I am finally back home from Scotland and let me tell you, it's been a rough ride. Starting with last Tuesday when we decided to book this trip and all it cost us was a ton of stress and money but either way we were going to Scotland which made me happy. Our train left from Worcester and 10:24 AM and we were heading to Birmingham to catch our next train. Taking the train was an experience for me and I loved every minute of it. We had an hour wait in Birmingham until our next train left and decided to get something to eat. After lunch we boarded our next train which would take us to Edinburgh. This freaking train ride was 4 hours long but I slept for some of it. Not comfortably but still slept which was good.
Finally after a creaked neck and my feet asleep we arrived in Edinburgh where we left the train station and were officially lost. We happened to be smack dab in the middle of the city and we just decided to walk to find someplace that would have tourist information that would be somewhat helpful. We didn't know how to find our hostel and we had till 6 o'clock to check in, which put us on a time limit. After many searches and some blonde moments we found the information center which gave us directions and we took off towards the hostel.
The city in itself is absolutely beautiful. I love all the structures and the city life during the day. It just makes everything more fun and exciting. We were walked for about 25 minutes and where we thought the hostel would be...it wasn't. So again we walked into a Baskin Robins and asked for directions. Apparently we turned left instead of right (don't ask me how we didn't know) so we turned around and headed the proper way. We made it to the hostel and walked into reception.
Problem number one: (or I guess two if you count us getting lost) apparently our reservations were booked for July and not June. So of course we didn't have a room. The guy at the counter did have one opening that night that had three beds and he thankfully said he could put a mattress on the floor for us to sleep on if we wanted it. Of course we took it. He was very friendly, as was everybody in that city. We moved into our room and took a breath. One down. The only problem we had now was we didn't have a place to stay Saturday night. Our plan was to stop at all the hostels we passed as we walked through town to see if there were any opening and of course there wasn't. We were homeless for Saturday.
Later that night we walked down the main strip and went shopping and ate dinner at this wonderful burger place and decided to call it a night because we were exhausted. We decided to wake up early and check our then get on the computer to check if there were any cancellations. Of course there weren't. There was a woman, her name is Dee, she worked at the hostel and was talking to us. She saw that we were looking for a room and she said she would try and help. She called the hotel that she worked at, bar tending, and she called to see if there were any rooms. This wonderful woman who is our savior found us all beds in the hotel. We officially love her.
We dropped our bags off at the hotel and they told us that four boys had just dropped their reservations right when Dee called and he gave us their last beds. It was awesome. We couldn't check into the hotel until 2 PM so we decided to do more shopping. Heading back to the hotel we decided to do one of the tours at 3 PM that would take 3 hours but everything was very informative. After we checked in we decided to take a bus that would take us to the meeting place of this tour. After waiting at a bus stop for like 20 minutes, little me saw a sign that said that the bus stop was closed. Really? So we continued to walk down to the next stop and catch that bus. We arrived at the spot where the tour was to take place 25 minutes last. Poor us missed it. It was the last tour of the day.
We decided to do our own little tour. Yay! We saw a tower called the Tron Kirk. Awesome name, isn't it?? Well I thought so anyway. We traveled up and down the Royal Road where almost everything is in Scotland worth seeing. We watched a 3D half hour film of the mysterious Loch Ness Monster, called Nessie. I believe in her. After that we headed up the road and came to the Edinburgh castle. It was absolutely beautiful and too wonderful for these crappy adjectives. We walked around the massive thing looking at the history behind it, and I do have pictures so everything works out. The only thing I couldn't take a picture of was the jewels (the crown and scepters) and the Scotland War Memorial Building. Lovely.
We headed back to our hotel where Dee was working and we decided to have a drink and dinner. I had a chicken salad that was the best salad I've had in my life. Yum! After dinner we kept drinking and just having a good time in the bar. Dee was working the bar, Colin was managing, and Michael was a funny Scotsman. These people were amazing. After a while these two elderly ladies came in all dresses up and fancy looking. Apparently they just finished visiting and shaking hands with Prince Charles! I thought it was so cool. They had pictures they showed us and everything.
When it was close to midnight us girls decided to finish our drinks and head to bed. We had gotten pictures with everybody and I tried many new drinks. I had and Illusion which was blue and so good. Then Colin suggested a drink that you had to have a pitcher of, so Nikki, Natasha, and I shared. It was milk, baileys, kahlua, and a vanilla drink. It tasted like chocolate/coffee milk. It was soooooo good. Before we went to bed Colin wanted to give us a goodbye shot which was on the house and him and Michael decided to drink with us. I had my first shot that was lit on fire. It was absolutely brilliant. After this we decided to call it a night and headed off to bed.
Now we were in a room with 9 beds and we had 4 of them. We fell asleep and woke up with all the beds full. They were guys :)) They were very nice and were very helpful. And to top it off very cute which was a bonus. :))
So when we left we shopped some more and headed to our train. We're finally back in Worcester and as much as I love Scotland and could live there one day, I'm happy to be back in my flat.
TTYL!
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