More or less sleeping city

I had an interesting cycle ride up Leith Walk this morning, to catch an early train to London. I would have blogged it earlier, using the GNER advertised free wireless access, except that it didn't exist, despite announcements and adverts on the window either in the train on the way down, or the one on the way back up.

Coming out of building at 5am this morning, I had to manoeuvre my way around a taxi. Revellers (there are lots of *young people* in our building), I wondered, or someone making an early start? It would appear the latter as it was empty, and seemed to be waiting for someone. Cycling through Pilrig Park in the dark was a spooky experience as ever, but I am too lazy to cycle round. But I do have a feeling that it might be cycling through the park, and the access path to the park, which is responsible for at least some of my recent flat tyres.

Along Balfour Street, it was interesting to see the number of lights in windows. Up late, or early, I wondered again? What were the people there up to? Out onto Leith Walk, though, the difference to the day time or the evening was most stark. It was quiet enough that I could hear the shoes of a man walking up the opposite pavement scuffing the pavement; and the squeaking of a car door as it closed was deafening. Further up, there was a young man drinking an energy drink (breakfast) before getting into a battered Astra and driving away. I thought he looked perhaps Polish. What looked like a duty manager at the Tesco halfway up was just opening the door to receive a delivery from a truck parked on the Walk. They'd both had early starts to their working days. And there was the tramp whom one often sees on Leith Walk, who looks like a proper traditional 'gentleman of the road', sitting minding his own business in the bus shelter, drinking a cup of something steaming in a styrofoam cup from the early opening cafe. As I cycled past, he watched me rather deliberately, and with a certain curiosity. And...no buses! Normally Leith Walk is awash with buses. A few people were waiting for them, as opposed to occupying the bus shelters like the tramp. But I wasn't passed by a single bus before I got to Princes Street. Remarkable.

The higher I went up the Walk, the more normal the sounds became. Although, not quite. As I said - no buses. But the sights and sound of the quiet street almost made up for the rather truncated night's sleep suffered in order to make the early train.