OUTLANDERED in Edinburgh

In the Footsteps of 

James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser.

Let me tell you right off that Scotland was everything Outlander promised it to be: charming, historical, majestic and quiet. I saw endless glens and lochs, ancient mountains, kirks and castles, fairy pools and Culloden.

I started in Edinburgh, stayed at the Radisson Blu hotel. It's a great location for a first-timer in Scotland, bang in the middle of the Royal Mile, equidistant from Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood House Palace. I lucked out as Queen Elizabeth left for London the day I reached Edinburgh. No one is allowed to visit Holyrood when she's in residence. My reaction to seeing where the queen passes a few weeks/ months in a year: She sits on chairs that are 300 hundred freaking years old? The poor queen!

In addition to the regular touristy things I did in the Scottish capital, I also traced my book boyfriend James Fraser's movements around it. I'm quite certain that I found the close his printing press was on, and Madame Jeanne's establishment. Of course, no one can miss World's End pub, or the 3-4 watering wells strewn about the Royal Mile, the kirk, the graveyard etc from Voyager.

My impressions of Edinburgh, even apart from the excitement of outlandish trails, was the flavor of the city. Food was fantastic and plenty and varied, and so were the sights. The city is almost like a roller coaster, its closes and wynds going up and down, mostly steeply. A detailed Edinburgh post will be forthcoming...if I'm in the mood.

As this one is about Outlander, we went on to three of the Starz series filming location castles - Doune, Blackness and Linlithgow - all within driving distance of Edinburgh. You could do them in a day and come back by nightfall. 

I didn't. I went onward into the highlands from there.

I leave you now with some sights from Edinburgh and its environs. Next post will be about the Scottish sun. Yup. The sun does show itself there...every day.

I'M NOT DOROTHY.

Unlike Dorothy, I didn't traipse all over Oz to realize this:

I'm one of the few people in the world (I personally know of no one else) who is completely happy and fulfilled being at home. Err, that is, MY HOME and not ANY HOME. I love my homes (both the one in NY and the one in Mumbai.) If I never have to step out of either one ever again, I'd be okay. I have no burning desire to see every nook and cranny of the world. No ambition to climb mountains or deep sea dive in the Andamans. Being a writer, my imagination lets me experience those things from home. 

Not the same thing, you say? 

I say, it's all in the perspective.

Maybe my home-love is related to my travel-phobia. Though, of late, I've become a better traveller. Not so neurotic, paranoid or sick. And it's not as if I don't want to go places. I do. I travel. Sometimes. And I mostly do so enthusiastically. Once I'm there, I'm even engaged in the new place or culture to the point where you'd think I'm ready to pitch a tent and set up my homebase. 

But no, that's just for fun 'cause I LOVE MY HOMES. 

I suppose I'm the only person who hears SUMMER HOLIDAY and thinks of the movie and not an adventure. ;)

Are you a traveller or a homebody? If the former, where are you off to this summer?