All settled in Edinburgh

So, incredibly, I'm already over two months into being 25 :O But I am extremely happy to know that I will be spending most of my 25th year living here in Edinburgh - I am in love with this city!

Since my last blog post I am now very much settled in; with a job and flat and getting to know more people; so feel comfortable again. I seem to forget each time I uproot my life like this and go somewhere new how hard it is in the beginning...Just got to remember that everything will work itself out eventually; and luck will usually show up and help out too!

It took awhile but I've definitely come to appreciate just how beautiful and welcoming Edinburgh is, and how it really is a great place to live. I will never get tired of the views here! Especially compared to London with its huge sprawl and busyness - Edinburgh is a perfectly sized little place that's nice and compact with gorgeous old buildings and cobbled streets everywhere, and the big extinct volcano Arthur's Seat rising up almost in the middle of everything. It's also so much calmer and laid back here - even the main shopping area, down the length of Princes Street, has huge wide pavements and shops just on one side - the other looks out over the Princes Street Gardens and across to the view of the old town and the castle; so even when it's jammed full of people it's a nice place to be. Here's a few photos of this lovely city in Autumn:

This is the road my flat is on :D

Part of the view from the road to my place

I have a job in a cafe called Beanscene, working with a great bunch of people. My latte art is getting better - I can't consistently do one of those nice designs but sometimes it turns out quite well. :) The cafe is part of a chain in Scotland and there are two branches in Edinburgh. At the moment we all get to swap around and have a mixture of shifts at both branches which is quite fun. It's great being able to confuse the customers when they see you one day at the first branch and in the other branch the next day! One branch is open till 10pm so the latest I work is 10.30 - makes a nice change from pub hours :) We do nice, cheap pizzas and a bunch of microwaved stuff like nachos, baked potatoes and soup, as well as a big selection of paninis/baguettes and cakes and slices. There's definitely some crazy busy days, or just busy lunch times, but overall it's pretty relaxed so I'm really enjoying it. I'll get around to taking some photos at some point.

I live in a really nice flat that's pretty central; it's about a 20min walk to Princes Street and about 25-45min walk (depending on what branch) to work. I have two awesome flatmates, two girls that are also 25. Here's some pictures of my lovely place: 

My room is the middle one above the 'house' in Houseproud

I've also joined a group on Facebook called Edinburgh Newbies and have managed to get along to a couple of the casual pub meet up nights and am getting to know some really cool people so far! It was hard to walk into the pub the first time as I haven't done anything like that before - but took a big breath and did it. Yay for getting out of the old comfort zone!