And I’ll be in Scotland before you.
The photos from Scotland can once again be found in the gallery here, here and here.
It wasn’t quite the highlands (at least yet), but the next stop on our trip was Edinburgh.
A 9 hour bus ride between London and Edinburgh meant by the time we got there after 6pm and checked into our room there was really only enough energy to get some dinner and then pass out in our beds.
The next day we got up a little late and then after breakfast wandered around downtown Edinburgh.
Another city, another open top bus tour. This time there was 4 different buses to choose from. Thankfully they offered an “all in” type ticket which meant we could jump on all of them if we so wished.
Since the weather was nice and one of the buses involved a boat ride on the Firth of Forth, we opted for that bus.
The ride down to the boat was interesting enough but the main purpose of the tour was the boat trip.
When we arrived we boarded the boat and set off on our little adventure. Out of the harbour at South Queens ferry and towards an island in the middle of the water. Did a lap around there, picked up some people who had gotten off an earlier boat (we were the last for the day) and then headed back. We saw some seals warming themselves on the rocks nearby and some funky looking birds drying their wings.
Headed back towards the bus and then back into town.
By this stage it was getting late so we opted for some food, Maccas was closed and on our travels we spotted a pub with a similar menu to that of many we had eaten at in our travels through England.
I forget the name of the pub, but it is one of a chain call Whetherspoons (or something like that). They do really cheap good food so we sat down, ordered a drink and then went to order our food and were told that the kitchen was actually closed for the night.
CLOSED!! It was 7 pm. Who in their right mind closes a pub kitchen at 7 pm, even on a Sunday?
We left there and decided to head back towards our room as there were plenty of choices on the way back.
For those of you not aware, Vlad recently made a trip the USA so he is now infatuated with ribs. Specifically, ribs coated in Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce.
The only place to get this sauce (at least outside of the US) is TGI Fridays.
As we look up the street, sure enough there is a TGI’s so we head in and chow down on some very good ribs.
Dinner done we head back to the room and crash.
Next day we jumped on several of the open topped buses and did the tourist thing around Edinburgh.
As you might be able to tell from the photos it was not the nicest of days we have had on our trip.
There was a THICK fog that blanketed the entire city. We were lucky to be able to see anything 50m away.
Made for some funky looking photos, but a really cold ride on an open top bus (maybe that is why I keep getting sick).
After our tour we got some food and then had a few drinks at a couple of the local pubs.
The next day was basically our last in Edinburgh so we spent most of it just wandering around the city doing a little shopping.
That night we ate at a local pub, while we were sitting there the air conditioner decided to explode and rained water on the guy sitting about 2m away from us.
After a few drinks we headed off and had a few more at some other locations.
We called it a night sometime around midnight.
The following day we got up, checked out and headed for the train station. Destination, Glasgow.
When we finally arrived at our hostel we were told we could not check in till 3pm, since it was about 2.50 that was not too much of a problem. We left our bags in the luggage room and went to grab a late lunch.
The place we were staying at had a bar with free wifi and a jukebox and pool table so we went back to the bar, had a few drinks and listened to some music until the check in queue had died down a little.
We checked into our room and then wandered into town to book a highlands tour to Loch Ness (everyone has to go in search of Nessy at least once).
We booked our tour for the Friday (it was Wednesday) and then wandered around town a little.
On our travels we started getting a little hungry. This is when we noticed that there was a TGI Fridays in town so we decided that we needed ribs and went in for some dinner.
After dinner we headed back to the hostel had a few drinks in the bar downstairs and then called it a night.
Celtic Park was our destination for the day, sure we wanted to check out the 2 other stadiums in the area but since we got up late and most of the parks close up by 4 we only had the time to do the 1.
We jumped on a bus and headed to the stadium.
Another stadium tour, more of the same crap really but for those of us who are football fans, it is always a pleasure to see the ins and outs of the different clubs.
We left the stadium and headed back into town.
Grabbed a very late lunch and then went back and chilled at the hostel for a bit.
After a few drinks it was night time as we had an early start the next morning.
Our bus left for the highlands at about 8am, we would not return to Glasgow until about 7.30 pm that night.
It was a long day on a small bus, but it was really good.
The highlands in Scotland are quite impressive. The fact that it had rained like crazy the night before meant that there was an abundance of new waterfalls that were not there the previous day.
The only downer to the trip was that pesky fog that seemed to be following us from city to city.
We did a boat tour of Loch Ness, sadly no Nessy spottings but a good time regardless.
Back to Glasgow, grab a few drinks and hit the sack.
Next morning we are on a plane to Dublin. 10.50am flight yet we still had to be up at 6 to make sure we made it there on time. Getting sick of missing sleep because of bastard airlines.
More on the Ireland trip soon.
PS. For those who have been paying attention, you may have noticed that there is a week or so missing from my reports.
That is because we spent a week in London after Croatia and for the most part it was very uneventful.
I was sick, and we were both feeling the pinch after an unexpected $500 expense.