CLOSED

A snow storm has closed down the entire city of Edinburgh for the past couple of days. It started snowing on Saturday night and by Sunday Edinburgh Council didn't know what to do. But instead of staff getting in gritting lorries and salting the roads for safe driving come Monday morning, Edinburgh Council decided it didn't want to pay its drivers overtime so they waited for Monday morning. Not a good idea. By Monday morning it had been snowing for a solid 36 hours. There was at least 4 inches of snow on the ground and everyone was pretty much going crazy. Scotland, if there is one thing you need to do better on is handle snow. Edinburgh Airport has been closed from Monday to Thursday so they can have proper time to deice the runway (take a lesson from Detroit, deice the runway in three hours, not three days). Emily was in Rome this weekend and her flight was Monday, she eventually found her way back via Dublin and Glasgow and a train.

I get to work on Monday morning and listen as the stories start flying from the office ladies. Three double decker buses on Fredrick (my street) were seen going sideways up the road because of the snow. All the schools are closed which does not make PG a happy camper, "its only going to get worse, my kids need their education." No one in the office except for me have proper shoe attire to walk in the snow, so I am the gopher made to go get the milk and coffee because we are out, down at the local co-op. Walking there takes ages even in my wellies, not on account of me walking slow but on account of everyone else not knowing how to walk at all. The sidewalks aren't shoveled so the strip right next to the buildings where it emanates heat is the only place everyone and their mums can walk on. Which you would think would leave the rest of the sidewalk free, well you are wrong, there must be dozens of people lined up along the roads waiting for non existent buses.

Looking on the website when I get back to the office, most of the buses are not running today, if they are running they are running partial routes, and no trains out of Edinburgh (but Glasgow trains are coming in). Some of my office mates are stuck in little towns right outside of Edinburgh because of the train/bus situation. During lunch half the office left to go try and find wellies so they can survive in the wilds of Edinburgh. They come back 2 hours later spouting off stories about having to walk the whole of Princes(s) street looking for wellies and only have 45 minutes of walking against the crowd do they discover Office where they have wellies. Everyone comes back with a pair of them but only after waiting in the queue for over 30 minutes to pay.

A look at Old Town from Princes St

The way these guys are bundled up makes me think of The Christmas Story because my office mates have literally never seen this much snow. There must be 6 or 7 inches of snow and the town has literally gone crazy. One of the office ladies who I walk home with sometimes because she lives a couple rows down says she has the perfect way to get back today instead of walking we will sledge down the hill taking turn on the sledge. I laughed because I knew if going uphill in snow was difficult, going down hill (and not slipping) would be even more difficult. I enjoyed her idea because we would then have an excuse to be snowy instead of having to tell the embarrassing story of our fall. Even though the snow has caused problems there is always a bright side, like how beautiful the snow looks on the castle. It brightens my day, every time I walk to work and see the pristine Castle just sitting there.

One last thing before I drift off. Another thing that Scotland needs to be better on in the snow is the Royal Mail. The office and the flat only just today received their first mail all week (office mail was piled high) and only just yesterday did the Royal Mail pick up the mail across the street and at the office. It astounds me that some days you just don't get your mail in the UK, compared to America posties here are wimps. Snow is not horrible its pretty much the best thing, winter is my favourite season because of hot chocolate, Christmas, Thanksgiving, snow, gathering around a warm fire, sledding and many more! I can't wait for Sean to be here so we can revel in the awkwardness of how Scotland handles snow and see all the cool places!