The last full day in Edinburgh started smoothly as we had a chance to wake up when we wanted. The only reserved activity for the day was a football match at 3pm. The day lighted up with a sunshine and some of us went out for a brunch, shopping and strolling around the downtown. Some ate some noodles in local restaurant.

In the afternoon, it was time for football. Unluckily, there were no Scottish Premiership matches in Edinburgh or Aberdeen during our visits in the cities. However, we wanted to see some local football so we went to watch Scottish third tier (Cinch League One) match FC Edinburgh – Clyde FC.

The match begins. Clyde puts pressure and gets chance after chance. ”C’moon Edinboro!” roars someone in the crowd. 15 minutes played. Clyde’s defender and keeper collide. Edinburgh scores the luckiest goal ever. 1-0. The match becomes more even. Edinburgh starts the second half much better. The price comes soon: 2-0 with a nice goal. Clyde tries to strike back but doesn’t succeed. Full time 2-0 and a nice victory for Edinburgh.

The game was a nice glimpse of local football culture in Scotland. Stadium was small and the atmosphere rather peaceful but with a cup of tea (or coffee), clear sky and good company it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

After the game, some of us headed for the city for sightseeing. We wanted to see the Edinburgh castle, but there was a Fringe festival military Tattoo event going on, so we could not get in and had to settle for enjoying the castle from outside.

We finished the evening by heading for dinner. Some of us had already scouted the neighbourhood and found a nice Turkish restaurant with a good quality-price ratio, and we decided to eat there. Some of us ordered starters. To our surprise, in addition to the starters, we got large amounts of pita-type bread and tiny pizzas for everyone. As typically Finnish people, we tried to eat the offered food and finished the bread – after which the waiter brought us more! This caused us to be already quite full before the main courses, which also were huge. We got free tea after the main courses and our waiter even wanted to teach us how to make party-trick roses out of our napkins. Safe to say, none of us left the restaurant hungry and we had a good time. Luckily, our accommodation was close to the restaurant, so it was easy to retire after the dinner.

Thank you Sumitomo for offering us a Scottish football experience and a delicious dinner!

Last night in Edinburgh. Here are some thoughts of the city and the time we spent here:

• Time flew in Edinburgh! Partly because we had fun, partly because we spent a lot of time traveling to excursions.
• Stand up and comedy must be very popular in the UK. There were dozens of comedy shows in the city during the Fringe Festival.
• What is wrong with Scottish emergency vehicles? The sirens are really loud! There were also plenty of them driving past our accommodation.
• The weather was great during our visit! Little less than 20 degrees and just a little bit rain felt almost too warm after Iceland.
• The streets of old town were really crowded. Maybe that was because of the Fringe, but those streets and pavements are not built for that amount of people.
• Edinburgh came across as a city for car drivers, not pedestrians nor cyclists.
• We are grateful that there is so good public transportation in Helsinki metropolitan area. The car traffic is busy in Edinburgh because there is no subway and roughly any trams or commuter trains.

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