Edinburgh: notes from the pub and other bits of daily life

Back in April I posted about how we were getting all settled into Edinburgh, how life here was starting to feel normal. The whole settling-in business was quite violently interrupted by Scott’s cancer diagnosis, which made us feel like ‘normal’ was a thing of the past. But here we are again, back on track.

We decided to move to Edinburgh based on one visit a couple years ago. We fell head-over-heels in love with the city, and were sure this was meant to be our next home. Never before had my expectations been so high for a new place. They were so high, in fact, that I was starting to worry that we were setting ourselves up for a huge disappointment. I mean, could it really be as good as all that?

Turns out, it’s even better. The more we discover about this city, the more we love it. A lot of this comes down to two factors, which I think might be the most important features (to me, anyway) when choosing a place to live: 1) walkability/transportation and 2) great restaurants and bars.

We live close enough to the city center that we walk almost everywhere. There’s a bus network which is pretty decent, depending on where you want to go, but rarely saves us more than a few minutes unless we’re going clear across town. Edinburgh is such a beautiful city, it feels like a privilege to get to walk around it on a daily basis. The entire city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its exceptionally well preserved examples of medieval (Old Town) and Georgian (New Town) cities.

You’d think that leaving Munich after five years, we’d be missing the beer like crazy. But no! At first it was a bit daunting walking into a pub and not recognizing any of the ales on tap, but we quickly figured out which ones we like. We also learned that most competent bartenders are more than happy to offer you a taste of what’s on tap to help you make up your mind before you order a pint. We’ve been happily getting to know the beers of Scottish brewers such as Innis & Gunn, Harviestoun, and Knops. Every time we leave the house we manage to stumble upon yet another cozy, adorable pub to add to our we-should-try-out-that-place list.

The restaurant scene is delighting us, as well. For a city of its size, Edinburgh’s eateries do really well on quality and variety. We’re spoiled for choice with all the great Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, French, Michelin-stared haute cuisine and gastropub offerings nearby. (Do you hate the word ‘gastropub’? I hate the word ‘gastropub’.) I’m still searching for an amazing Japanese restaurant (I miss Mitani, our Munich standby, and pretty much every single place we ate in Tokyo), but surely it’s out there somewhere. I’d also love to find a knock-your-socks off pizzeria. It’s good to set goals for oneself, don’t you think?

What do you look for when choosing a place to live?