Leaving Edinburgh.

We've only called Edinburgh home for the past year and a bit, but in that time, it has become more than that. We've both grown up so much, met awesome new people, learned new skills, developed new passions and discovered so much about ourselves that we never could have done back home. Needless to say, our last week was very emotional. There were a lot of goodbyes; to friends, family, places and rituals alike.

St Andrews Monument; a familiar sight on Princes St, now resigned to our memory as a landmark of Edinburgh.

Ilona and I also had a very indulgent last week, meeting friends for lunches, dinners, drinks or coffee every day. We also had a stressful time trying to pack all of our things we had accumulated over the past year into as few shipping boxes as possible. A massive culling of a years worth of tat commenced and at the end of it all, we still had 4 big boxes of stuff to be shipped back to New Zealand, though thankfully at a decent price.
Our second to last day was very hectic, as we tried to cram in everything we hadn't got round to over the past week on a day where the heavens had opened, prompting us to frequently exclaim how glad we were to be travelling to somewhere with better weather.

The view from our bedroom in Porty, Edinburgh sending us off with style.

However on our last day, Edinburgh laid out it's finest weather to send us off. Ilona and I had breakfast at our favourite cafe in Porty, then packed up the rest of our stuff and said goodbye one last time, heading south to Ulverston in the Lakes District for Ilona's Grandma's 80th birthday gathering. We're both very sad to have left, but the next phase of our lives has begun!