Edinburgh/Glasgow/Highlands/Scotland in General

Well, I’m on a train from Edinburgh to London right now and I’m very lucky to be here…lol. I’ll start backwards and tell the “exciting” ending to an INCREDIBLE weekend! (Dad-you never told me how AWESOME Scotland is!)

Anyway, I had my first major travel mistake today but luckily it worked out just fine. I thought all weekend that my train back to London King’s Cross Station left Edinburgh Waverly Station at 17:32 (5:32pm). Believing that’s when the train left Chris and I planned our weekend out to where Monday we could sleep in and do the stuff we hadn’t done yet in Edinburgh and still make it home. After sleeping in (for the first time all weekend), eating an incredible breakfast (for only 2 pounds!!), visiting the castle, going on a Scotch Whiskey making tour, and doing a bit of shopping, Chris and I made our way back to the hotel to get our bags and head to the train station. We timed it all perfectly. We caught a bus from Princes street (main street in Edinburgh) to our hotel, grabbed our bags from the front desk with 2 or 3 minutes till the bus came by to pick us up to go back to the train station. We got to the train station 15 minutes before the train was supposed to leave, giving us enough time to grab some food to take on the train. It all worked great except for the fact the train was at 17:00 (5pm) not 17:32… This wasn’t so much a problem for Chris because his ticket was good on any train back to London today, but my ticket was strictly for the 17:00 train (that was well on it way to London). We decided I’ll just get on the train and hope when the ticket inspector comes by on the train to punch our tickets that he isn’t too great at inspecting and won’t notice that my ticket is for the earlier train. Luckily when he came by he didn’t notice-so I’m safe.

Anyway this weekend has been INCREDIBLE! Edinburgh, Scotland is by far my favorite city/country so far. It has everything I like about London and Paris and Nashville and none the stuff I don’t like about those cities. The weather probably helped my impression of the city a lot. It was bright, warm (85ish?), and sunny everyday I was there. The locals say it normally rains quite a bit and it’s cold in the winter, so maybe I wouldn’t have been so crazy about it if I came in the winter, but I came in July and it was awesome.

(Time out-I started writing this on the train when I was leaving Edinburgh. I never finished it and now I am 2 weeks later…)


Anyway (switching to bullet style) the weekend consisted of the following:


Day 1- stepped off the train to hear bagpipes playing in the background and see a lady with Scottish terriers standing on the platform lol. Then I got on a bus to go to the hotel-the bus had plaid seats. Did an open top sight seeing bus tour of Edinburgh , ate dinner, ate lunch at pub, climbed Arthur’s seat (this really tall hill that over looks the city-it’s really tall. All of the food we ate in Scotland was a lot better than food in London and it was a lot cheaper!

Day 2- 6:30am woke up for a 13 hour Highland tour that included a boat ride on Loch Ness. The Highlands were BEAUTIFUL and the tour was great. We never drove more than an hour and half without stopping for 30 minutes or so in random towns. We stopped at a castle once during the day too. Our tour guide was really funny too and he knew A LOT about Scotland/the Highlands/everything. I actually learned a lot. We also meet some girls from Alabama on the tour and afterwards ate a pub in Edinburgh with them.

Day 3- 7:30am woke up to go to Glasgow for the day. Glasgow basically sucked lol. We took a sightseeing bus tour, went to a river festival and got to go on an old pirate ship. We came back to Edinburgh and ate dinner with Tyler Hood and his family who were in Edinburgh for the weekend also.

Day 4- slept in till 10am, ate an awesome 2 pound breakfast, did the Edinburgh Castle, went on a Scotch Whiskey making tour, did some shopping, and came home to London.

It was a great weekend and it flew by because of how much stuff we did. Time here in London is flying by too. I’ve only got 5 more days of Wild (4 by the time I post this) and only 1 more full weekend in London. Next week I think I’m going to Prague?? I don’t know. I wish I had planned my trips before I came (but that wasn’t possible).
Anyway gotta go for now!


PS. posted this from work another 2 days after I finished it on a train to work after I started it 2.5 weeks earlier on a train home from Edinburgh...

Parliament at Night

 

America needs a Castle...

 

best friends lol

Chris loves Archie

 

More from the New Forrest

Wild Horses!

Avon Beach

 

Mas fotografias del fin de semana

flower in new forrest...
goat at stonehenge
Stonehenge

 

Camping!

So I’m really behind with this blog…Before I catch you up on the latest trip I went on, I’ll catch you up on what I’ve done in London lately (besides working)-
British Museum, Imperial War Museum, Wimbeldon, and a Jack the Ripper Tour lol.

