* Write in the same spot a famous writer wrote in
* Sit on Arthur's Seat
* Take a deep breathe from the top of Napoleon's Nose
* Sing at the top of my lungs from the top of a mountain
* Walk around the Giant's Ring
* Walk on the Giant's Causeway
* Walk across the Carrick-a-Rede Bridge
* Walk from 1 country to another
Edinburgh
Edinburgh actually started out really badly. I checked in to my hostel (which was a church converted into a hostel) and somehow on the way, lost a 10 pound note. As this is worth $20 and I'm brok
e, I freaked out of course. Then my camera's batteries exhausted. . . AGAIN. Luckily I had brought 2 in case, but it's ridiculous b/c I had only used my camera what. . . 2 times since I last replaced them?!?!?! I also felt really, REALLY lonely and the people around didn't seem very social at all, so I started really regretting going on this trip alone, and at all.
The next day though things improved significantly - it was sunny! So I went about doing all of the sight-seeing - Fettes College (where James Bond goes to school in the books), Carlton Hill and Arthur's Seat (an extinct volcano)! Arthur's Seat was amazing! But totally dangerous since I kept insisting on taking the hard routes to prove to myself I could. I nearly died. It was worse than that time Sarah nearly led us to our deaths in Nevada and I slipped 2-3 times. Then I walked the Royal Mile, went to the Museum of Scotland and saw Dolly (the first cloned sheep) and the Writer's Museum! My day was so amazing that I completely cheered up from my depression the night before. What was also awesome was I came back and the guy at reception found me to tell me someone found my 10-pound note! I also met a cool girl named Dilek at the hostel and had someone to go out with that night!
The next morning, I went to the Elephant House - where JK Rowling wrote a lot of the 1st Harry Potter book - and had a coffee (I know I'm "avoiding caffeine" but you can't go to a coffee house and not have coffee!) and wrote in my journal. The people working there were so nice about it! I thought they would be annoyed that some girl who only had 1 coffee was spending an hour or so there writing. Then I had a vegetarian haggis samosa at this vegan restaurant called "The Baked Potato Shop" - it was AMAZING - I had no idea they were supposed to be spicy!Inverness
I took the coach to Inverness and the ride was beautiful! There are cliffs, beaches and mountains all over the east coast of Scotland! Since I was exhausted from Edinburgh, I decided to take things easy in Inverness, which was super easy to do since there is almost NOTHING to do there and I was there for 3 nights! But I walked around the city, went dolphin watching in the north, and walked around the Ness Islands in the south. I went on a Jacobite cruise to the Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle on the second day and as you can see, it was beautiful! The people were also super nice! When I asked for directions, a couple led me to where I needed to go! It was really funny though because I met this girl named Amanda at the hostel, and we RAN INTO EACH OTHER the moment I arrived in Belfast (later, in Ireland)!The thing I think I have learned is that the colder it gets, the hungrier you get. Honestly when I was in Dominican Republic 2 summers ago, I literally lived off of just fruit and was never hungry (though I was thirsty ALL THE TIME). Inverness was really cold, and so I was hungry pretty much 24/7! I really think I gained a lot of weight going there, I ate SOOOOOOOO much bread. . . and peanut butter - or maybe you don't gain weight when it's that cold.
Glasgow
So what everyone said about there being nothing to do in Glasgow? TOTALLY true. Though I didn't actually have time to see any museums :(. It also did have the coolest cemetery I have ever seen in my life - Necropolis- which is on a hill and has amazing views of the city! Anyways I actually had a really fun time here b/c I met a bunch of really cool people and ended up staying up really late just hanging out and talking the night I stayed here! I'm now officially convinced I HAVE to live in LA. . . and be a musician. NYC is just too close and comfortable.There are a lot of Canadians in Scotland btw. . . kind of like there are a LOT of backpacking Australians in the continent. I also have an extremely difficult time understanding the Glaswegian(?) accent. It kind of sounds like gargling/chewing or something. I would just pretend not to know the answers (when I THINK ppl were asking me questions?) when really I just had no clue what they were saying and grew tired of asking "What. . .? What. . .? Sorry? Um. . . What. . .? Uh. . ."
I loved Scotland, but the fact that I look Asian started to really make me feel kind of self conscious (and yet raise my self esteem at the same time - hmmmmmm. . .). I would get stared at a LOT - not in a bad way, but it would always be obvious I wasn't from around there (this was EVERYWHERE I went, with the exception of Liverpool and Dublin). Sometimes I'd just think 'Hi? I CAN speak English so stop treating me like I don't understand anything!' Or you know when you just have those days when you hate the way you look and don't want people noticing you? Of course I was also alone so I'd feel like a lot of people were staring at me being by myself. Other times I'm OK with it, and it's even kind of cool because it tends to get me a lot of attention and people become really curious about me and all (and therefore make more of an effort to try to get to know me, so I get to know a lot of locals).
Anyways I will write about Northern Ireland later as this is getting really long and my computer is awful!
2 comments:
Hey, I just randomly found this blog by hitting "next". So you went alone to Scotland? Was it on a guided tour? I was contemplating doing that, but I wasn't sure how hard/difficult it is.
Sounds, like you had a good time.
Did you know about walktalktours?
They're audio tours that help you explore Edinburgh, York and London with your MP3 player.
Take a look at www.walktalktour.com and tell us what you think
Post a Comment