So This One Time, In Scotland...

            The Sunday after the week of papers, I boarded a coach with my good friend Leslie and headed for Scotland! We had decided to take the cheap way out and take a coach up to Scotland because it was about 80 pounds cheaper to do this than the train, but it also meant that we had to spend twice the amount of time travelling. It was alright with us though, I mean we’d already spent 12 hours on a night train in Germany, an eight hour coach ride seemed like nothing! It wasn’t bad, we just weren’t expecting to stop so many times along the way and we had to keep changing bus drivers. But even through all of that, the trip was made worth while when we got to see the most amazing sunset over the rolling hills in Scotland. The entire sky was a combination of orange, yellow and red, it was truly beautiful.

            We were met at the bus station by two of our girl friends from the trip and we made the walk to our hostel. Since it was night time, we couldn’t see anything that we were passing and we truly didn’t have any idea what the city we were in looked like! I guess I should mention that the city we were in was the capital, Edinburgh. We made it to our hostel and collapsed on the bed for a short time before going down the hostel restaurant to get food. Leslie and I split a plate of amazing nachos, something we had been craving the whole trip, and we all got a beer. Right as we finished eating, the fire alarm started going off. Since no one around us panicked, we continued to sit at the table attempting to ignore the screeching alarm and sipping our beers. All of a sudden, the manager ran in and told all of us to get out. And in true American fashion, we all grabbed our beers, chugged them, and ran out of the building. We were told to walk up the street to a parking lot and had to stand in the cold, watching the chaos since a fire truck had showed up. About twenty minutes later we were allowed back into the building but we had decided we were going to head to a bar because we didn’t want to stand in the cold.

            Leslie decided to go shower so the other three of us headed to a bar just a block away from the hostel called Bannerman’s. I truly believe this is my favourite bar in the world! It was all locals, except for us, and there was a band playing. As we walked in, Galway Girl the song started to be played and I knew that it was going to be a good night! Beers were only two pounds, which was probably a bad idea in the long run. A kind, bald bartender took too us because we were the lost American girls and he made sure to keep supplying us with drinks all night. It is this night that has led to many jokes for the rest of the trip, and most of them because of the bartender. He was wearing a cool shirt so Emily made me ask where he got it. And after that, I just kept asking him a lot of questions about the bar, Edinburgh, distilleries, breweries, the wi-fi password and many other questions, and I started all of them with “excuse me…” So now, anytime that Emily and Sarah want to make fun of me, they just continuously say “excuse me” in an annoying voice that I’m sure I had the whole night. At the end of the night, we had made a pact that if I sent him a t-shirt from Rogue Brewery, he would send me a t-shirt from Bannerman’s, I need to remember to do that when I get home.

            At this bar, we also met dancing man (his name is self-explanatory), a drug dealing free mason that bought us drink and Andrew, the hot Welsh man with such a thick accent, we have no idea what he said to us the entire night. Overall, a spectacular experience for our first bar in Scotland! If I ever make it back to Edinburgh, I’m going back there! On the way back to the hostel, we got Emily a kebab which turned out to be quite the experience, and not to mention, we never saw that shop open again for the entirety of our trip… Slightly suspicious.

            The next day we all woke up and took showers, and let me tell you, this is the BEST shower pressure in entire UK! And probably all of Europe, it was the best thing ever! It had been almost two months since I had taken a shower in a shower that had decent water pressure. We walked around Edinburgh this day and discovered a large dormant volcano at one end of the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile runs through the middle of Edinburgh with the castle at one end and a palace at the other. We decided that we wouldn’t climb it that day, but the next day instead. To us, it looked huge and straight up, but at the same time, the perfect amount of exercise we all needed! We went into some tourist shops since whisky, cashmere and kilts are so popular, we had to see what Edinburgh had to offer! We walked around pretty much everywhere, went up to the castle but it was way too expensive so we decided not to go inside.

            For lunch, we had the most amazing Chinese buffet ever! It is still some of my favourite food of the trip, which is kind of sad. We walked pretty much the entire city and decided to head back to the hostel to clean up and since it was Valentine’s Day, let Leslie Skype her boyfriend back home. While she was talking to him, Sarah, Emily and I went for drinks out on the town. Emily had a tea so we couldn’t go into any of the bars if she had another drink so we just went back to our hostel and had a few drinks. Leslie joined us and we started playing cards. This lasted well into the night and we all decided to get a good amount of sleep before our hike the next day.

            The next day, we all geared up in our waterproof attire and set out for the mountain. It had just rained but thankfully stopped for our hike. This hill was seriously straight up! I tried to take pictures, but it really doesn’t do it justice. It took us quite a while to get to what we thought was the top, mainly because we were all out of shape! Leslie, Sarah and I scaled one of the rock walls and climbed to the top, only to discover the actually volcano we were climbing was not where we were and we were still pretty much at the base… Depressing. But at this point, we were all feeling good that we’d made it that far so we decided to press on. There were these steps that weaved their way up the mountainside and we decided they looked like fun. Well, they weren’t, especially since they were too big for us. I was the tallest in the group and I even had trouble making the steps. We stopped because we were in hysterics about how short we were when a man came running up the steps behind us saying “Watch out, I’m massive! And I eat tourists for breakfast!” which only made us laugh harder. We followed the steps, only to realize we had to scale more rocks at the top of it. We did that and after taking in the view, continued the trek up the mountain. We FINALLY made it to the top and had a guy take a picture of us at the top. We all held up the “O” for UO and the guy took our picture. After he handed us our camera back, he started telling us about women’s day in his country. We were confused and just nodded and it wasn’t until later that we realized he didn’t realize we were holding up the “O,” he thought it represented something else…

            On the way back down the mountain, Sarah slipped in the mud and ice and her entire leg was covered in mud. We all laughed, and about ten minutes later, I slipped and got my leg soaking wet. Karma, it sneaks up and gets you sometimes. We enjoyed the rest of the day by relaxing, walking some more of the city, buying cashmere and eventually going back to Bannerman’s for a few drinks. Our favourite bartender was there and we also befriended the other bartender, but in a less drunken state this time. The next day we were all so tired, we didn’t do as much as we had planned. We went to the Scotch Whiskey Experience, didn’t pay for that but bought a couple things, and then wandered the city. We went back to the hostel and we all read books or wrote in our journals. I made a food list of everything that I’m going to eat when I get home!

            The next day, Thursday, we all had to head home because this was the day that the Bavarians were coming into town! Leslie, Sarah and I all took the coach home while Emily took the train. This trip back went a lot smoother because we didn’t have to stop many times. Overall, the trip to Scotland was completely worth it and I really hope that one day, when I have money again, I will be able to go back and explore even more!