The Jack the Ripper tour was actually really really good. The tour guide had written several books on the subject and when Johnny Depp was making the movie From Hell (a movie about Jack the Ripper) he went on a 1 on 1 tour with our guide…Anyway Wimbeldon was even cooler than the Ripper tour. We saw Andy Murray play mixed doubles and plenty of other world class tennis players we didn’t recognize. Having Wimbeldon and the World Cup going on at the same time over here was crazy.
Besides work and pubs that’s about it though…

This last weekend Chris, Sally (my homestay mummy), Dawn and John (Chris’s homestay parents who are best friends with Sally), and Archie (Dawn and John’s 2 year old grandson) all went ‘camping’ at the New Forrest in southwest England (can’t remember the shire). Chris and I thought we’d be camping in tents around a fire in the woods but no-they had a camper (they call it a caravan) and we were at a campsite with hundreds of other caravans and people around. There wasn’t even a fire. This wasn’t too disappointing though b/c it meant we got to eat good food all weekend. But before I get ahead of myself, the weekend started Friday morning with me and Chris riding with Sally. Dawn and John had gone the day before to set up. Sally, Chris, and I stopped at Stonehenge on the way there and saw that. It was really neat. All in all it was a pile of rocks, but it was still interesting.

We made it to the New Forrest by 11:30am. Then we found out as soon as we got there we’re going to the beach and going to meet up for lunch with one of Dawn’s old friends. So we drove 20-30 minutes away to a town called Christchurch and go to Sandy’s house. Sandy’s house was a beautiful hatched roof cottage (that was closer in size to a mansion than a cottage). It looked just like something out of a movie. It was also on the beach. We went to lunch with Sandy at Avon beach and saw the Isle of Wight. We walked around the area and saw the marina as well.

The day continued with a trip to the grocery, cooking dinner, eating dinner, doing dishes and going to bed. All of these seemingly mundane activities were made fun b/c of the 2 litres of ‘Scrumpy’s Cider’ (that came in pirate looking bottles) Chris and I decided to buy at the grocery.

The next day we woke up bright and early (thanks to Archie and Dawn). We ate a goooood breakfast and went to a “quant village” called Lynderhurst (I think). The “village” had an open air market and was pretty nice. It was also kind of boring. But the town-I mean village- was pretty and was on some river and had a really nice harbor with a marina.
For lunch that day we went to a little restaurant that basically served tea and scones. Very cliché. I had a prawn (shrimp) sandwich. I didn’t know what it would be like when I ordered it, but it was pretty good. After lunch we headed back to the New Forrest and for the first time actually spent time in the forrest! It was really nice. There were some HUGE trees and everything was really pretty. There were also wild horses that we went up to and petted and fed. We didn’t get to spend too long in the forrest however b/c Archie had to have his afternoon tea!! Can you believe they’re soooo addicted to their tea here that at age 2 if babies don’t get it on time they get really fussy??? Seriously…Anyway we went back to the “caravan” and made dinner. Same bit with the cider, dishes, and sleep.
Last day (my birthday) we were supposed to go back to the beach and eat breakfast with Sandy and her family, but because Archie didn’t sleep well and kept Dawn up so late she just had to leave early and cancel our beachfront breakfast. This would have been ok except for the fact Sandy has a BEAUTIFUL 18 year old daughter, Kate, that I forgot to mention earlier. In fact Dawn wanted us back in London so quickly she told me and Chris that we couldn’t shower that morning…Good start for my birthday.
Waking up in a camper with 3 old people and a 2 year old baby. Then finding out we won’t get to see Kate again AND I can’t even shower before I leave?? Actually it was ok. I was ready to get back to London and NOT be around DAWN! She’s a whole ‘nother blog…
Back to the story, we pack up and head out. Chris, Sally, and I rode back separate and stopped in a town called Portsmouth. There was a really old tall ship with sails. We didn’t actually see it though, just the top. It looked like a ship a pirate would sail. We didn’t get to see it because Sally couldn’t remember exactly how to get there and when we got closer traffic got really bad and we were really hungry and just wanted to get home, so we bailed on the ship idea, ate lunch at a pub, and went back to foggy londontown.

Random facts about trip I couldn’t fit well into a narrative:
I drove Sally’s manual transmission car at the campsite and besides being on the WRONG side, I had to shift gears with my LEFT hand! It actually wasn’t that weird…

There was one campsite with a rebel flag flying high. Were they American and from the South? Or just incredibly racist?? Me and Chris had to investigate…Turns out they were just old pensioners (English for retired people) that really liked cowboys, Texas, and country music. They were actually from about 15 minutes away from where we are in London lol. The funniest thing about them was when we first asked them about the flag and if he was from the South, the man said “no, I just like cayboys”. I replied: “cayboys?” (I thought he said “gay boys”) and he was like “you know, cayboys with horses and hats?” LOL his accent made ‘cowboys’ sounds just like ‘gay boys’….you had to be there…

Lastly, the weather changed soooooo quickly last weekend. I had to wear shorts but have a jacket, sun glasses, and an umbrella with me at all times. In a matter of 5 minutes I’d go from sweating in shorts and a t-shirt with my sunglasses on to shivering in my jacket with it sprinkling just enough to be annoying, but not enough to make it worth opening an umbrella and back to warm and sunny! I always thought Nashville was bad about fluctuating weather-but we’ve got nothing on England.

