Scotland

Brendan and I ventured off to Scotland this past weekend to see Edinburgh and the highlands!  For some reason some of the photos are hanging to the left...  Check back later to catch the video of the trip!  Although quite frankly it's probably going to be a bunch of mountains, valleys, and vistas.

Eilean Donan Castle

The Trip

I should start off by saying that on Thursday I started feeling a little sick (congestion, cough, ya know..) but  I still had a great time.  We left London from Victoria Station around 11pm in a bus and got to Edinburgh around 7am.  I managed to sleep okay although we were next to these ridiculously annoying girls.  The ride was still not so bad though.  It was nice to step off the bus to a beautiful Edinburgh sky with warm (for February at least) weather.  We strolled down the Royal Mile and then hopped on our bus at 8am by the Edinburgh Castle and off we went into the wild (sort of)!

We first stopped in Glasgow to pick up a few more passengers and then went to the National Wallace Monument which is dedicated to William Wallace of course.  It had a wonderful view of Stirling.  Next we stopped at Doune Castle where they filmed Monty Python and then traveled for quite some time only stopping to see highland cattle (so cool!), a few waterfalls, Inverlochy Castle, and Glencoe.  Unfortunately it was misting/raining for most of the day so it was pretty chilly and not quite as pretty although still worth it in my opinion.

We settled for the night in a town called Fort William which rests near Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the British isles (which quite frankly doesn't actually say much, it's only 1,344m tall).  The area is well known for it's mountain activities though--especially ice climbing.  Anyways, we walked to a pub and had a nice dinner while they set up for a gig.  Brendan tried the haggis and we were going to hang around for the show but it was 7pm and it didn't start until 9pm so we just went to the hostel and went to bed.

Our room consisted of the two us, two people from Barcelona, and this ice climbing girl from England (aged 16-25--she had a railcard).  We went to bed around 9pm, simply exhausted, and I was coughing and sniffling without any medication of course so it was a rough night.  I kept getting up to collect myself in the bathroom before laying down again and trying to sleep.  I kept imagining how nice it would be to have one of those dentist's sucking instruments to suck all the mucus out of my lungs.  At one point I came back to the room and saw the ice climber texting on her phone.  I whispered to her, asking if she knew the time.  She replied, "yeah it's half past one in the fucking morning!  You've been coughing all night and I can't sleep!"

I whispered back, "sorry...?  I didn't mean to get sick..."

"Well why didn't you get a fucking hotel room?!"

Completely calm I replied, "well I had already paid for this place since I wasn't planning on getting sick and quite frankly I don't have enough money for a hotel room.  Why don't you get a hotel room?"

In her whisper-shouting tone she said, "because I was fucking here first."

"Sorry... you could get some ear plugs...?" I said and I got back into bed.  Another two seconds later the Barcelona fellow knocked on the door having locked himself out and the girl, whisper-shouting "Jesus fucking Christ," got up to open it for him.  I entertained myself with the thought of leaving dirty tissues in her bed before drifting off to sleep again.  She had ice picks by her side so it was probably best not to toy with her.  Meanwhile, later that night, the Barcelona girl was really nice and offered me some water in the middle of the night.  I told her I was fine and the next morning I apologized if I kept them up all night and she said, "Oh no worries, it's not your fault!"  So reasonable...

The next day our wonderful bus guide picked us up around 8:30am.  We awaited his arrival in the common room where the ice pick girl was packing her climbing gear.  Our guide was really great--a nice guy from Glasgow who was a programmer for RBS and has lived in the Cayman Islands and Swaziland!  He even has family in Belmont, MA--small world!  We started off by stopping at the Eilean Donan Castle.  It was unfortunately closed for repairs but still a wonderful sight and the weather was really starting to clear up a bit.  We stopped off at a few more vistas and drove along Loch Ness before stopping in Inverness for lunch (Subway).  Inverness was a really nice town, surprisingly large, and hilly per usual in Scotland.  I got some medicine (for only 3.50 pounds!) which made me feel a bit better but was still really tired walking around all these places.  Inverness was unfortunately the end of our bus tour.  We rode for about five hours back to Edinburgh and arrived around 7pm.  My favorite thing about the bus tour though (aside from the great sights and tour guide) was probably looking out the window and always seeing either mountains (some pretty, with lots of green, others heavily farmed/deforested for wood) or beautiful lochs (you wouldn't believe how many lakes there are).  While it might sound like something you could see anywhere it somehow just doesn't look the same as driving from say DC to Troy.

