Happy Thanksgiving all!

For my first Thanksgiving not with my family, it still felt wonderfully holiday-like (isn't my command of the English language awe-inspiring?). Of course, it is not celebrated in the UK, so I still had about 3 hours of class to go to. But Jonmikel and I decided to celebrate anyway with a trip to Princes Street to see the city turn on all the lights as well as open the Germand and Scottish traditional Christmas markets, the skating rink, a giant ferris wheel and a whole slew of neon-lit carnival rides down in teh gardens. Class ended at 5, and yes, it is awfully dark by 5 here. in fact, its awfully dark at 4. Being this close to the Arctic Circle is fairly entertaining, and until December 21, it will only get worse. So I booked it out of class and we hurried to New Town, where (wait for it, this will come as a total surprise) the city was having technical difficulties and was unable to turn on the lights. We waited until around 6, when they finally got things kicked off, complemented by a small fireworks display (fireworks are always complimentary, and make delays that much more worth it). With both the Old Town on the hill above the gardens and the old-style New Town as quintessentially Scottish backdrops, it definitely felt like Christmas, if not quite Thanksgiving. And very European. It was fabulous.

Until we tried to leave through the markets, which was a shoulder shoulder traffic jam. The entire town turned out for the lighting and for a first look at the crafts in the markets (my favorite being the cheese shop, of course). After about 15 minutes of pushing and shoving, we managed to escape onto an almost equally crowded Princes Street. But at least we had some breathing room. We did see a ridiculously fun-looking sort of 0-gravity imitation ride, which we vowed to do no matter how much it cost. And the ferris wheel is a must, of course. I bet the view are fabulous from the top. It is also worth noting that for the first time since we've been here, I can honestly say it was COLD. It hit below freezing last night, and was about freezing as we wandered town taking in the Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, the cold brought clear skies, so no snow is in the making yet.

After enjoying Princes Street, we headed back to Old Town around the Uni and stopped to have a traditional meal of nachos and fajitas at a local sports bar that (joy of joys!) was playing the Detriot/Green Bay traditional Thanksgiving football game on TV. There were a couple of other American Football revelers there, two Scottish guys, one who understood the sport and his friend to whom he was trying to describe it. The latter guy found the game tedious until the 3rd quarter when a lot of sacking went on. It was, nevertheless, amusing to hear the Scottish take. The bartender, however, was completely confused when another game came on after the first and Jonmikel tried to explain to her that it was tradition for the Lions and the Cowboys to play on Thanksgiving (though not each other).

So festive, the day was, though Thanksgiving? Well, that's debatable. But The Edinburghans take their holiday spirit quite seriously.