{"id":2759,"date":"2025-09-12T20:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T18:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/?p=2759"},"modified":"2025-09-25T13:26:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T11:26:05","slug":"mijn-thuis-voor-de-komende-maanden-edinburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/mijn-thuis-voor-de-komende-maanden-edinburgh\/","title":{"rendered":"My home for the next few months\u2026 Edinburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I write from a wooden windowsill that looks out over Fife and the sea. The next few months, this old house on the edge of Edinburgh will be my home. I came here to do research at the University of Edinburgh; I\u2019ll be studying the discourse on trans youth care in the UK. I\u2019m thrilled to be back here, at the foot of the hills, and to get to combine it with work that I care about deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my blog I will try to post regular updates of my adventures and my impressions of life here. I cannot wait to get to know Edinburgh up close, like I did in Glasgow three years ago. But fear not, I\u2019ll still be found in Glasgow often, not least to join my caving mates in some underground mischief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"edinburgh\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I decided to travel to Edinburgh by train with my bike and backpack. Green, and extra bike luggage (which I all had to carry myself). Needless to say, this went phenomenally unsmooth. Starting in Breda, where my parents drop me off. The car park is four stories high, and the lift is out of order, so I have to carry my bike down the long staircase, with 15 minutes till the train departs. Thank god my dad is there. Later today those extra hands will be greatly missed \u2013 first when I have to dissect my bags at Brussels security, for they are full of suspicious camping gear: tripod, crampons, pocket knife. Thankfully they let me bring everything, except my gas canister \u2013 well this I can\u2019t blame them. Later I miss my parents even more when I rush my bike through a busy London station and miss my train. And again in the local Edinburgh train, where I have to free myself from a tangle of drunken Scots. Only to finally crash on top of my bike on the platform, out of sheer exhaustion. Thankfully there\u2019s Bryan, my new housemate, come to the rescue. Together we walk the muddy path to my new home. And I instantly forget the hellish journey, when I see the lights burn beyond the overgrown driveway. It\u2019s as if I step into a fairytale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The enormous house dates back to the 17th century, and in the following centuries was renovated by a number of famous Scottish architects, including Sir William Bruce (think Hopetoun and Holyrood). It\u2019s a house that rustles and creaks, a tower and stone turnpike stair that have survived the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It gives it character, the grandfather clock, the peeling wallpapers, the creaking wooden floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own room has ebony cupboards and a Persian rug. That\u2019s for tomorrow. First I want sleep, and preferably a long one. My warm heavy blanket drowses me right away. But there\u2019s no sleeping in for me; the early morning sun shines in brightly and a sea breeze blows. Oh yes, it's the Scottish late summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\"portrait\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"driveway\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I have never been in this part of Edinburgh, but it doesn\u2019t take long to settle here. Everything feels familiar: the shelves in the supermarket, the walkers with their dogs, the jolly blether. They\u2019ll be there, wherever in Scotland you go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course there\u2019s also lots that\u2019s new. I love discovering the novelties here \u2013 how the trails run around the house, which utensils I can find in the kitchen, how light falls through the window frames. I love the robins at sunset and the drying rack on the ceiling. And I keep looking out the window, to the wheat field behind my house that moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All day long, dog walkers swarm the tall blades, sometimes with five dogs at a time. And rightly so; it\u2019s a great place to walk your dog: Arthur\u2019s Seat on one hand, the sea on the other. From the city they seem far apart. Here they exist next to each other. The field constantly tries to catch my attention. A train rushes past, a rabbit jumps off, a full moon rises. Everything happens here all at once. And at the same time, nothing really happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you cross the field to the sea, you\u2019ll stumble upon the rocks of Joppa near Portobello. Horizontal deposits of rock, dating back to the Carboniferous. During this period, Scotland was a tropical swamp that sat on the equator. By tectonic forces the rocks are slowly being tilted east. On their edge there are seals, just lying about. And birds, so many birds\u2026oystercatchers, herring gulls, redshanks, cormorants. They have flown southward to hibernate in the Firth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"portobello\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
The coast by Portobello<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday I cycle into town for the first time. There\u2019s a national cycle route from my house all the way to the city, past the basalt cliffs called Samson\u2019s Ribs. Avoid the Royal Mile, but if you follow the well-marked routes, cycling around Edinburgh is a perfectly pleasant experience. I love being mobile in the city, racing the trails on my mountain bike. The university building where I\u2019m doing research is outside the city center, near the academic hospital. When you cycle in over the wide avenue you can see all the way to the Pentlands. The Usher Institute is a beautiful modern building, with restrooms on every corner and windows so big it catches every little ray of sun. Not so bad a place to spend many hours behind a computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week I also bike through Glasgow. Specially for Nick, whose biggest hobby (besides sauna) is cycling. Cycling through Glasgow is less pleasant. Criss-cross potholes and screeching cars. Not me though, that\u2019s the Glaswegians. I wait patiently for green light, with the pedestrians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a busy first week, and yet I calm down completely. Maybe it was all I needed, the rustling house and the wheat field that moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve often felt it the past years, the force that pulls me towards Scotland. Sometimes it seemed as though I was just biding my time at home. Whenever I got the chance, I left. Is it the escape of a life I love too little? Or is it just what it is, a love I can give in to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, in this old house, there is room for solace. Salty water caresses my skin. Silken tears tickle my cheeks. And the branches of birches kiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the words of GerJan my yoga teacher: here, for just a moment, I don\u2019t need to do anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"wheat\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photos shot on Cinestil 400D with my Minox 35 GT.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vandaag schrijf ik vanuit een houten vensterbank die uitkijkt over Fife en de zee. De komende maanden breng ik door in dit oude huis aan de rand van Edinburgh. Ik doe hier onderzoek aan de universiteit van Edinburgh naar de toegang tot transgenderzorg in het Verenigd Koninkrijk. Wat ben ik blij om terug te zijn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-2759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-lowlands","tag-cycling"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/000053-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2759"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2808,"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions\/2808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.munroreveries.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}