Breezing Through TSA This Holiday Season

The holidays are coming and it's time to start planning and packing. Soon you'll join the millions of people traveling to visit friends and family or, if you're lucky, going on a winter getaway. I definitely approve of those, because the holidays can be stressful and getting away from everything is always nice and relaxing.

The airport during the holidays is a madhouse and security lines can be longer than usual, so let's talk about how to get through them with as little annoyance as possible (at least when it comes to yourself).

Eric, awkwardly, trying to pose for a pic while navigating this tiny Precheck hallway.

Sign up for TSA Precheck

You have time to do this and get approved before the holidays. For $85, you get 5 years of bypassing the main security lines and going through a much shorter line with less strict rules. You can keep your jacket, hat, belt and shoes on and your laptop and toiletries can stay in your bag. We're on our fourth year of using it and I'll never look back. Next year, when we renew, we'll be getting Global Entry, which works internationally and also includes domestic Precheck for just $100.

Get There Early

Longer lines mean longer wait times and the holidays means more traffic. Don't cut it too close to get to the airport. Give yourself at least two hours before your flight if it's domestic and three if its international at the airport. Accidents happen, extra long lines happen, computer glitches happen. Just be prepared. Bring a book or magazine to keep you occupied if you end up having a long wait at the gate...or go check out your airport's art or do some gift shopping.

Fly With Just a Carry-On

I've been flying with just a carry-on for a decade now. I've gotten my packing down to almost just the bare essentials, since I now know what will get worn and what won't. The trick to packing small in the winter is layering and not caring if all your pictures are you wearing the same coat and scarf (maybe two). Here's a post I did on packing light in the winter.

Don't Wrap Any Gifts

If you are visiting friends and family and haven't shipped your presents ahead (which I highly recommend), don't wrap them and stash them in your carry-on. TSA may very well want to inspect them and will not be sorry for you if they have to unwrap them. So, I suggest packing small gifts and saving the wrapping when you arrive. This takes up much less room too.

Go Left

Most people get to the security lines and head right to go through the x-ray machines. This makes these lines longer. Instead, go left if given a choice. These lines are shorter, making them a bit faster. Try skipping any lines with small kids, because they usually take longer.

Keep a Zip-Top Bag On Hand

Always have a bunch of things in your pockets? If you don't have an empty accessible pocket on your bag, have a plastic bag with you and then empty your pockets into it, so it doesn't get lost in the bottom of your bag or you don't have to stand at the end of the conveyor picking everything out of one of those little round bins to load your pockets back up.

Have Your Liquids Bag and Laptop Easily Accessible 

This is super annoying. All your liquids need to fit in a one quart see through bag in 3.4oz or less containers. Have this out and ready to toss in the security bin along with your shoes and laptop. When you're holding of the line rummaging for things that you knew you needed to have out, everyone gets that much more irritated and grumpy. You saw the signs. Don't pretend you didn't.

Wear Slip-On Shoes

Having to tie and untie your shoes to get through security is just another hassle you don't need. Pack those in your bag and wear some easy on easy off shoes. You will thank me. Anything that's hassle-free is nice, and can get you on your trip faster.

Don't Wear Any Accessories 

If you can get away with it, skip the jewelry and watch and belt. Those are just more things you'll need to take off to put through the scanners and nobody wants to wait behind you while you're spending an extra five minutes de- and re-accessorizing.

Download Your Airline's App

Carry one less thing. You're already walking around with your phone, so download your airline's app so you can easily check in, get updates and have your boarding pass on hand instead of stuffing it into your pocket or a book and then having a small panic attack when you can't find it. You can have everyone's boarding pass in your party on your app. Another brilliant tip: screenshot your boarding passes in case your app logs you out or the airport has shoddy WiFi right before you need to show it to someone. This has totally happened to me more than once. Never again!

Keep Your Chill

Don't be that person who gets all irritated when things don't go your way. Everyone's trying their best, the airline employees are already dealing with dozens of jerky people everyday. Don't make their life harder. Just close your eyes and breathe before you start yelling. Find your chill. Ask if it's really that important. Everyone's having a hard time, but they're dealing with it. Lots of things can't be helped, so you being grouchy and mean isn't going to change anything.

The holidays are supposed to be a happy time. Smile, even when you don't want to, think of the awesome trip you're about to go one, play games with your travel buddies and think of this as just another part of your adventure.

Where will you be going for the holidays?

