A couple of paragraphs about pies - also, Edinburgh

We'd made it. Despite the misgivings of the UK Customs officer, I was in the country. I'd met up with my girlfriend, explained why I was so late, and we set off. The first stop was to a currency exchange in the airport, to get pounds for our euros. A painless experience, as you'd expect.

Next up was getting to town. We just took the normal bus that runs from the airport into town, and my very first impression of Edinburgh, once we started to get into the urban/suburban areas, was a striking similarity to the kinds of neighbourhoods, suburbs and houses I would expect to see in New Zealand.

When the colonists started designing the city that would one day become Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand, they decided on Edinburgh as an inspiration for the architecture and style. It was also, apparently, designed by someone who had no first-hand experience of the landscape and implemented by people who would follow the rules, no matter what, which is why Dunedin has the world's steepest street, as well as a number of other, extremely steep streets.

I'd always known that, and I have visited Dunedin on a number of occasions in the past, seeing as it's not far from Christchurch, where I'm from; has a large student population (lots of people I know having studied there) and being on the main highway south (where I used to hitchhike occasionally). But it was incredible to see what a fantastic job the designers of Dunedin had done capturing the spirit of Edinburgh. The architecture, imposing grey stone buildings, wide streets, even the gloomy weather (which I'm sure can be nice from time to time), Dunedin really did seem to capture the essence of Edinburgh.

We arrived at our hostel (St Christopher's Inn, £8 a night in a 16-bed dorm). We arrived too early to check-in (even after my delay at the border, we'd still made it into town around 8.00 or something), but we left our bags in the lockers and headed out to have a look at Edinburgh properly. We were tired from being up all night, and hungry.

So, we continued looking around Edinburgh, not in any particular direction, or with any sense of urgency. To be honest, around half a year later, after spending 3 months mostly hitchhiking around the UK, I can't remember everything that we saw and did that day. But, I do remember that we were excited, because we found a shop that we'd seen on Youtube, in a travel video about Edinburgh, called "Piemaker". A place that sells pies. We'd been looking forward to visiting it, and by complete coincidence, it was literally just down the road from our hostel. Unfortunately, when we first arrived, it hadn't opened yet.

Now, in New Zealand, at least amongst my peers, a pie and a coffee was the hang-over food of choice. Pie to fill your belly, to stick to your ribs, tasty enough to want to eat it despite feeling terrible, easy to eat and a true comfort food for New Zealanders. And coffee to provide you with a caffeine hit, to ease yourself through the pain of the hangover, to shake off the cobwebs of a terrible sleep, beginning at some point too late in the morning, continuing through the deep, infinite blankness of a drunk sleep, culminating in a dizzying, confusing and sickeningly quick rush back to reality, to consciousness, to wakefulness, where any light, sound, movement, any thing is enough to make you feel sick. So, of course you feel tired and want a coffee, and a cigarette if you're so inclined, or one of those special jazz cigarettes if that's more your style. But, the important thing to take from this paragraph, is we love pies, meat pies, they are a major comfort food for me (not just when I'm hung-over) and that a meat pie and a coffee when you're hung-over are like magic.

In Vienna, there is a pie-shop, across the street from an extremely good cafe, in either some kind of amazing, fortuitous coincidence, or the two businesses have colluded to work together (New Zealand isn't the only place to enjoy pies and coffees together, although I would argue we're easily the best at it). In any event, both are extremely good, and a lifeline back home when I was feeling homesick in Vienna (read: hung-over in Vienna). However, they aren't a perfect facsimile; they are fancy and expensive (I mean, you can get fancy, expensive pies in New Zealand as well, but sometimes, you just want a lower-priced, decent-quality stomach filler) and getting them is a bit of an event. Because they are so ubiquitous in New Zealand, getting a pie can be an every-day event, you can make a big deal out of it, if you choose, but it can also be as simple as seeing one and thinking "Yeah, I could go for a pie, why not?".

So, despite hankering for a pie, we decided to continue around for a bit, looking for some food and some caffeine. If you know me, then you know that I love food, especially eating although I also enjoy preparing food. I like the idea of fine, fancy food, but for me, the real pleasure is local or regional foods, especially home-made comfort foods and dirty yet delicious, unhealthy yet irresistible street food etc. Being in the UK, even Scotland, didn't change that at all. I was on the lookout for something genuine and Scottish/British. Something like a mug of tea and a bacon butty. Just down the road, we found exactly that, at a student cafe. Cheap bacon, in a bap, with brown sauce...that was Scotland. My girlfriend just got a coffee, because she wanted to save herself for a pie.

My selection

Lisa's pies

After (first) breakfast, we headed back to Piemaker to see if it was open, and joy! It was! So, we got a couple of pies each...with so much time passed, I can't remember exactly what we ordered, but with a bit of sleuthing and reasoning with Lisa, we think we've got it. I'm sure I got a sausage roll and a shepherd's pie, and she got a couple of pies, a Scotch pie, so we could see what it was, and the other was a mac 'n' cheese pie. I distinctly remember, because I had absolutely no interest in buying one myself. I did try it, and I have to say, I didn't care for it, although my girlfriend enjoyed it. And I definitely noticed, mac 'n' cheese pies are definitely a thing in Scotland.

Saw these at the supermarket...didn't
buy them though, I wanted my first
Haggis experience to be the real thing

My girlfriend wasn't feeling too well, so after the pies, we went to a local supermarket. Something I noticed that was different about the European mainland as compared to New Zealand, was the fact that basic painkillers and other over-the-counter drugs aren't available at the supermarket, but only at pharmacies. Because Lisa wasn't feeling well, we went to the supermarket to stock up on cheap, generic drugs. We walked around for a bit, went to Primark (I'd forgotten to bring a warm hat, and I figured it would be useful to have one) and we headed back to St Cristopher's, where Lisa slept for a bit on the couch until we could check in. We napped for the afternoon, woke up, ate some super cheap Asian food in a place down the road, went back to the hostel, and slept solidly again until the morning time.


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