Tip-toeing around Edinburgh

It's Christmas night... The day has passed and it was a very good one...

Lots of food, lots of laughter, lots of napping too... so Italian!

And after all that my dad, my brother and I decided to go into town to experience a little bit of the festive Scottish spirit...

Never had I seen Princes street so deserted. Never had I seen it so quiet.

The expression "Ghost town" doesn't even cut it... There wasn't a single soul about!

How amazing!

The thing of which there was plenty about however, was ice!

After the heavy snowfalls of the past 2 days and the sub-freezing temperatures that did indeed granted the kid inside all of us a white Christmas, ice covered every single inch of pavement we put our feet on. It made our little expedition seem quite an adventure!

It was one of those occasions in which I wished I had taken up ice-skating when I had the chance to learn how to, one of those moments in which I wished I had forgotten I am Italian and fashionable and wore sturdy trainers rather than fancy boots (and there wasn't even anyone around to admire them!!!)... I almost landed on my "soft spot" a couple of times, ended up in hysterics laughing with my brother in the middle of the road.

He crossed Princess Street shamelessly without even having to look right and then left (and thank goodness because he may have gotten it the wrong way around being from another country!) skidding like a child...

The pace was much slower, the attention to detail enhanced...
Has anybody noticed that some of the Christmas lights outside John Lewis flicker and some don't?
Has any of you realised that the coffee cups in Costa on Castle street are stacked on the side of the coffee machine rather than on top of it at night?
And has anyone taken the time to look through the little fissure in the paper blocking the view inside the new Primark and gathered that if your wish is to go shopping there soon it ain't happening because the place is a completely empty concrete cell and the light bulbs are just hanging from metal hooks...
And also... Have you ever taken the time to see how beautiful the blue lights look on the trees that line Princes Street?

Oh, and I finally saw the infamous tram tracks... did we really pay all that money for that?!?
I'm sure they'll be great once they'll go, they just look a tad bit awkward now...

When the city is empty, when the hearts are happy, when your eyes are open, when ice becomes your play buddy... that's when you discover the place you live in... and it's beautiful!!!