Edinburgh's Harry Potter Tour

While in Edinburgh a few months ago, I was super stoked to be steeped in Harry Potter awesomeness. This is where the books were written and a lot of inspiration was found, and walking around, it's not hard to understand why. Beyond all the gorgeous scenery and history, the city is full of oddly named buildings and people and little winding alleyways. I love it. It was the perfect way to start off the trip that lead into a second week in London, where we also visited the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour.

George Heriot School (possible inspiration for Hogwarts) as seen from Camera Obscura

Eric and I had plans to visit many of the Harry Potter locations on our own, but we also did a proper tour near the end of our week in Edinburgh. Here's what we did separately first, and then I'll run through our tour.

Victoria Street

If you've ever wanted to stroll down Diagon Alley, then Victoria Street should definitely be on your list. It's two stories of colorful shops and restaurants and has store fronts that you might find in the Wizarding World: A Ha Ha Joke Shop is like Zonko's, The Boy Wizard sells all sorts of Harry Potter Merchandise, Museum Context has 4 stories of wizarding gear, including a full-size basilisk head and other photo ops, John Kay which might have inspired Flourish & Blotts. I'm sure there were more, but it's just fun to wander up and down the street. There's even a great little ice cream hut at the bottom of the street that has cool flavors like Florean Fortescue's. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shereen Travels Cheap (@srayle) on Oct 31, 2019 at 10:36am PDT

Greyfriar's Kirkyard

Greyfriar Kirk and Kirkyard (you would know that as a church and cemetery) is in a small walled yard a little bit from Victoria Street full of tombstones for important historical people from Edinburgh. Many of the graves here belong to people who have the same name as those found in the Harry Potter series: Black, McGonnagall, Tom Riddle, Crookshanks, Moodie, etc. You can spend some time searching each stone for notable names, or you can head inside the cute little church and purchase a map to seek them out more quickly. It's only 50p or so. 

We took a quick tour and spoke to several people inside, where we learned that when the church needed to have its roof redone, they shipped over gorgeous California redwood for it. Even if you aren't religious at all (we're not), the small museum in the back is really worth a visit to see some artifacts and learn about the monastery, the history of the kirk, Greyfriar's Bobby, and the garden itself. Also, if you don't go inside the church, you'll miss the only way to properly view the amazing stained glass windows, since they are covered by mesh on the outside due to vandals. *sad face*

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shereen Travels Cheap (@srayle) on Sep 13, 2019 at 8:46am PDT

Elephant House

Anyone who is a fan of Harry Potter knows that Elephant House is basically the place where Rowling was able to start the series. This was before she became so famous that you had to wait in line for a table at any time of day. This coffee shop is a bit misleading, because it serves food and pastries all day in addition to coffee. In fact, the menu is fairly large. The cafe is called Elephant House, because it is full of Elephant statues, artwork and planters. We had a short wait, sat down at a table in the back, and ordered two coffees, a shortbread cookie, and a sweet potato cake. (I can't get that cake elsewhere and I was urged to try the Scottish shortbread while in town.) Everything was delicious, and I wish I hadn't just eaten lunch an hour before, because I would have ordered more.

Once the cafe started to gain popularity for being the home of Harry Potter, something odd started to happen. Fans began to fill all surfaces of the bathrooms with Harry Potter graffiti. This is a rite of passage now. This is just one of the doors inside the women's bathroom. The walls, the ceiling, and even the light were covered. I added my own as well. Eric went into the men's restroom, since I couldn't (or shouldn't) and took a few pics as well, one of which came directly from A Very Potter Musical: Hermione Can't Draw, which we both died laughing over. It just goes to show how deep and awesome this fanbase is.

Spoon

Rowling often wrote in another cafe, which has since changed hands and names in the last 20 years. In fact, Spoon isn't even the cafe. It just occupies part of the original building. You'll see a plaque on the outside of the building if you just want to see it. We planned to have breakfast somewhere, and Spoon was as good as any. They have a lovely tea selection and a small food menu of affordable simple dishes. Somehow, all my photos of Spoon have disappeared, except this one from Swarm, which sucks, because this place was really cute.

At the end of our week in Edinburgh, we took a free tour from City Explorers Tours, which actually cost us £20 in the end, because tour guides work on tips and we felt we got more than we might on an actual paid tour, where we would also be expected to tip. It lasted 90 minutes and took us around to most of the places we'd already been on our own, including an overlook of Balmoral Hotel, where Rowling lived for 4 months, working on the last book. At this time, she was so famous, she couldn't really go anywhere else outside her house without being mobbed by people. 

