Travelogue Europe Part V: Scotland
It's kind of goofy that five months (I started this entry in December) nearly a year after I've returned from my vacation, I'm still compiling the journal entries for it. Only one more to go after this one. Anyway, ahh Scotland. Mountains. <3
As usual, had a horrible flight-in experience. Can't remember exactly what happened on that flight, but I do know that after being dropped off by the bus at the bridge in the middle of Edinburgh, I tried to find the shuttle stop and could not find it for the life of me. I got directions from one of the tourist stops, and I stood waiting on the corner for at least an hour, I think longer, before the other party (Isaac & co. with the car) called me to say hello. The hilarious part was, I was across the street from the shuttle pickup, which I'd already begun to suspect, so I headed to the other side, but my friends picked me up from the stop to take me to the hostel personally, since we hadn't seen each other for a while and they were leaving Edinburgh the next morning so I wouldn't meet up with them at all there.
Getting there was also an adventure-- and finally making it to the glorious Globetrotter Inn, I found out they'd mis-filed my reservation and thought I'd not showed to the hostel the month previous. Um, okay. Finally they were like, "Yes, we can get you a room, but you're going to have to switch rooms twice." Tired, hungry, and whatnot, I just say sure, book me, and they do, and I say goodbye to the friends and hello to a random Michigan person we met in the lobby, put my stuff away and watched Lady Hawke with Ms. Michigan. The next day, I talk to a few of my roommates, who were actually leaving, about what is good to do in Edinburgh, and decided, screw the hostel, they were making me change rooms anyway, I'd just cancel for that night and take an overnight trip up to the highlands instead. Had horribly expensive lunch with said roommates, toured Edinburgh castle (freaking ONLY thing I used that Great Britain Heritage Pass for, kthnx, but I did get to bypass the line, so ha), which was more allowing of pictures than Kilkenny/having more place to tour but less huge than the Tower.
That night I had the brilliant experience of having all my previously female roommates be replaced by (mostly) males. Didn't actually meet any of them except the foreign by the window. Rest of them showed up while I was asleep, because I went to bed early, and just my luck, the one placed above me was apparently drunk or otherwise ill, because he threw up. Just barely missing the majority of my things on the side, but the smell was god-awful, and in trying to clean up my things, I woke up the foreign couple by the window who proceeded to whisper-yell at me that "people were sleeping" or some such, until I explained that the fellow above me ralphed on my things.
Anyhow, the next morning, I was whisked away by a personal pickup from the hostel by the tour van. We had... two tour guides in effect, though technically there was only one. His friend went along for the ride, however, and though he was apparently a policeman now, he'd been a tour guide before, so was also quite knowledgeable as well. They're the two in the middle of that picture on the right there. They traded off explaining areas to us and were overall very entertaining. We visited a cairn site, which was fantastic, had lunch at I think it was a soldier's barracks? Really nice view either way. Picture was us having lunch.
Stopped in Drumnadrochit for the evening, after passing through various places, none of which I remember the names to. Spent at least an hour in the Highland capital... Inverness, possibly? Seems right. Anyhow, I wandered a little mall-area there, that had this awesome antiques shop. I wish I had fortunes of money to have bought something there, the jewelry was gorgeous.
In Drumnadrochit, I got dinner at a small diner-ish place. Where I had some haggis (because how could I not) and toast, and a meat pie. And in Drumnadrochit there was this amazing replica of Urquhart castle out of flowers. I can't really express how awesome it was, just look at the picture. Went back to the hotel I'd gotten booked and was accosted by the tour guides, so sat with them in the restaurant at the restaurant for a bit, then we migrated to the local bar, where we joined up with a couple from Amsterdam and... someone else, I think. They all drank. I did not. I did, however, get hit on oddly by the tour-guide-turned-policeman, which was highly weird. No really. Did I mention his ex-wife was from Colorado?
In anycase, the next day we toured Loch Ness and I saw Urquhart castle from the loch. Never saw it up close, though. Did various other things that I don't entirely remember, though the day was slightly more awkward because of said experience the night before. I do remember that we passed by a shooting site for the Harry Potter movie and all piled out of the van to take pictures. That area where they placed Hagrid's hut in movie 3, I think. Like, that hill the kids had to walk down from the school to get to his pumpkin patch? They dropped us off again in Edinburgh by the castle, so I shuttled back to the Globetrotter to check in again for the last night. Which went wonderfully without a hitch. Shuttled out early the next morning, back to the airport and flew to London.