Both of our hostels were really nice but I think the Edinburgh one was a little nicer.  After having dinner in a pub on the Royal Mile I went to bed while Brendan walked around town for a bit longer.  With the medication I was able to sleep through most of the night and got up at 6:20am.  I got to play the baby grand piano in the "posh lounge" and looked around the music lounge and then read Harry Potter in the common room/kitchen while I waited for Brendan to get up.

We started our third and final day in Scotland (Monday) at the Edinburgh Castle.  It was amazing!  Definitely my favorite sight in all of Edinburgh (although Arthur's Seat seems really cool).  It, of course, lies at the top of a hill so after climbing to the base of it we strolled through the war museum, prisoner exhibitions, rooms of former residents, the Honors of Scotland (jewels, sword, etc.), and the castle grounds.  We could see all of Edinburgh and even the ocean.  After a few hours there we stopped by The Elephant House where J.K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter, had some lunch down the street, and then moved on to Arthur's Seat.

At the base I thought I had enough energy to climb the hill despite barely making it up to Edinburgh Castle.  We began climbing but I felt winded with every step (meanwhile people were running along the trail!).  The wind whipped pushing us backward but it must have carried the sounds of the ocean waves with it because it almost sounded as though we were at the beach.  We reached the top of the trail only to find that it went back down without even reaching the top of the Salisbury Crag.  At the bottom of this trail we found the beginning of the climb to the top of Arthur's Seat.  This is where I gave up and told Brendan to go ahead without me.  I decided to sit and read Harry Potter (and keep watch of Brendan's bag) while he sprinted/jogged/walked/struggled for every step up to the top of Arthur's Seat.  I think his climb started out not too bad with a bunch of stairs but by the top he said it was so incredibly windy that he had to hold on to some cement pillars to take pictures of the amazing view.  From there he could see that I was actually not terribly far from the cliff edge.

He came back down after a forty minute trip (I enjoyed my reading/resting time) and then we slowly treked up Salisbury Crag (to the top of the cliffs).  The hill was incredibly exhausting and deceivingly steep.  By the time we reached the cliffs it was time for another break (at least for me, haha) but the view was the best I had seen all day!  We climbed back down to the bottom and then went to sleep and rested and didn't move for the rest of the day.  Just kidding.  We climbed another hill!!  We went to the top of Calton Hill (108m high) to see the National Monument and, of course, another view of Edinburgh, and then strolled along Prince's street in the direction of our train.  We stopped in a few shops, checked out a Cathedral, and then hopped on our train around 6pm.  I got back to my room by midnight and thankfully slept the whole night through (with the help of more medication).

The Bus Tour

We took an overnight bus from Victoria station (in London) to Edinburgh.  The ride was about eight hours I suppose.  Then we hopped on a bus tour that left from the Edinburgh castle...

The view of part of Edinburgh from the Castle parking lot at 8AM.  Beautiful weather!

This is a picture Brendan took on the tour.  I thought it was fitting for the start of the blog... :)

Our first stop was Glasgow to pick up two more people for the trip and then off to Stirling!

Both of these photos are actually vistas of Stirling (not Glasgow) from the top of...

...The National Wallace Monument!  (William Wallace was/is Scotland's hero essentially)

The Guestbook!  Recognize any people on that list? :)

His sword was there in a case.  He was sort of well known for his sword.

Next Stop: Doune Castle where they filmed part of Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

That's our amazing tour guide on the left and then the nice Barcelona tourists are behind him.

We didn't actually get to go inside the castle unfortunately but we did go in the shop to look around.

