Was up at 6:00AM Monday morning to get on the transfer bus to go back to Venice airport for my flight out to Edinburgh. Liz sent me off with a fantastic packed lunch (rolls, fruit, juice boxes, chocolate!) so I wouldn't have to buy ridiculously expensive food at the airport…she takes such good care of me! :) I said goodbye to Em & Liz with big, BIG hugs, & we vowed to meet up in Perth sometime in the next few years to take a road trip up North & swim with the whale sharks.

Rhi was driving me & a couple of other guests out to the airport & we stopped briefly along the way for a coffee. Being my last day in Italy (and, I realized, my last day in Europe…) I decided to go for a good old Italian Nutella coffee. For those who missed my description of the one I had in Rigomaggiore: they basically smear the inside of a cup with a think layer of Nutella, put a shot of espresso in it & thick foamy milk (or cream) on top. Yum! Of course, about an hour later I was super jittery but still…worth it! :D

Got to the airport with a couple of hours to spare before I could even check in…Tell you what, as convenient & cheap as they are, I was still thanking my lucky stars that this was my last trip on a budget airline for the foreseeable future! The whole check in process was a nightmare; I was just lucky to have been there so early so that at least I as at the front of the ridiculously long queue. When I finally made it through check in & security I took a wander through the duty free perfume section & came out smelling of about 10 different combinations of top, middle, & bottom notes :P

The flight was about 2.5 hours, then I took a transfer bus into the center of town to Waverley station, & the 37 bus from there out to the place where Esther & Jess are living at the moment. I was struck instantly by how friendly the Scottish people are. Even the customs official greeted me with a friendly hello & asked me how my day was going! (Oh, & it was freakin' awesome to be a non-UK/European Union citizen in this circumstance because I got to skip past the line of several hundred people straight through customs - hurrah!).

Esther was working until late but Jess came out & found me on the roadside after a little bit of directions confusion, & took me back to their lovely apartment. They are situated on Old Burdiehouse Rd, about half an hour out of the Edinburgh city centre across the road from some wheat fields. It all feels very quaint & lovely :) They're staying temporarily in a vacant apartment that's part of a complex that their great uncle had bought, renovated, & then rented out. I have my own little corner with a mattress on the floor & it's very comfy & cozy. Jess made me some spag bol for dinner (nothing quite like a great spag bol) & Es arrived home later that evening…so lovely to see her again :)