Now, on to one of my favorite experiences yet…

Two years later.

Before we arrived to Edinburgh, I contacted Amanda to see if she would be able to get together at some point. We arrived earlier than anticipated, and after a few days in Edinburgh, I contacted Amanda to see if she would be available to grab a drink before we left. I will now briefly explain how I know Amanda…

I met Amanda a couple years back in Uyuni, Bolivia. We had both taken the overnight bus, and found ourselves in the same tourist office trying to sign up for a tour of the salt flats. We were both traveling alone and spoke English…it was meant to be 🙂 We subsequently spent the next few days on tour- rooming, eating alpaca, and riding in a 4Runner together. The last time I saw Amanda was when she (and the rest of our group) left the tour to move on to Chile, while I made the long trip back to Cusco. Fast forward two years, and thanks to the magic of Facebook, I was able to contact her when we getting close to Scotland. She happened to be going to her family’s home in Anstruther (about a hour north of Edinburgh) for the weekend and invited me and Javier to join!

Anstruther

Amanda was such a trooper! We had decided that Javier and I would meet her at the airport since she was going to be driving from Glasgow that morning, and the airport was closer than Edinburgh city center. We took the bus, which is normally a quick 30min jaunt. However, there were pro-Palestinian demonstrations going on while we were trying to get out of the city, which closed down a few major streets. She ended up waiting for us at the airport for over an hour! -Thank you, Amanda- When we finally arrived and said our hellos and introductions, we were on our way! The drive to Anstruther is about an hour, but took us much longer due to torrential rain, a flipped car (not ours, thank goodness), and road closures. The whole time, we all chatted and Javier and Amanda got to know each other. We picked up the “best chipper ever” as deemed by Javier Alvarez, and took it home to feast! Backstory… chipper is what we call fish and chips, because we heard our little friend Fiona in Cork refer to the fish and chip shop as a chipper, and well, it stuck. Javier isn’t too fond of the “chipper,” yet after eating this one, he insisted we eat it the next day as well 🙂 But I digress…

The view from our room. wow.

Upon entering their adorable seaside home, we unloaded our things and Amanda noticed a couple little white drops on the arm of the sofa. She scratched at it, and remarked about it looking like paint. However, when she scratch at the white spot, it was almost dusty, like chalk. We looked around a little more and noticed that it actually looked like little bird droppings. There was a bird in the house! Quickly, she washed her hands, and we all decided that we were starving and needed to eat first. Afterward, Amanda wanted to show us our room. As we walked up the stairs we noticed more little tiny white drops here and there, and then it hit us…where’s the bird now!?! Well, mystery solved. There was the little guy lifeless as can be lying on the floor of bedroom #1. As we turned to walk up more stairs, there was another one! We started giggling at the weirdness of the whole thing, all the while feeling very sad for the poor little birdies that lost their lives. As we were climbing the stairs to where we would be sleeping and chatting about how weird this was, Amanda made a comment about how weird it would be if there was another one in our room. Well, sure enough! There it was, birdie #3! Her parents were on their way to the house, so after a phone call to let them know what had happened, we elected Javier to collect the bodies. Now, these little boogers were not exactly easy to pick up. Javier was armed with a rubber glove, dustpan and broom. Let’s just say that birdie #2 and #3 were fairly easy to collect, but birdie #1, well, he took some effort. Thanks goodness for Javier. We placed them in the chipper bag, each dropping with a horrible thud and set them outside for her dad to deal with. 🙂

Sophie… sweet Sophie.

When her parents arrived, we introduced ourselves and everyone set off in different directions. We poured some champagne and relaxed outside while watching the water and playing with their sweet pup, Sophie! Amanda’s dad made us a delicious dinner of different barbecued marinated meats and afterward, we all relaxed and just enjoyed the evening.

In the morning, we all woke up at
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The Chef and The Recruit.

different times, helped ourselves to some fruit, toast and tea, and waited for the real breakfast 🙂 Amanda’s dad is an excellent cook, and spends a lot of time researching recipes, and creating his own. For breakfast, eggs benedict! At first, he tried to recruit Javier and myself to make the poached eggs, we quickly told him that this was a bad idea, but that we could be useful in other ways. Therefore, Javier was recruited as the toast boy, and my job was to stir the hollandaise sauce so it wouldn’t curdle. I will be totally honest, it was quite a feat to prepare the meal, but it was easily the BEST benedict I’ve ever had. Another moment of honesty- If I were alone, I would have licked the plate.

Eggs Benedict .. yes!

Collin and Amanda. Local Beer: St. Andrews Ale.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, napping in the sun, and eating ice cream down by the docks. In the afternoon, Amanda and her dad took us to St. Andrews. We drove around the golf course, he gave us our own personal tour of the area, and we finished off with a pint at the Jigger Inn! The rest of our evening was very relaxing. We climbed up on some big rocks to snack and drink, while catching the last remaining rays of sunshine.

Amanda was kind enough to stay another night in Anstruther instead of returning to Edinburgh on Sunday, so she was able to drop us off at the airport to pick up our rental car for our trip around the highlands! More on that later…

Bubbly with The McClatchie Family. Cheers!

We cannot thank Amanda and her parents, Collin and Clare enough for their hospitality and generosity. For what was probably just another weekend for them at their seaside home, was an unforgettable experience for us! Javier and I are very close to our families, and it felt really nice to be around another family who shared that same bond. You can tell Amanda very much enjoys their company, the same way Javier and I enjoy our parent’s company. It felt a little like home, and it felt really good. So, thank you thank you, thank you to the McClatchie family for opening your home to us and sharing your family with us. <3

More Photos of Edinburgh and Scotland. click HERE