By the way, this is the bus that we spent two days on.

Of course in the highlands we came across some pretty cool animals.  These are the highland goats.

And these are the highland cattle!  So cool.

I'd have liked to walk over to them but there was a fence unfortunately.

This is a monument made up of a stone from every mountain in Scotland.  We also got a complementary bottle of Whiskey.  Haven't actually tried it yet--still sitting in my drawer..

So the highlands has mountains...

...and more mountains.

The gate to another castle!

Inverlochy Castle

Brendan climbed into the lower hole and took the picture of me below.

The river used to come up a lot closer to the castle.

Glencoe Massacre site.  (The gentleman is someone from our bus tour).

This is the hostel we stayed in with the girl who yelled at me.  Really nice view from the common room!

Common Room

Street in Fort William

We took a short walk by Loch Linnhe in Fort William.

Brendan tried the Haggis for dinner in Fort William!

We ate while they were setting up for a gig!  We were going to stay but they weren't starting until 9pm and we were tired.

The next day we went to Eilean Donan but unfortunately it was closed for repairs.

Welcome to Eilean Donan! :)  One of Scotland's most famous landmarks.

Eilean Donan

More mountains and valleys (with a lot of waterfalls!) than I've ever seen in one place.

This was my favorite view!  Loch Duich.

There was something about three out of the five sisters at this part of the tour... I wasn't listening.  Too busy looking at the amazing view!

Still Loch Duich

This is our tour group!

Brendan and Loch Duich

This is as close as we got to the Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

After Loch Ness we stopped in Inverness for lunch.  What a nice town!

This is a "fake" (new) castle in Inverness.  I'm imitating the statue.

Edinburgh

We made it back to Edinburgh around 7pm.  Telephone booths all over the UK!

This is a church in the center of town.  We walked around the city, had some dinner in a pub, and I went to bed.  Too tired/sick to walk around anymore but Brendan strolled around the castle.

This hostel was incredibly nice!  It had a baby grand piano in the room on the left which I played the next morning (woke up around 6:20am... had to pass time until Brendan got up).  Thankfully with some medication I slept a little better here though!

Nice common room/dining/kitchen area

The next day we started off at Edinburgh Castle!  It was really cool!

The one o'clock gun which they fire every day at 1pm.

One of the buildings on the grounds and a statue.

This canon from WWII can fire 7.6 miles!!  Though I don't approve of killing people or anything, I can't help but think ENGINEERING IS SO COOL.

We went into an exhibit about where the prisoners stayed.  This is a ship that a prisoner built with his free time in captivation.

Where the prisoners stayed.  They had recordings playing so it felt like there were prisoners talking!

The oldest building on the site, the Chapel.

The view of Edinburgh from the Castle!

A cannon and it's massive cannon balls.  Those things are bigger than my head!

Scotland flag on the left.  The church on the right is on the Royal Mile which we walked down after leaving the Castle.

The Elephant House!  This is where J.K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter.  I'm holding HP#1 in my hand. :)

Main intersection street signs on the left and my school kilt on the right?!  haha (lots of kilts in Scotland)

Edinburgh University on the left and the Scottish Parliament building on the right.

We then went to climb Arthur's Seat and this photo was taken by Brendan from the top of it.  If you squint your eyes, you can see I'm sitting in a blue jacket up the path at the intersection about 11 o'clock from the three people walking.  I'm reading Harry Potter #1 and sitting with Brendan's backpack :)

The ridge on the right is a part of the Holyrood Park and is called the Salisbury Crags.  It is actually really high up which means Brendan was ridiculously high up for Edinburgh at 251m.

A lot of dogs on the mountain.  I'd be afraid my dog would fall off or something it was so windy.

I'm on top of the cliff!

We left the mountain and went walked by Holyrood Palace, the residence for the monarch of Scotland.

Then what did we do?  We climbed another mountain.  This time it was Calton Hill to see the National Monument of Scotland (the pillars).  It had a nice view of Arthur's Seat though.

Thanks for reading!