A Day to Remember

Lindsey White

The city was buzzing with life. The sun was beating down on the tourists, shoppers and citizens of Edinburgh. This scorching day had brought people from all over to shop, this including us.

I had been staying at my friends (Sarah and Rhona's) house in Dunfermline, and we had decided to visit the capital for one last shopping session before the summer holidays.

We had about three hours sleep, but that just made us more determined to get as much as we could. We headed off running down to the train station just making it in time for the morning train.

The train was packed with unhappy workers and their treasured briefcases who all sat with faces like fizz understandably dreading their day in a stuffy office whilst the rest of us are flouncing about outside. Of course there was also the 'long-time' tourists with their bags overflowing and shoved into a corner. And then there was us. The only thing weighing us down was our purses which were sure to be emptied rapidly.

We stepped off the train and the crowd ran into us pushing us into the stairway. We grabbed at the railing and dragged ourselves onto the stairway which we then rushed up. Following inches behind us was the chaotic crowd.

Princess Street was a welcomed sight. The sun was now at its highest, bathing the street in a sparkling golden light.

We danced off in the direction of our favourite shops. The crowd however, made us feel slightly disorientated in the familiar streets.

First on the list was Jenners (now the House of Fraser) this however was a bad start as we didn't get a single thing out of the promising department store. We still had much more on our list of shops though so we prayed for better luck. We were not disappointed and my mood was back to full happiness. The familiar senses of shopping rushed back, overwhelming us with pride as we carried our shopping bags around like trophies.

Shopping is a full on sport though and tiredness was starting to effect our skills for the sport. We decided as a compromise to tiredness and not wanting the day to end to refuel at a smoothie bar.

We took our smoothies to Princess Street Gardens which was packed with students, pensioners, families and couples. The bagpipes were proudly playing in the background filling the crisp air with the piercing notes of Scottish music. Empty beer bottles were strewn across the freshly mowed grass. We sank back into the grass verge and let our senses take over.

Once our strength was fully restored, we looked once more at the surrounding sights of the picnics, sports and beer fests before heading back towards the train station and back home.