'The Pear Tree'
Before I explain 'The Pear Tree' let me take you back to my whole trip in Edinburgh. Firstly, my travel partner and I had decided to head up to Edinburgh for a few days to take Scotland off our list. This would involve us heading up on an overnight bus and 2 nights in Edinburgh and then head back to London on the train. For those reading this that want travel tips - this will be the first and last time I say this - Never. I mean NEVER travel on an overnight bus (unless you are one of those people who CAN actually handle it!). The trouble I had was I got zero sleep. I can actually fall asleep on planes (the seats recline a bit) this bus however (company shall remain nameless) the seats did not recline. I was stuck in a seating position and trying to get the slightest bit comfy was impossible. I still get nightmares of being unable to stretch out or sleep in such a confined space! I had no problems with anyone on the bus. No screaming kids, no one annoying, everyone was great. Except about half way through our trip, middle of the night, the bus breaks down. Pro - great way to stretch your legs. Con - It took ages to get help. Not a great way to end/start a day. I looked out the window as we drove into Edinburgh to a deserted town. Not one person, not one car around... anywhere. I think we ended up walking to our hotel (lucky it was only around the corner). The whole idea of riding on the overnight bus was to not waste money and save a day travelling. Well, this theory can just go get effed! We ended up falling asleep once we got in the hotel to only wake up, feel like crap from lack of good sleep, that we put sightseeing aside, went to the movies and watched World War Z (remember this is Europe Summer 2013). I believe our one and only day we spent in rainy Edinburgh riding around on a sightseeing bus, doing a brief bit of shopping, which we thought we would end the night on a high and go eat a traditional pub meal - recharge our physical and mental batteries with a good Sunday Roast! I ask my travel parter to pick a place and we will head off there by foot. We walked out the door at around 9pm. He said he had picked a place - good ratings from what he read and told me the restaurant name to put in GoogleMaps... I typed in The Pantry. It's about a 35 minute walk. Easy. It occurred to me just as we got to the restaurant about whether the place would be open or not... It wasn't. It then occurred to the both of us that my travel partner actually meant 'The Pear Tree' and I had mistaken it for it sounding like The Pantry! What are the chances of a restaurant having a VERY similar sounding name in the Edinburgh area! The most annoying thing was figuring out it was in the opposite direction, about another 40 minutes walking. As you can understand, a crappy bus trip, lack of sleep, rainy weather, what I think was a crap movie (World War Z - I'm sorry but unless you have seen The Walking Dead, zombies running at lighting fast speeds is not realistic! For them to be running that fast would only mean they were after one thing - Brad Pitts looks) and then contemplating walking another 40 minutes in the opposite direction at about 10pm at night and hungry at the same time - didn't really end too well! I'm glad I can laugh at this now - how easy the mistake was. At the time however we were pissed off! Sadly our Edinburgh trip finished with going to the closest restaurant before it closed... it was Hard Rock Cafe... with a salad.
