Edinburgh vino and vintage

Wow I have been super bad at this blogging malarkey! So I am going to TRY to be better and blog more (but don't hold me to it, I may fail again!)

So as it's the time of the Edinburgh festival I thought I'd write about the lovely city itself.. We are lucky enough to have some fab friends who live there and so a couple of weeks ago we spent a night and a day perusing a little tiny smidge of what this amazing city has to offer.

Firstly we had a night in Leith... now the Leith of my imagination (Trainspotting) is a far cry from the reality of Leith today. Leith has been gentrified considerably over the last few decades and is now a really lovely place to spend an evening. There are lots of really nice pubs/bars/restaurants along the docks. We spent a New Year's a few years ago in a gorgeous steak restaurant just off the main docks area, but I have no recollection of its name (must have been a good night! ;).
This time we spent a rainy but fun and wine filled evening at a great pub called The Kings Wark http://www.list.co.uk/place/100485-the-kings-wark/ (their own website is currently down). It was a fantastic place, all dark wood and 'proper' pub-ness but with the added bonus of serving fabulous food. I can recommend the mussels and the steak, if you get a chance to go do check it out!

The following day we went shopping, well mostly window shopping, but it was a lovely sunny day and we made the most of it.
We visited a few fantastic vintage shops that I've never visited before around the Grassmarket area. First was Armstrongs a fabulous Aladdin's cave of vintage and kitsch that should be a must-go on any trip to Edinburgh!

I fell in love with an original 50's floral prom dress which was unfortunately too big, or it would have been mine! There is literally something for everyone here, from beautiful and affordable occasion wear for men and women to quirky dressing up clothes. Pretty much every era is covered and you could literally spend hours unearthing the treasures lurking everywhere!

                    A not very good picture of the said 50's dress, it was stunning IRL!

So if you're not already a seasoned local vintage shopper and you visit the city, Armstrongs is well worth a bit of your time! As is their sister store the Rusty Zip on Teviot Place, which is smaller and more 70's based although I did spot a beautiful red chiffon 50's ballgown in there which I'd have loved to own!

We also had a lurk around Godiva, at the foot of the Grassmarket, a stunning shop with a front room full of designer-made reclaimed vintage clothes and accessories. There were some stunning pieces here and well worth a look for that unusual item, I absolutely loved the elastic waist belts with vintage fabric detailing! The good news for us non-Edinburgh-ites is they have an online shop: http://www.godivaboutique.co.uk/home.html

 The back room at Godiva is chock full of pretty vintage treasures, more modern vintage than Armstrongs - 70's and 80's feature heavily - but well worth a rummage. I found the cutest little black 80's playsuit which sadly came up too short in the body for me (I didn't have a lucky shopping day!).

I'm sure there are loads of other lovely vintage shops to be found in the city, we sadly ran out of time, but the taster I had was a scrummy one. :)