Unfortunately, there were a lot of barriers out, due to the filming of the newest Fast & Furious movie

We started on the Royal Mile, where we explored the gold handprints at City Chambers, walked past Elephant House, walked down Victoria Street, strolled through Greyfriar's Kirkyard to see specific stones and also George Heriot's School behind it, saw Balmoral Hotel in the distance, and saw Potterow Port, the underpass they used for filming the Dementor scene in Order of the Phoenix. 

Yes, we spent a lot of time retracing our footsteps from the previous week, but our guide Roisin (ro-shawn) was very knowledgeable and gave us cool facts and anecdotes that we didn't know and wouldn't have learned outside of the tour. It was fun to go back and actually be able to spend time listening to the tour and not have to worry about also taking photos at the same time. I, honestly, think this might be a way for me to more thoroughly enjoy other tours in the future. There's quite a lot of info packed into an hour and a half, and I highly recommend taking one of their tours, even if you don't like Harry Potter. They have a handful of free tours that happen everyday. Just make sure you have cash on hand to tip your guide at the end. It's how they pay their bills.

The awesome part about making a day of all this is that it is practically free. If you want to visit Elephant House without eating anything, it's £1 to go in and visit the restroom, which is all the way in the back, so you can take a quick tour, hit to loo to emblazon the wall with your Harry Potter memory or favorite quote and then head back out.

I'll be writing more Harry Potter info on London, so if you are a fan, stay tuned. Next time we visit Scotland, we'll definitely make time to take the train used for the Hogwarts Express long shots. 


What's your favorite memory from Harry Potter, either the films or the books? I love all the little details of the Hogwarts grounds when the seasons change, but I also love Harry's first trip to Diagon Alley and want to shop all those stores. This trip got me a tiny bit closer to that.

All the Delicious Food from Edinburgh

Remember when I posted about how a majority of travelers go out of their way to not eat local food? Well, I was so upset about that, that when I went on vacation, I made the deal with myself to eat all the food I couldn't get at home and not worry if it was going to be gross or not. The worst thing that would happen is I'd not like it and order something else. Believe it or not, I did this, and it went so well that I'm just sad that I am at home eating regular boring food.

Everything I tried was so good, which was crazy. Everything in Edinburgh is locally-sourced when possible and all the places you go have maps to tell you where everything came from. They take their local food very seriously in Scotland, but you can taste it in every dish. In fact, you can go see how all the animals on the farms just roam free and have a great life (you know, until they get eaten). 

This was the haggis cannonballs and tomato salad from Cannonball Restaurant on the Royal Mile

What haggis cannonballs look like inside

Everyone will hear the word haggis and make a cringe-y face. Not me! I would have eaten it at every meal if I could. Eric's cousin's boyfriend and I had a great conversation about how people aren't appreciating all the amazing food we were surrounded by, especially when it came to haggis.

Full Scottish breakfast from Scran Bistro

I also ordered a full Scottish Breakfast on my first full day there. I've never had black pudding before, but I. AM. In. Love. I'm still looking into making it myself at home, though the main ingredients are pig's blood and lard. There's also oats in there. You'd think it was really iron-y tasting, but it isn't. In fact, I didn't even realize it had blood as an ingredient until I was almost at the end of my trip and I looked it up to see if I could make it at home. Apparently, it's very fatty though, so I guess me eating it every day for a week was probably more than enough.

Avocado toast with salmon - The wild-caught salmon in Scotland is to die for

I had been following some restaurants in Edinburgh on Instagram for a wish list of what and where I wanted to eat on my trip. Scran Bistro had such lovely photos that I knew it was on the top of my list for breakfast and they did not disappoint. This is where I discovered that British sausage is so much different than sausage at home, where I don't eat it. I was surprised, but pleasantly, and I ate everything on that plate up there, and also half of my brother-in-law's black pudding. 

lamb sweetbreads

veggie haggis

So, the lamb from Scotland is incomparable. You will see them running wild through giant open farmland, literally, only a few miles from the city. I ate as much as possible, because I love lamb. I had scoped out a place called Under the Stairs near Victoria Street that I 90% picked based on the name, and then decided the menu sounded so good that it was worth the short walk. All 5 of us (me, Eric, Eric's sister, her husband, and Eric's brother) ordered something different. I ordered from the specials menu: lamb sweetbreads (made with lamb pancreas) and veggie haggis (which I was told not to order when I talked to someone elsewhere, but I loved it). 

