I wonder...

Apollo would sometimes visit Edinburgh...Every once in a year, I felt. These days were interesting to watch..You obviously left the house, even if just for a purposeless walk on the town, and noticed that everybody was wearing sunglasses. Surprising for me was that people actually owned sunglasses when they used them so seldom. The Meadows, a huge park in the heart of the Old Town had a new life to it. You could always see sporty youngsters playing football, frisbee, rugby surrounded by the joggers and the cyclers. On sunny days, however, there was no room for that. The Meadows, usually quiet and pleasant, turned into what I would expect from a shopping mall. Everybody, everywhere, anyhow, in loud and skizofrenik fashion wandering with a single purpose: To "soak up the sun", as Sheryl Crow once brilliantly put it. Aside from all this confusing activity, it was clear to me that everyone seemed happier.

I wonder....did those people know? Do they know it now? The importance of weather I mean...Maybe they're used to it, maybe they just don't care anymore...but the cloudy weather in Edinburgh and in the UK in general, clouds people's social skills and openness. In a bar, in a restaurant, at the bank, at Uni...Each time I was confronted with a cultural clash, a thought came to my mind. "Would this happen on a sunny day?"

£4.99 All you can....do.

Lazy ass students, we were...

Throughout my three years in Edinburgh, I can't remember ever starting to work on my assignments any sooner than I absolutely had to. Every beginning of a semester, we kept promising each other that it would be different this time around. Never hapenned...Can't say I ever regretted that too much.

Sooner or later, though, the Exam period arrived, and I had to compensate for the lack of work along the year. Least healthy days of my life those were...I slept when I should be studying, studied when I should be sleeping, ate the same stuff all over again, and smoked my lungs out as if it would give me any extra strength. "It's the stress" , I kept repeating to my desk lamp, which looked at me in a paternising manner everytime I started rolling another cigarette.

One by one, the nasty examinations surrendered to my persistence until I had nothing to look forward to but a 4 month summer holiday...Oh, the day.

Mike and me had one last task though...One maybe as important as any test we could have sitted..The last milestone, before what seemed like a lifetime of relaxation. We had this tradition, you see, which I believe could not make sense to any other pair of people other than us. Every year, after the end of the examination period, we would spend 5£ to eat....literally....a tower of pizza slices from Pizza Hut at Nicolson Street. "£4.99 All you can eat", read the sign in the glass.

I never believed that we were extra hungry or any reason that would justify this tradition other than the fact that we could do whatever we wanted now. This was, quite simply, our shout for Freedom. Ironically in William Wallace's country..

3 hours, many slices and glasses of coke later, we couldn't move. And it felt great!

Edin...braah?!

19th of September 2003...A day of unparalleled importance, not because of the 24 hours that formed it, but because this was the day when it all started.

A few days short of 18, I saw myself in a taxi cab when it really hit me. "You're in Scotland, mate". My dad was still with me, sceptic and calm on the outside, but I knew as well as he did that it wouldn't be easy to leave his youngest in this unknown country, which at the moment just looked dark and misty. Quietly, we switched glances exchanging pride and thankfulness. Pride and prejudice, at its best.

Looking out the window I watched the city driving past me, with its color chosen directly from a XIX century novel. We arrived late, so the city was silent. And so it was for the 20 minutes from the Edinburgh Airport to the city centre. I didn't knew then anymore about physics than I do today, but that lack of sound had a smell...A sweet, yet dirty smell, discretely whispering that somewhere around there, something was going on.

I practiced the question a few times in my head, and finally found the guts to ask the driver:
- "Excuse me sir, what's this smell?" - said my forced posh british accent
- "Oh thát? Thát's yeast, lad! Frrom the brury! Olways smells like so at náight, ya knoo? Tháts Edinbraaahh for ya."

I let out my first genuine laugh in Edinburgh. One of many. I'd heard that accent so often in movies, fell in love with it, and there and then...It was just the best thing that could have happened, gently sweeping away my unconscient doubts about this adventure, which had just started.

Past the years, I got used to the smell of the breweries, which worked at night just outside the city. However, this event stuck with me ever since and whenever I saw the city in silence, I made that extra effort to inhale it and have a laugh...at least on the inside.

Throughout my days in old Edinburgh, little things like this kept me going, reminding me that although I wasn't home, I was building something inside...Something which has stayed with me until now, a few years later. Funny episodes, bits of songs, catch phrases...To remind me of my tales from scotland...

"It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good"