Weekend getaway to Edinburgh for under £150

Hey y'all! 

So last weekend I went over to Edinburgh on my own to find some peace of mind and clear up the clusterfuck in my head after a few weeks of stress, work and personal things that I dare not mention here. It was nice to go somewhere on my own, it felt like I was traveling again, even though it was just to a city an hour away from Glasgow. Regardless, it was a good decision!

Why Edinburgh? The question is ... why not? I put aside £150 for my small trip, and this allowed me to go about comfortably! I wanted to relax, not crunch numbers each day! 

Budget Breakdown :

Hostel - £40

Food - £30 (£10 per day)

Entertainment/Play time - £50

Coffee and cafe-hopping - £30 (£10 per day)

Walking about to see historical things - Free

DAY 1 : CATCH A MUSICAL!

I arrived in Edinburgh by Megabus (which I spent £2 on for a return ticket! Score!) and headed over to my hostel named The Baxter. It's located in the city centre, right behind the Apple Store along Princes St. It's a gorgeous but small hostel! It has such a lovely common area/kitchen! With an amazing stove which I wish I utilized while there! 

Yes. This is the kitchen in which I spent my time lounging about, eating snacks and leftover nasi lemak, resting my aching feet and watching Legend of Korra! It's super lovely eyh. That nook at the back was popular amongst all visitors! :-)

Anyway, so the first day there, I didn't have much of a plan. I kind of made up my day as I went. Before I went off scavenging for food, I suddenly had an idea and remembered that Mary Poppins the Musical would be playing in Edinburgh, so I headed over to the Festival Theatre to see if I could nabbed some tickets. Much to my disappointment, I was misinformed because Mary Poppins is only showing in April (dangit!), BUT Footloose was on the very weekend I decided to go to Edinburgh! Lucky me. And GARETH GATES IS IN IT! *queue childhood self squealing in the distance* I got a ticket for 7.30pm the same day for £33, stall seats (which were pretty good), and then went off to look for some fooooooood.

The view FROM the castle and the view OF the castle from Princes Street Gardens.

Stroll along Princes Street Garden.

View from Grassmarket.

After a day of eating, lounging about at cafes and walking around the city centre; Princes Street Gardens and the Edinburgh Castle, I took a wee break at the hostel and then headed over to watch Footloose.

Festival Theatre in Edinburgh.

I've avoided watching the original film for years now because I loatheeeeee Kevin Bacon. LOATHE. He has a face I want to slap multiple times with a shoe! I'm glad I decided to catch the live musical thought cause it was super good and funny! Gareth Gates is such a babe too, seriously! It was a great high-quality international production, and the coolest part was that there was no orchestra because the cast on stage were playing the instruments themselves! Pretty damn coohl! Dancing, singing AND playing the clarinet/trumpet/saxophone/everything you can think of!

If you're considering catching Footloose live, DO IT.

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Day 2 : FREE WALKING TOUR & GO TO A GIG!

I'm a big, BIG fan of free walking tours. I mean, it's the best when you're on a budget but want to see/learn as much about the city you're visiting as possible! I treated myself as a traveler and joined in on one of the Sandeman Free Walking tours in Edinburgh.

Hosted by a very stereotypical Scottish man, with a thick accent, wearing a checkered red shirt underneath his very British tweed blazer in pouring rain and 30 mph wind (if that ain't very Scottish than I don't know what is), he brought us around the city centre and told us about many facts that I bet most people don't know about at all! Was interesting to know these lil bits and bobs about the city.

Central monument at Royal Mile and the Greyfriars Kirk.

Here are my favourite facts from the tour :

1) Princes Street Garden used to be a lake that collected the feces and other bodily fluid of Edinburghers who use to throw out the waste in their chamber pots from the windows of the tallest floor in their building and let the rain wash the yucks away from the streets (ew much?).

2) The Scottish want to symbolize their bravery, freedom, courage and pride of the country by choosing the unicorn as their national animal ... yes.

3) J. K. Rowling was inspired by many names on the tombstones in the Greyfriars Kirk for the characters in the Harry Potter series. This includes Tom Riddle!

Walk the Moon live in Queen's Hall Edinburgh!

So my getaway was basically planned around this gig I went to. One of my favourite bands, Walk the Moon! It was a fantastic concert! So full of life, colour and positive energy (I know ... my fav band is also very spiritual and produces good vibes haha). I danced so much that my bunions grew twice their size (haha this is a joke. I do not want my bunions to grow anymore *touches all the wood and slips bunion gels in between toes*

Which brings me to my main point, I think it's an awesome idea to plan a mini vacation around a gig you want to attend in a town outside of yours! It defeats the stress of rushing for your bus/train to get back home in the middle of the night, and you can treat it as some me-time. Especially since you get to enjoy you FAV BAND LIVE. Woo!

Tickets for this concert were £19.00!

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Day 3 : CAFE-HOPPING, FOOD & CALTON HILL!

Lovecrumbs.

10-to-10 in Delhi.

There are PLENTY of places to try in Edinburgh, PLENTY. Tons of cafes, restaurants, markets, it's actually quite impossible to cover a lot in just a weekend, but I tried, with passion. I never get bored of cafes nor eating in general. I was destined to tick off every funky, quirky, rustic, hipster cafe on my list of places-to-try, and I will very damn well eat anything delicious and edible that I can lay my eyes on. So on that not, by relying on my trusty Yelp app, I planned my food journey by filtering out which places were the cheapest options (lol I was still on a budget ya know) except for the Japanese restaurant I decided to go to, to treat myself (HOHOHO *flips hair*). I'll breakdown where I ate, the cost and my personal rating ...

Food places :

1) Maki & Ramen - £4.50 on half portion ramen (****)

2) 10-to-10 in Delhi - £4 on dhal curry and garlic naan (****)

3) Mary's Milk Bar - £3 on 2 generous scoops of gelato (*****)

4) Kampai - £21.50 on sushi and sashimi (*****)

5) Ting Thai Caravan - £8.50 on tom yam goong and chicken wings (****)

Cafe-hopping :

1) Lovecrumbs - £8.70 on hot chocolate, latte and slice of cake (****)

2) Obadiah - £2.50 on cappuccino (***)

3) Brewlab - £2.90 on a caffe latte (***)

4) Mademoiselle Macaron - £6.10 on tea and 3 macarons (*****)

View of Arthur's Seat and the sea!

Edinburgh skyline.

Pantheon-style monument and Nelson tower.

And of course, one super nice thing to do that's completely free, walk up the Calton Hill! I was originally planning to climb Arthur's Seat during this getaway but seeing as the weather was insane and winds were about 30mph, I was not taking the risk of being blown off a cliff. Instead, I opted for the option closer to the city centre!

Calton Hill is about 15 minutes walk away from the hostel I stayed in. It's not a difficult walk up to the top! Took only about 5 minutes, and I was lucky to have reached before the rain! These photos were taken when I had a glimpse of sunshine and blue skies! The views are so beautiful! On a summer's day, this place would be packed of people, I'm sure. It'd also be perfect for picnics (only if you're lucky to get sunny, warm weather though)!

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So there ya go. What you can do in Edinburgh for the weekend for under £150 (I actually went over by 20p but really who's counting????? lol). I think I might try planning weekend getaways more often! Time to save up and make this happen for me. It's super fun! And I enjoy going about on my own, discovering things and daydreaming. I am in no position to travel overseas as much as I was able to in the previous years but that's alright, look on the bright side, make things work for you, find opportunities and be happy! :-)

I shall abruptly end my post here. BYE.

x