Love of Lights

Haven't posted a roaming session on here in a long while, even though I've done, I think, one since the last one I posted on here. But seeing as I have ~3 more days left in Edinburgh for a year (save perhaps a week for Fringe in August), I thought I should roam and post it on this here photodiary/memory-space. Although my itinerant nature has me itching to discover a new place, I have to admit, Edinburgh is very cool. Just look at the variety of land- and cityscapes you encounter on a few hours' walk.

I went to London yesterday and, because we have tentative plans to move to London post-uni, my friend desired that I write an account of how the city made me feel, and that is what this is. In 2013, the first you notice when you emerge from the train station at which you arrived (in my case Euston) is that London is much more intense than wherever you live (unless, perhaps, you live in New York City or some place in China or India). Now, I come from Birmingham, the second city, and spend a lot of time in Edinburgh (the capital of Scotland), so you'd expect I would be rightly prepared for the onslaught of sounds and the masses of people. As is often the case with expectations, you'd be wrong. London is its own place, and there is a massive leap from the bustle of Birmingham to the bustle of London. Sirens, engines, cars and their metallic bodies cutting through the London air, the collective chatter of the people -- all of this is unlike Birmingham, and certainly unlike Edinbu...

I was too diffident to ask any of my new friends to do anything with me when my birthday came around this year, so instead I did a bit of roaming. Here's the product of that. (Hopefully I won't be so diffident with, or I'll be more comfortable with, my uni friends next year). This is the port of Leith. I walked all the way to Leith from the centre.

Today was my last afternoon in Edinburgh for the year 2012. The next time I return it will be 2013 and I will be ready to do things differently. I'm not entirely sure how things will pan out, but with my new equilibrium schedule as a basis, I hope to see a brighter future for myself, in terms of me doing the things I want to do and not falling to apathy, ambition-lack, and self-pity. I took the afternoon to take a stroll about some parts of the city, have some lunch at a café (while reading the very entertaining essay E Unibus Pluram by DFW). It was all spent alone, but I was content. At some point I almost feared that one can live a content life mostly alone (not completely, mind you -- simply mostly). What a dissonant image to my friend- and love-centred mind. Anyway, I took a few pictures, which marks a return of the Roaming Sessions, ed. 6.

Yesterday I returned from my travels to Scotland (Edinburgh, St Andrews, Glasgow) with my friend, and today I am spending all day lying in bed with my laptop and doing nothing in particular. It feels good. Again, the visit up north was worth it, and has confirmed the fact that I will be accepting Edinburgh as my firm choice and Glasgow as my insurance. Of the three places, Edinburgh was my favourite, due to what seemed  to be a completely friendly disposition among the people, beautiful surroundings (architecture and nature -- envision strolling down a street and glimpsing powerful mountainous landscapes from the corner of your eye), the general feel of the city, and the university. At the talks we heard tale of the fun things you can get up to in the university societies, of which the Philosophy Society enthused me. There still exists a nervous element within me about starting a new life in (technically) a different country, but that's natural, and besides it's accompanied b...