Of Foreign Travel and Friends Abroad: A Tribute

It was fitting that I was flying out of Dublin Airport to visit the last friend I had seen before the pandemic properly took hold, but that didn’t make the experience any less surreal. Sipping a pint of pre-flight Guinness (for the nerves!), as I waited for the gate to be announced on screen, I felt like I had found my way onto a different planet.

Dublin was exceptionally busy and jarring in contrast to the emptiness of Edinburgh Airport, where I landed. There were people everywhere and with them an infectiously positive atmosphere. The only major change I could see was that table service had replaced ordering at the bar. But that’s in line with every other bar in Ireland and to be honest, is a change I could probably live with. The flight over was completely packed and other than the mask wearing, it felt like I was back in pre-Covid times. I wasn’t expecting to find that so uncomfortable. How did we do it? All that sitting on top of each other in enclosed spaces all the time. We were essentially roaming from petri dish to petri dish, mixing and matching our germs. I wonder how long it will take this feeling to wear off.

Meeting my friend, C, on a street just off St. Andrew’s Square, felt like old times and was the normality and comradery I had been craving in these weird few months since I finished my degree – alone in the kitchen of my Granny’s old flat. The no-man’s-land of job applications and failed interviews, combined with the strict Covid restrictions in Ireland, were -to put it mildly- driving me up the wall. I needed to get out and Ryanair flights for under thirty euro were too tempting to let pass by.

With its festival month in full swing, Edinburgh was thronged with tourists. C was the one who first pointed out the number of English accents that could be heard on the streets. I was relieved to hear them, and the odd Irish accent too. Before arriving, I was afraid of what the reaction to tourists would be, and that my friend would think I was reckless for doing something as frivolous as going on holiday. I felt conflicted. I didn’t want to be reckless in a pandemic. But I was also privileged enough to be doubly vaccinated and felt I should be able to (responsibly) enjoy the perks of this status.

Thankfully, I needn’t have been worried. He was happy to see me.

Catching up, while wandering around Edinburgh and sampling many a pint of Tenants was a reminder to me that social media might be great for keeping in touch, but it’s no replacement for in person interaction. Not everything can be encapsulated into a text message. Bits of news and gossip can slip through the net or seem unimportant, messages can be misinterpreted, and not everything feels appropriate to say via text. Emotions too, can’t be replicated by emojis no matter how hard we might try. Recollections of embarrassing moments about ourselves and our friends are the type of things that happen organically. Laughter is a cement that bonds you together and it’s easy to forget that.

(Looking up at Edinburgh Castle. Credit: Thomas Gilsenan)

Edinburgh is possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my short, short life. It’s a city of gorgeous contrasts, from the Georgian style of the new town to the medieval plan of the old town and its rambling Royal Mile. The magnificence of Arthur’s Seat, an extinct Volcano, is striking and even more so when viewed in tandem with the modern glory of the Holyrood Parliament that sits below it. Of course, it would be remiss of me not to mention the castle which looms over the city. It was hard not to feel a little bit inspired. Although, it would be a lie to say my experience on Arthur’s Seat wasn’t blighted by my own lack of any form of fitness thanks to my rather sedentary lifestyle over the past 18 months.

I was fairly ignorant of Edinburgh’s proud literary culture and history before I got there. Yeah, I knew about Harry Potter, but I found it heartening to learn that it was one of the only places in the world with football clubs and train stations named after novels. After taking an open bus tour through the city and hearing the narrator of the accompanying audio wax lyrical about the likes of Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, I was completely charmed and was even inspired to read one of Scott’s novels. I lasted about 20 pages (give or take).

It was exhilarating to be somewhere so unique and different from home. Princess Diana memorial tartan, anyone? But in all seriousness, spending time discovering somewhere new was the antidote to my pandemic and post-grad induced lethargy and languishment and I’m so happy I had the chance to do it. The ability to travel and reconnect with friends is something I am very grateful to be able to do when so many are still struggling.

As rates of vaccination continue to rise and countries slowly open up, here’s to doing it even more.