A spontaneous visit!

27th Dec 4:21pm - I was lying in bed watching Love Actually with Justina when Natascha texts me in caps: OMG I FOUND REASONABLY PRICED TICKETS TO EDINBURGH AND MY PARENTS SAID YES  

28th Dec 9:11am - Natascha sends me her flight details 

29th Dec 12:55pm - I pick Natascha up at Waverly Bridge!!! 

Even after embracing Natascha in a hug and squealing in excitement, I just still couldn't believe that she was actually here in Edinburgh after having confirmed her flight details just 2 days prior to coming! We've actually discussed the possibility of us meeting a few months back but were both disheartened on the 24th of Dec when Natascha found out that tickets were rather expensive from Munich to Edinburgh, but I guess lady luck was on our side as Natascha managed to find reasonably priced tickets just 2 days later and another 2 days later - here she was in person standing before my eyes! (Some of these amazing photos were shot by Natascha and I'll link her blog posts of our time together here and do check out her photos on flickr as well linked at the bottom of each blog post!) 

I must say, Natascha did get lucky with the weather for the entirety of her trip and she fortunately (or unfortunately?) did not get to experience bleak and rainy (but nonetheless beautiful) Edinburgh which is characteristic of the weather here for most part of the year! Natascha actually said that Edinburgh might be a top contender with New Zealand as her favourite place she has travelled to in the world, after just having arrived an hour ago - I was so pleasantly surprised and felt so incredibly proud to be able to call this amazing city my home after hearing that :') 

After having walked back to the flat to drop Natascha's bag off, we (Justina, Natascha and I) went to Hulas Juice Bar for lunch! An acai bowl, Avocado Sourdough toast and a vegan wrap was shared amongst the 3 of us and boy was the food delicious - as it always is :)

After lunch, I brought Natascha up Arthur's Seat whilst Justina got her ears pierced!

I could never get tired of this view

This was after Natascha nearly got blown off the top of Arthur's Seat which was captured in her vlog (go check it out!!!)

We descended just as the sun was setting, giving us just enough natural light to get down safely and returned to the warmth of the flat after being exposed to the insane winds at the top of Arthur's Seat which one can never truly know how it feels like until one has actually been to the top - no personal description or picture of hair flying could capture just how crazy the winds can get up there! 

We then had a simple but delicious dinner of sweet potato fries wrapped in sweet gem lettuce with a drizzle of tahini and maple syrup - this has become one of my favourite meals and dressing!!  

After dinner, we baked Natashca's apple cinnamon granola which were deeelish!! and we also did a recipe chat which you can check out here :) 

The next morning, after visiting the Royal Mile market, Justina unfortunately had to head back to the flat to rest as she was not feeling well :((((( It really sucked so much that Justina fell ill on her trip here but there was nothing that could undo it so in times like this, tip: rather than feeling super bummed the whole day, be positive and pray for a speedy recovery!! 

Natascha and I then continued on our way to the Edinburgh Castle

Passed by funky mirrors outside Camera Obscura on the way to the castle!

I love how the small boy is looking at us with a grin on his face - it's almost as if we (the grown up ones) were showing him how to have fun by taking goofy pics (I sound so lame but that's how I truly feel hahaha)

We then went to the Christmas market and got on the flying thing (honestly cannot remember its name)! Quick story: Before knowing what the price of a ticket was, Natascha and I agreed that anything above £8 was not worth a ride and when we got to the ticketing booth, we both squealed in excitement after seeing that the tickets were £7.50 - just under our budget! and so we embarked on our what felt like a 4 min journey, 60m up into the sky!!

After flying over the city centre, we headed to Hendersons for an amazing lunch of a pizza slice, salad and a chocolate nut cake with coconut cream (to die for!!) 

Hendersons really never fails to please the taste buds :')

A close up of this delicious goodness

Next and last stop before we called it a day - Calton Hill! 

On the way back to the flat, we saw a sign that read "Free Personality Tests" and decided that it'd be a fun spontaneous idea to take one but it turned out to be a bad decision because they were simply trying to sell us a book about Scientology. I mean there isn't anything wrong with trying to sell a book but it was the way they did it that I just made me feel so uncomfortable and even annoyed and angry. Natascha and I were just going on and on about how bad that experience was on the way back to the flat but we turned the evening around into a happy one when we baked healthy sticky toffee pudding!! and also coming home to a much-better-feeling-Justina made us feel much better! 

Here's Natascha's post on Day 2 :)