Eploring Edinburgh | Day 1

Hey everybody!

wow it feels like it's been ages...

wait it has been ages, I haven't posted in two weeks! yikes sorry about that~

Obviously I have missed you all and I've missed blogging, I guess Ive just been caught up in the whole moving process thing (although I personally haven't really done that much) I think its more me galavanting off being a little social bee to be honest which is really quite unusual for me. Ive seen this summer holiday to be an opportunity to cram in as much things as possible, not that I did that on purpose at all to avoid helping with the move. No really I didn't do that at aaaaaall...

Ive realised that I still haven't posted all of the Marbella photos yet, ahhh I need to step up my game here. They are soon to come for sure but I thought I would share some more recent holiday photos. I recently went on a trip with good ol' grandma to Edingburgh for a city break as a treat for finishing school I guess? I dunno but it was a cute gesture right?! ^^ I had never been to Scotland before so it was exciting to visit somewhere new.





I was in charge of finding a hotel and basically based my decision on whether it looked cool or not. Safe to say Trip advisor suggested a hotel called Grassmarket Hotel (located in Grassmarket) and oh my god was the room awesome.
One side of the wall had a map of Edinburgh and at the side were magnets saying the days of the week, must see sights, etc and yep that means the wall was magnetic and you could move the magnets on the map to where you wanted to go. SO. DARN. COOL. I found too much amusement in throwing the magnets at the wall and watching them stick...

Even cooler was another wall with wallpaper of old comic books. Inner nerd got too excited at this point.

The desk in the room came with complimentary water and beer mugs, a kettle with a variety of teas and coffee sachets, sugar cubes and chocolate tea cakes. You know you've found a winner when they give you free food. One thing I would say is that they do not replenish the teas or coffee in the room but Im sure you could nudge them to give you some more if you asked.

Room aesthetic~ comic book style

If you don't know already, I have a major thing for bathrooms. I love pretty bathrooms, especially ones with nice showers. I wish I had this shower just saying. 

You get towels and toiletries included with the room~

We got to Edinburgh late afternoon and ended up going for afternoon tea...you know just casual. I found this place again on trip advisor. I didn't think we would actually end up going here but since it was after lunch time I suggested why not afternoon tea (because I am sneaky like that ^.~). Im so glad we did go here because the atmosphere was gorgeous, the food was incredible and the waiters were so lovely. It;s situated in a library used by current Scottish politicians and by students studying law.

This place is called Colonnades and it was hard to find since it has not got the sign for the restaurant, instead it is just labelled Signet Library outside. We nearly walked into a court of justice to find this place since its along the same road...probably not the best place to walk into asking for afternoon tea...

The room (if you can call it that, more like grand hall) was full of shelves with countless numbers of books. The tables were sparsely laid out making the room appear relaxed and open. I didn't feel like the place was pretentious at all, it was genuinely a lovely place to eat, talk, relax and take pretty photographs. 

The tables were like mirrors, so very shiny I didn't want to touch it and leave a smudge.

Tomato soup in a little cup for starters~

We got the afternoon tea set each which came with one of each since there were two of us, we had a selection of savoury items and then a variety of cakes, pastries and then finished with a lemon sorbet to finish.

They arrived on a gorgeous layered stand~ at the top is prawn cocktail, mini angus beef burgers and a cheesy quiche. 

On the middle shelf is smoked salmon on an oat cake, cucumber with a goats cheese puree and a tomato with mozzarella and basil.

On the bottom shelf is a egg mayonnaise sandwich topped with a mini egg and caviar and a ham tomato sandwich with asparagus. 

The afternoon tea came with a glass of Cava and unlimited teas and coffees, there was a huge selection of teas and coffees to choose from. I chose the Ceylon Orange Pekoe tea which didn't actually taste of orange but it had a subtle and delicate flavour which was really nice when eating all the foods ^^ My grandma had the Ginger Chai which was very ginger tasting and refreshing~

Next is my favourite... dessertssssss. 

On the top shelf is lemon meringue pie with a sugar decoration, a rhubarb mouse and rhubarb shard and a piece of rhubarb jelly.

On the middle shelf is a chocolate ganache and salted caramel tart with sea salt, a strawberry mille feuille and a passion fruit eclair.

On the bottom shelf are freshly made plain and raisin scones with clotted cream and strawberry champagne jam.

To finish was a lemon sorbet just to clean the palette, but I seriously could have eaten a bowl of it. It was so creamy and lemony for a sorbet and wasn't icy at all. 

Had to look at the bathrooms and they were literally 3 times bigger than my bedroom. Prettier than my bedroom too.

OOTD & MAKEUP

I wanted an outfit that was comfortable for me to travel in yet something that would be smart enough to wear for afternoon tea (because Im psychic and new we would end up going there ^_~). 

OUTFIT

Top- Oasis

Skirt- Topshop

Necklace- New Look

Bag- Oasis

Shoes- River Island

Jacket- Charity shop (just changed the button)

MAKEUP

Brown smokey eye and arabian style eyeliner all around the eyes, false eyelashes and normal foundation routine with highlight, contour and blusher. 

I love the little cobbled streets, I had no idea that there would be so many steps and alley ways throughout the city. My legs felt like rocks after the holiday after the sheer amount of walking and steps.

See ya soon for the next holiday post! 

Here are the links to the places mentioned:

Hotel- Grassmarket

Afternoon Tea- Colonnades