An Education

Standing on Arthur’s Seat, it is as though I can see that line of cars once again, snaking back up the road, laden with the promise of new beginnings, a late burst of September sunshine beating down on their bonnets.

Practicalities covered the emotions that day; unloading the car, retrieving the keys, climbing the five flights of stairs to where it was all supposed to begin, this big adventure.

“Oh, and what a view!”

The imposing stature of Arthur’s Seat was indeed comforting, dominating the landscape with a sense of timelessness that dwarfed such temporary realities, such transitory concerns.

Those first few weeks were ridden out on pure adrenaline, although the city itself carried you with it.

Edinburgh.

From the winding cobbled streets to the majestic Georgian townhouses, it emitted an overriding sense of history and pride, and quickly invited you past the explicit tourism of street corner pipers and gift-boxed shortbread to discover those secrets that turn a city into your city.

And what a city it is.

The smell of hops that the brewery leaves to linger in the air. That first glimpse of sunshine that prompts the whole population to descend onto the Meadows, cider, barbeque and frisbee in hand. Dingy nightclub tucked away in the vaults of the Old Town and half a Parthenon atop Calton Hill.

Each season saw the city transformed. As the nights drew in, fireworks become a more regular staple across the skyline and, decked out in fairy lights, Princes Street Gardens started to assume its festive magic. It was Hogmanay, however, when the city came into its own. An international crowd drawn out onto the streets, nips of whiskey and good cheer fighting off the biting cold, as strangers wished each other well for the twelve months ahead.

Although the new year awoke to frost on the inside of the windows, Edinburgh already had you in its grips. Deadlines ran into each other as friendships were cemented in the coffee shops and drinking houses that framed an academic existence. Nerves had been shed, new personas established and soon the cold of winter was replaced by the hopes of spring and fever of exams.

Freedom came in that pint in the courtyard of the Pear Tree, that afternoon spent escaping the urban delights in the seclusion of the Botanic Gardens and that blossoming romance soon to be tempered by the goodbyes to come.

It was only later that I came to appreciate that Edinburgh didn’t cease to be outside the academic year, indeed quite the opposite. August brings the Festival; a month of cultured revelry that seizes a whole city, never dampened by rain overhead.

It is this spirit that proved to be a constant companion, shaping the person who stands here today, once again overlooking this great city. A city that has witnessed such a transformation in me, and yet, it seems, in its essence, time will never alter. A city which, in its essence, has afforded me a priceless education.