May 17-20: Scotland

I decided to avoid sweating out whether or not I would be allowed to carry on my luggage and checked my backpack before boarding my flight at the Shannon airport. As I boarded my RyanAir flight I was happy to see that, once again, the exit row seats were empty; in a way I beat the budget airlines one more time. I slept for most of the short flight across to Great Britain and landed in Edinburgh late in the afternoon.

After my bus ride from the airport into downtown Edinburgh I crossed an old bridge and found my way to my hostel. I walked up to my 8-person room, put my belongings on my bed and looked out the window. After traveling with different people and groups ranging from one friend to almost twenty being alone was an extremely strange sensation. I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t know where to go, what to see, where to eat; I didn’t have anyone to give directions to or anyone to wait for. So, I decided to walk around the city for a little while and then find someone to grab an early dinner.

Edinburgh was extremely unique (I know, I think I might have said that about every city). Walking around I felt as though I had jumped into a history book and gone back about 500 years. The city is surprisingly small and has an incredibly stereotypical Scottish feel. I walked around the stone streets, checked out a couple old buildings, and then headed to dinner. I obviously ate some typical Scottish food, per servers recommendation, and then headed to bed early. I decided to use this opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep.

On the morning of the 18th I took up the hostel’s offer of a free walking tour. We saw the famous Grey Frier Graveyard, the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling began writing Harry Potter, and went to a lookout point on a hill. I learned an incredible amount about Edinburgh, Scottish, and British history. It was fascinating to hear how the city was literally walled in by King James III, the devastating effects of the Plague, and the medieval conflicts the city endured. Due to Edinburgh’s lack of recent conflict everything was very well preserved and I felt as though I could see each of these historic stories and events taking place.

After the tour I headed to Edinburgh castle where my history lesson continued. The castle is more than a thousand years old and gave me even more insight into European history. It was incredible to stand on the grounds looking at a family tree of Scottish royalty and think that each of those people had walked through the same streets that I had been walking. I spent a long time investigating every corner of the castle before grabbing a late lunch and then taking a brief siesta.

That evening I thought I would be a little adventurous and joined a ‘City of the Dead’ tour of the Edinburgh’s underground. The underground city was another result of the wall surrounding Edinburgh. Because they could not expand out, the quickly growing population of the city expanded up, creating the world’s first ‘skyscrapers’, buildings roughly six stories tall. However, technology at the time prevented buildings taller than this and overcrowding was still an issue: hence the underground city. And so, I ventured (sort of alone) into the worlds scariest place, allegedly.

I’m not someone that is easily frightened by ghost stories, but I must admit, this was very spooky. The small, stone rooms were completely dark except for the dim candlelight scattered throughout. The dampness and constant drip from the ceilings aided the scare factor, as well as the chilling breeze from adjacent rooms. I could not believe that people had actually lived down there at one point.

Luckily I made it out alive and unharmed by the supposed ghosts that still haunt the underground city. I decided to again make use of the hostel’s services and joined a number of other world travelers on a pub crawl.

The next morning I woke up early for a Highland Tour. I groggily walked to the coach bus and shook hands with our very Scottish bus diver and tour guide for the day. What is very Scottish? He was wearing a kilt. Coincidentally, a couple people from my City of the Dead tour the night before were also on the bus. Around 8AM we headed north. The scenery in Scotland is very different than that of Salzburg or Ireland, but equally, if not more, remarkable. Again, it was just as breathtaking as I had pictured it. We spent a lot of hours in the bus, stopping occasionally at points of interest (ie: Glen Coe, ha) or to stretch, and eventually made our way to Loch Ness. I took my the terrible lunch that they provided us and boarded the boat to go out on Loch Ness.

Luckily, it was a gorgeous day and sitting out on the boat with the sun shining down on my face and a cool breeze was incredible. It was also great to hear all about the Loch Ness monster and the scientific reasoning behind it. The boat is equipped with high-tech sonar and other sensory devices that track depth of water and size of fish below the boat. The scientists on board explained that, very rarely, a thousand pound fish will be recorded on the sonar- they explained how the melting of ice caps and possible evolution of salt water fish into this fresh water loch has created this type of fish. The Loch was enormous and it surprisingly made a lot of sense.

The curving roads and long hours spent on the hot bus were not treating me (or anyone else) well on the way home and I slept for much of the ride. We arrived back around 8:30 and I went to ask my hostel for a dinner recommendation. Apparently all dinner places close at 9:00. What?! I was used to restaurants not opening until 8:30. Flabbergasted by this lunacy I found a pizza place at which I grabbed something to eat. Afterwards I went back to the hostel and talked to a couple people in my room for a long time. In my room were two sisters from a small, religious town in Canada; hearing their life story was almost as interesting and educational as the rest of my Edinburgh experience.

The next morning I had an early breakfast at the hostel, checked out, and boarded my train to Glasgow.

Edinburgh overall: Awesome! Historic Edinburgh was very cool, as I have already described. There is also a ‘new town’. This dates back to the late 1700s. Upon hearing this I thought how ridiculous that sounded…their new town was developed around the same time the Revolutionary War was being fought in America.
I cannot explain the history that emanated from every block in the small city. Terms like “filthy stinking rich” comes from Edinburgh: rich people used to live on the first floor of these ‘high-rises’ to avoid the swaying on the top floors, but people also dumped their garbage in the streets.
The people were extremely friendly and jolly, not to mention stereotypical. So stereotypical, in fact, that they even made fun of themselves for it.

When I arrived at my hostel in Glasgow my room was not yet ready, so I took the opportunity to wonder around the city. I strolled through the West end and enjoyed a relaxing lunch. I was told, and could easily tell, that this was the nicer, ritzier area of Glasgow. After lunch I went back to the hostel, put my bags in my room, and then caught a Hop-on Hop-off tour bus. Sitting outside on the top of the bus was great due to the incredible weather. This was one of the only days during my Ireland-Scotland trip that it did not rain. The bus traveled throughout the entire city- the music district, along the water, the downtown area, and the university.

After the tour I asked my hostel for a dinner recommendation and walked around more. The place that they recommended turned out to be much fancier than I had wanted/ anticipated, but I decided to eat there anyway. It was very strange to eat at a nice restaurant by myself, something I have never done before, but it was quite peaceful, as well. Not that I would want it to become habit. Across the street from the restaurant were the botanic gardens. I strolled through them as the sun set and then walked back to the hostel.

When I got back I found my room full of older men- all traveling independently. I don’t think any of them were under 40 and one was probably in his 70s or 80s. I found this incredibly weird considering the name of the place was “Glasgow Youth Hostel”. I had to get up very early the next morning and, since they were all going to bed anyway, I did as well.

I didn’t sleep very well, afraid that I would sleep in and miss my flight to Paris. At 6:00 my alarm went off. I shoved everything back in my backpack (which was again becoming quite messy) and took a cab to the airport. The solo part of my adventure was soon to be over.

Overall: Glasgow was a city. It was not nearly as interesting or unique as Edinburgh, and, while I am happy that I saw it, I am also happy that I only spent one day there.