I, generally, don't order dessert out for lunch, but we had been walking a ton, much of it uphill, so I wasn't overly concerned about a bunch of extra calories. I also saw the special dessert for the day was a salted oat chocolate cake. I've never seen such a thing and had to order it. The 5 of us split it, but I almost wished I had my own slice. This was probably one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever had out. 

This is what it looks like when 7 people who love food go out together and have already eaten half of the meal :)

Do you like Indian food? I do! We had a family night out where a bunch of the cousins met up for dinner (we were in town for a wedding) and we went to Dishoom. This is a British small chain and the first location outside of London. There are three levels and they feature upscale Indian cuisine. We pretty much tried everything on the menu and it was all wonderful. My standout was the lamp chop though, and also the chai latte is awesome if you want something warm and you like spicy. I wouldn't say this was cheap, as we ordered all the food and much it was tapas style, but you could probably do two large dishes and share and make it more affordable.

A perfect breakfast sandwich

On Saturday morning, Eric and I woke up and headed for the Edinburgh farmers' market. Though it's small, it had a lot to offer, plus it was situated at the bottom of the hill of Edinburgh Castle, so the backdrop was amazing. The morning was nice and I had the chance to talk to some lovely locals, including a woman who made me a breakfast sandwich with pigeon (we would call is squab, if we can even find it anywhere), bacon, black pudding, and caramelized onions.

I wanted to eat ALL of this meat.

I then hit up a stand where a lady who owned a nearby farm was selling all manner of meats I'd never tried before. It all looked amazing, but I decided on smoked goose breast strips that looked like bacon. She said I could eat it straight out of the package. I took it back to our Airbnb and ate it later that evening and aside from being super greasy (goose is really fatty), it had a unique and lovely flavor that I loved. I'd eat it all the time if I found a place near home to sell it to me. This was a universally loved flavor in our travel party, since I made everyone try it. 

Before leaving home, I had a small list of foods I wanted to try if I found them. I never found blood sausage or jellied eel, but I did find fish pie at a few places and ordered at a place called Scran and Scallie. This was a highly recommended restaurant and I wasn't disappointed. I was surprised though, because I assumed it would be a cod pie, but when I began eating it, I found several different kinds of fish. The wait staff informed me it contained cod, haddock, shrimp, and salmon. Unless you're starving, this can easily be split between two people.

The other pies and entrees are just as large. I also tried their haggis appetizer, and I loved that as well. This is a splurge restaurant if you plan to visit and not split dishes, but you can also get two meals out of it, so don't be afraid to take leftovers with you if you can.

The House Grazing Board with garlic maple chicken wings, venison chipolatas, fried brie,
black pudding haggis (so yum) and house pickles

I had a list of places to dine even before I left home, which I chose based on what I wanted to do, Google Maps, and reviews. When I look for places to eat at home, I plug in where I'm going into Google Maps and then search for restaurants nearby. Once I find ones that look promising, based on Google reviews, then look at the restaurant website for menus, and finally I look up more reviews on TripAdvisor. If that all checks out, I add a pin to my Google map for later. This is how I found Devil's Advocate in a close off the Royal Mile. It had a ton of steps to get to it, but it was worth the exercise. (See photo #9

We chose to order a starter and a main (then also had a dessert for good measure). The main was one of their grazing boards that featured chipolatas (a small sausage) and black pudding haggis, which was the best of both worlds to me, as well as some really yummy chicken wings. We ordered the small, and it was still huge.

For our main, we chose the lamb neck. We both love lamb and neither of us had ever had neck before. It was super tender and done really well, and also on this big pile of veggies that were amazing, so everything about this meal was a win. We finished off the meal with a butterscotch panna cota that I somehow don't have a picture of, but it was light and a perfect end to a pretty perfect meal.

So, if you're headed to the UK, some of my favorites that I suggest you eat are haggis and black pudding if you're an adventurous eater, any salmon, Scotch beef or lamb dish if you only want to branch out a little bit. Stuff your face with mountains of fresh veggies, too. You won't be sad. 

Cheese scone and tea at the Tea Room on the Royal Yacht Brittania

If you like tea, you are going to be really happy. And if you like coffee, skip Costas, Starbucks, and Cafe Nero to go to better local places for amazing brews. I enjoy both, which meant it was often a struggle to choose, though I was always pleased with what I ordered. I, honestly, can't wait to get back to the UK, and Scotland in particular, so I can try all the other wonderful food I didn't get to on this trip.

What are some of your favorite foods from your travels?