A Sunday by the Sea

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Yesterday  Aaron sent me a message that said "how much work do you have to do tomorrow?" and I knew right away that I was had. I do have a lot to do today, especially before we leave for Ireland, but Aaron sent me two photos of North Berwick and all my willpower left without a second thought.




North Berwick (pronounced more like Berr-ick) is a little seaside town in Scotland, about half an hour away from Edinburgh by train and only £7 round trip. I couldn't think of a good enough reason not to go, so I met Aaron at Waverly Station at 11 this morning and we took off. 

Unsurprisingly, I fell absolutely in love with North Berwick. I think I always underestimate my love for the beach and the sea, probably because living on Long Island I know it's always there and I don't really have to do much at all to go and see it. I also don't love the heat or crowds, so places like Jones Beach in the summer are awful for me. But I know how much I love being on the north shore in the off season, so I should've known how much I'd love North Berwick today. 


From the train station it was about a 10 minute walk to the beach through the cute little town. The second we stepped off the train I smelled the salt water air and the beach and it felt so wonderful - it was amazing to me how quickly we went from the noisy, dirty city to the fresh air by the beach. 

We walked along the beach for a while - tried to take our shoes off, decided the sand was too cold, put our sandy feet back in our sneakers - and saw so many families with little children and dogs. The dogs seemed to be having the best time out of anyone there, to be honest, and Aaron was absolutely in love with all of them. I was, of course, more enamored by all the little kids running around in their wellies and splashing in the water. 

one of Aaron's rocks in the distance

After our walk along the beach I started to get hungry, so we went in search of a cafe to have lunch. It took us a little too long, but we finally found one and I had a ham and brie and cranberry sandwich, which is a really popular sandwich option in this country, and a brownie. After lunch, we wandered around the high street and looked in a few cute little shops. I love the idea of little independently owned shops in a small town, but nothing struck my eye so I came back empty handed (probably a good thing)

the window display of one of the stores we popped into

While we were wandering around the high street, Aaron spotted a graveyard off on another street. It piqued our interest because all the graves we could see were knocked over or broken, so we got closer to explore. There, we found a church in ruins and a graveyard full of broken graves - so of course we had to go in. We checked out the graves and I spotted an entrance to the church. Inside there was a single grave with a dead bird sitting in front of it and honestly the two of us backed slowly out of there and then took off. Pretty sure it was haunted, definitely glad we were there in the middle of the afternoon and not the night.



Aaron had heard there was a castle in North Berwick, so we then went in search of it. After a bit of wandering I decided it would make more sense just to look it up, and we found out that it was actually more than an hour's walk away. With the castle idea crushed, Aaron wanted to walk along the beach more to look at the big rock island things out in the sea. 

He had his eye set on one particular rock and honestly took us walking forever just to see "the other side" of it (this made no sense to me, because it's a rock, and it's going to look like a rock no matter what side of it you're on). We walked all the way to the end of the beach, up a steep flight of stairs, across a golf course, and down a steep hill to see as much as we could of the rock (which, like I thought, still looked like a rock). We found parts of the beach that honestly looked like Mars, collected a few shells, and headed back into town.

It was a long walk back to the other end of the beach, and by the time we made it back to the train station it was about 20 minutes to the next train into Edinburgh, which we decided to hop onto. We were back in the city by 5pm, having left the sea and sand behind for the day. 

this was right behind the bench we sat on at the train station


I still have loads to do today, and I probably should have stayed in to get it done, but I don't regret our little adventure at all. Being by the sea was wonderful - it rekindled that little part of me that wants to live in a small village some day - and I think this was exactly what I needed to do today. Now, I should get a move on the things I actually need to get done before Ireland. 

Until next time! 
xx g






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