Sunrise Sunset

I've been rereading Le Petit Prince these past couple days and it couldn't have come at a better point in my life. I've been trying to make sense of mind numbing subjects such as finances, material accumulation, protectivity, exploration, and falling in love with flowers. I won't go into detail about the philosophical lessons one can learn from this decidedly tiny, childlike read; just go read it if you have no idea what I'm going on about for goodness sake. Anyways, a recurring theme in the novel is the idea of chasing sunsets, and how they can be related to personal sadness and the size of a planet, as well as how the sunset both links and separates groups of people and influences life on every planet. Again, I will not go into the symbolic, metaphorical detail of analyzing these ideas, because that would take too many words and it's 11pm and I've been working for 12 hours and 15 minutes today so my head isn't in the space to perform such a task.

What I really wanted to express to you is my new found appreciation for the cycle of the sun. I have always liked the idea of being an early riser, but after having left school and not having to wake up at 6:30 and drag my zombie self to a cardboard box classroom to numb my mind for hours on end (no really, I loved high school), I have started to really fall in love with being there as the sky lightens and the city lights fade beneath the rising sun and people wake up slowly. There is a deep relaxation in observation. The same goes for the sunset. There is a catharsis in knowing, in understanding that the sun will dip below the horizon at a certain hour and rise again the following morning without fail. There is a stability in that, and in these past few months I have been left longing for stability. The sunset is a supernova of beauty, a stunning reflection of golden light, a grandeur of dissipation. The sunrise is the less appreciated sister of the sunset, an almost apologetic, bashful phenomenon. It is slow, a gentle dip-dyeing of the fabric of the sky as it is washed out and lightened by the rising radiation in the east. It isn't dramatic nor is it melodramatic. It is warm and comforting and reassuring.

Here are some of the sunrises and sunsets I have experienced so far on this journey, both metaphorical and physical.

Pleas Listen For Your Improved Viewing Experience:

Sunrise Sunset by We Are Trees

In The Embers by Sleeping at Last

Sunrise: Edinburgh (The Meadows)

Paris: My Rooftop

Sunset: Edinburgh (Calton Hill and Princes Street Gardens)

Paris: My Rooftop

Thanks for listening! I sincerely hope this wasn't as cliche as sun cycle posts usually are, but I just wanted to show a little love for the beauty that are natural earthly processes.

"You know - one loves the sunset, when one is so sad..."

Love always, let me know your thoughts on sunsets and rises.

Coral

A Week in Edinburgh

HELLO ALL. I am very sorry for my absence from the blogosphere (save for a few scattered poems over on my creative writing blog), but I have been finding myself in the beautiful capital of Scotland. Instead of doing a daily blog thing, I've decided to condense my week into a semi-organized overview of my favourite places and things. Please enjoy my handy links.

Top 10 Favourite Things (in order from wonderful to amazingly brilliant)

10. Piemaker. I paid 3 pound something for a mac and cheese (yes) pie, lentil soup, and a huge cup of tea. Enough said.

9. Peter's Yard. THEIR PASSION FRUIT TART and the pot of tea made four cups. Brilliant on a soggy last day.

Pink Teapot Ft. Lichtenstein Notebook.

8. Grassmarket. I got a 2 pound book (Jerusalem the Golden) from The Old Town Bookshop and a stunning white lace dress from Armstrong's (amazing vintage) (but it was from topshop). It's just a generally lovely little stroll with cutesy boutiques and nice organic juice bar type restaurant-cafes.

7. Royal Mile Starbucks & The Elephant House. Cheating because there are two, but they're both cafes soooooo, yeah. Starbucks: the seating is upstairs and is old architecture, old books, and general warm coziness looking out onto the Royal Mile. The Elephant House is where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter and I swear what I wrote in there was better than most of the stuff I had written out of this lovely little cafe. Plus, it wasn't very busy, the prices were reasonable, and there were beautiful views of the castle.

6. Princes Street Gardens and The Royal Botanic Garden. Getting sneaky again with this double whammy of plant life. But they both deserved a very honourable mention. Princes is a lovely refuge in the heart of the city, and Royal is vast and full of different sections, such as the woodland area and the rock garden.

Princes Street Gardens:

Royal Botanic Garden:

5. Getting serious now into the Top 5. My fifth favourite thing was Portobello Beach. It was stunning on a dramatically cloudy day and I walked along the shore with my toes in the water and my Barefoot Contessa (which I was barefoot wearing, perfect) dress with chips (british french fries not a bag of chips) and a cuppa. Made me very homesick but lovely all the same.

4. Calton Hill. There are very few words to describe the way the sun set over the city and cast a golden glow over the extinct volcano and the architecture of the old town and castle. This place clears the head.

3. Arthur's Seat. You must be noticing a trend now, of wildnerness-type things. I had missed the serenity and clear-headedness of being in nature. Paris' parks are lovely but the grass is mostly out of bounds to preserve its beauty and they have a weird thing about putting fake sand down on the paths/courtyards. Arthur's Seat was as close to the mountains that I got until the Pentland Hills.

The trail at sunrise.

2. The Meadows. This ranks higher than the three previous places simply because of its proximity to the city centre, so it's wonderful to stroll down spontaneously and grab a bite or a cup of tea at The Meadow Box. My favourite Meadows experience was sitting on a park bench as the sun rose, reading my new secondhand book, sipping my tea, and a photographer fangirling over the lighting and snapping my picture. The sun can do wonderful things.

1. The Pentland Hills. There are no words for this experience. I thought they were going to be low, smooth rolling hills, and was therefore shocked to have to climb 80 degree angles in my sneakers and jeans, passing full-on hikers in their hiking boots and backpacks and spandex hiking gear. I saw highland cows and I breathed in the semi-mountain air as the sun peeked from behind the clouds.

My Pentland Hills Playlist:

On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons

Chasing the Sun by Sara Bareilles

Mountain Sound by Of Monsters and Men

Overall, it was an amazing week. But since being back in Paris, I have discovered some amazing new things about this place and my apartment. I feel as renewed as I thought I would be upon arrival, maybe even more, and I see the city through a new, more rose-coloured lens.