a day in edinburgh, scotland

Today my sister and I spent a great day in Edinburgh. She's been living half an hour east of this beautiful city for her six month work term here in Scotland and has gotten to be familiar with the area. After packing our bags last night for the "backpacking" portion of our adventures, we both decided we wanted to dress up for our outing today and try not to look like tourists if at all possible. I guess our plan succeeded as we had people stop us on the street to ask for directions, and for change for the bus fare, which made us laugh not to mention feel quite confident in ours camouflaging abilities! (I guess they missed us walking out of the souvenir shops! Ha)
I've decided that having no real hopes or agenda can be a good thing when travelling. I’d much rather stumble upon treasures at random then spend hours wandering lost determined to arrive at a specific location, and find it to be a disappointment.
For example we found a great restaurant for tea (the evening dinner in Scotland). It was a place I would never have entered because it looked so unbelievably ritzy, and although we were dressed up, we weren't that dressed up, and although we were hungry we weren’t that hungry. It ended up being a great find, and decidedly the last meal of that sort we will eat for a while. Earlier in the day we went to a coffee shop called Elephant House, which is actually where JK Rowling wrote most of the first few Harry Potter books. I doubt she goes there anymore though, since she's famous and crazed fans like myself make a point of crowding the place up. I felt like a geek, but there was a great view of the Edinburgh Castle, so I could justify being there, and it was a warm dry place that served coffee on a wet cold day.
Anyways, it's been fun. My favourite part is being with Teresa (my sister). We haven't spent much time together in the past 5 years as I've been away at school, but it's been refreshing to be with her and reacquaint ourselves. I’m impressed that we can still finish each other sentences and look forward to more adventures soon enough.