We could not follow my plan to eat in town. So, we decided in the pub that was located right below the apartment. So convenient! My boyfriend was familiar with Innis & Gunns beer so he agreed right away to eat in the pub. 

The first dinner in Scotland - fish and chips! There were other diners in the pub too and almost everyone had fish and chips!