My birthday week in Edinburgh

Last week, I had what may well have been the best birthday I have ever had. My family and I stayed in Edinburgh for three nights, specifically to celebrate my 21st, and to see Tian Tian and Yang Guang the giant pandas before their return to China, which later turned would be in 2 years time.

We flew into Edinburgh on Monday evening, and took a tram to our apartment, later heading out for dinner after unpacking. The next day, we went to get breakfast at the nearby cafe, before getting a taxi to the Royal Botanic Gardens. This was one part of Edinburgh we had never visited before, and I wanted to take my dad, due to his love of plants. At the botanics, we went for a nice walk around the place, looking at the different plants and spotting wildlife including grey squirrels and ravens. Afterwards, we made the long walk down to the National Museum of Scotland, which I remember enjoying every minute of the last time. We had lunch at the Balcony cafe in the Museum, before heading into the Animal World gallery to look at all of the stuffed animals. After taking our time to look at every last animal specimen on all three floors of the gallery, we then went down to the very bottom floor of the museum, to an area called ‘Beginnings’, because I wanted to see a diorama of an ancient Scottish forest and tundra, with various animals that once lived in Scotland, including wolves and a brown bear. There, we also watched a six-minute film called ‘From Ice to Life’, which talks about how glaciers, and later people, shaped the landscape and wildlife of Scotland. We left the museum mere minutes before it closed for the day, and then we went to get dinner nearby in Makars Gourmet Mash – a splendid early birthday dinner!

Wednesday was the big day of the week. In the morning, my parents and sister came into my bedroom with some birthday cards and presents for me, including a book token and a picture of a badger my sister had commissioned with @clo_design. We then had a very fancy birthday breakfast, sandwiching a gluten-free brownie between coconut and chocolate oat biscuits, supplementing it with roasted hazelnuts and grapes. We went out afterwards to visit Edinburgh Zoo; I wanted to get to the zoo before it opened, as I wanted to go see the koalas as early as possible. We were lucky to get a bus to the zoo just in time, and after we got there, we were exactly the third group of people to enter the zoo.

We headed up to Koala Territory, but we didn’t hesitate to stop by along the way to see some favourites including the red pandas, pygmy hippos, cassowaries and sun bears. Both the hippos and bears were staying nice and warm indoors, although the female hippo and her calf did go outside, and we were lucky to hear the cassowary making a deep, guttural call that they make during the mating season. After we arrived at the koalas, we saw the three female koalas (Kalari, Inala and Dameeli) from outside before entering the building. What made this moment special was that they were all wide awake with their heads up, a state in which we had never seen koalas in the flesh before. This gave us an opportunity to take plenty of photos before the koala in our view moved between branches. We also said hello to male koala Tanami, who was also fairly awake but did not move from the same spot. I was really happy as this was the first time I had ever seen the koalas this active.

After that amazing moment with the koalas, we then went to see the pandas, passing through the Wallaby Walkabout on the way up. Last time we visited, much of the pandas’ viewing areas were closed off to allow them to settle into their new home. Now with their indoor viewing accessible, we went to check inside Yang Guang’s house first. After seeing that he wasn’t inside, I looked around the outside paddock, and saw some bamboo stalks moving at one of the platforms, before looking under that platform to see part of Yang’s black-and-white fur. I knew he was there. So then we went the whole way round to the other side of the enclosure where some visitors were, and got my best view yet of Yang Guang, as he lounged on the platform enjoying his bamboo. I then checked Tian Tian’s outdoor enclosure, but couldn’t see her, so I went down to her house, and I could see her relaxing in her hay basket. I knew it was pointless to get good photos of her in that state and spot, but I was glad I got to see her. We spent around an hour at the pandas, enjoying Yang Guang and taking loads of photos of him having lunch. During this time, we also saw a kestrel hovering above the Grevy’s zebra paddock next door, looking out for small rodents in the grass. We also spotted a redwing perched on top of a tree in the same enclosure.

Afterwards, we went upwards to the top of the zoo, where Mum ordered me a hot chocolate from the new outdoor giraffe cafe. We then headed towards the new giraffe enclosure, where we saw the five male giraffes who arrived back in May at their house. I was lucky to get some photos of two of the boys looking out across Edinburgh. We then started to make our way back down to the zoo entrance, as we planned to have a birthday lunch at the hotel next door to the zoo, but not before saying hello to some of the other animals, including the banteng and the porcupines. We tried to have lunch as quickly as possible, as we wanted to pop back into the zoo to say one last goodbye to the pandas.

After we reentered the zoo, we went left towards the penguins, and spent a bit of time watching the three species at the zoo (king, gentoo, and northern rockhopper) before moving on to look at the Indian rhinos and the single Malayan tapir inside his house. We also stopped by the three banteng again to see them up close to us from inside their house. Wanting to get to the pandas, we took the path via the Egyptian vultures and geladas. A keeper kindly lifted the rope barrier to the geladas’ house so that we could see the monkeys as they went back inside to get their food. We also had a look at the Visayan warty pigs and spotted deer, as well as a Siberian musk deer. We then headed straight back to the pandas’ enclosures, but there was no sign of them, indoors or outdoors. While Dad and I looked at their outdoor enclosure, my sister and Mum spoke to a keeper who told them that the pandas have been taken off view for the evening. Though I was disappointed at not saying one final goodbye before their return to China, I was still happy I got my best view of a giant panda yet, same with the koalas. Both were definitely the best presents for my 21st birthday. We got to the gift shop at around the time the zoo was closing, where I bought a red panda calendar for 2022, a koala keyring, a bar of chocolate, and a hoodie with two pandas on it, as I wanted to make this birthday a memorable one.

The next day, we left our suitcases at Waverley train station before heading to the nearby Loudon’s restaurant, where we had both breakfast and lunch. In between, we left my sister while she completed a college assignment while we went to climb Calton Hill, near where my great-great-grandfather lived. After lunch, during which I had some pancakes with maple syrup and banana slices, we went to Dynamic Earth, as we wanted to show Dad and my sister, who missed it last time. Once we had finished the tour, we went to get our suitcases from the train station, and took the tram back to the airport, where we had our dinner before the flight back to Dublin. That night, when I entered my bedroom, I found a copy of National Geographic’s awesome Birds of the Photo Ark book that I had asked Dad to get me. It really has been an eventful birthday week for me!