More from Paris

Notre Dame
Birds outside of Notre Dame
Mongolian Singers outside of the Centre Pompidou

 

Performers from a L'Oreal Party at the Louvre

 

Sights from the Louvre

 

Paris!

So it’s been a while since I’ve blogged…again. I don’t really have time to do it much. I’m incredibly busy/tired here. I don’t even have time to look through the pictures I’ve taken. I’m planning on doing it on the way home. Even when I get home I’ll be really busy so it might be Thanksgiving break before I get the pictures all done. Anyway…Paris.

The trip started of well. Sally dropped me off right at the train station so I wouldn’t have to walk with my luggage. I take Chelsfield to Waterloo East and from Waterloo East take the Eurostar through the ‘chunnel’ to Paris. The ‘chunnel’ was only 20 minutes of darkness. The other 2 hours were just fields in England and France. For whatever reason I was expecting to be underwater a lot longer than that.

We get off of our train in Paris excited to be there and are immediately aggravated with Paris. We have to use the bathroom but before we can do that we have to get our money changed into Euros so we can PAY to use the (horribly disgusting, incredibly smelly) bathroom. So we walk around for 5 minutes in a huge train station with thousands of people. You’d think there would be PLENTY of ATM’s for these people to get money out of and spend in Paris. No. We only find 1 and we wait 20-30 minutes to use it. We get our Euros, experience the bathroom (that only foreshadowed the rest of the Paris Metro experience), and then try to get on the tube (they call it the Metro) so we can get to our hotel. We immediately discover how confusing Paris’ public transportation is. In London the tube is made of several different lines that are all different (and easily distinguishable) colors. Each line is represented by this easy to read color and a full name, such as the District Line (green) or the Circle Line (yellow). This must be too easy for the French. They decide to have about 10 lines and just number them. So you can take the 4 to the 6 and ride the 6 all the way to the Eiffel Tower (just making those numbers up, don’t remember which number line when to the tower). These numbers seem ok except the colors they use to draw the lines all look the same! There were at least 2 shades of pink, 2 shades of purple, and 2shades of every other color. The fact that all the signs in the stations were 25 years old, dirty, and faded didn’t help anything either. In London on the tube map they only put the underground system on it. Not the elevated Trains or bus systems. In Paris they put the other stuff on the Map just to make it harder to read. They call their trains RER (something in French express routes). They letter these A, B, and C. They also color these using the same colors as the metro lines and put them right beside them on the map. So they’ll be 2 yellow lines going parallel in the same direction and you can’t tell them apart. If the metro was only confusing that would be fine. It only took a little while to get used to, but you can’t get used to the SMELL!
Imagine a homeless man who hasn’t bathed in 3 weeks is walking 5 feet in front of you while urinating on himself. This is what 95% of the Metro smelled like at all times. Besides the trains, stops, and platforms smelling horrible, the people did too. Paris is an artsy city and artsy people can be a little weird, but they still can bathe! In London’s underground no one talks on the tube and they usually don’t smell bad. Wish I could say the same about the Metro. The people on it were loud, obnoxious, and always smelled…
Bottom line- the Metro is HORRIBLE! (although really cheap).

Anyway, we finally figure out how to get to our hotel. We get there with only 1 mistake (just getting off 1 stop early to change lines) but all is well. We’re a block and a half from the Arc de Triomphe and our hotel is really nice for being only $50 USD a night (per person). The only odd thing was the lift only held 2 people. And by 2 people I mean 2 skinny people. It was the smallest elevator I’ve ever seen in my life.

That night we ate dinner at a café on the Champs Elysse on the way to the Louvre. The food was cheaper than London and WAY better! We went the Louvre that night for free and saw a good bit there. We walked back to our hotel later that night and were really tired from traveling/walking miles/ and the Louvre so we went to bed early that night. Next day we went to Notre Dame, the Concierge, St. Chappele, the Centre Pompidou, and stumble upon a Gay Pride Parade…We’re leaving Notre Dame and we see this big banner (in French) going across a big street and it’s closed and there are tons of people and loud music. We say ‘hey lets go check this out’. Shortly into the walk we think ‘wow there really are a lot of gay people in Paris’. Next thing we know a huge almost 18 wheeler size truck is driving by with huge speakers in the back blasting loud dance music. About 20 guys are dancing all on the truck with their shirts off and blowing whistles. Hundreds of people are walking behind them dancing and blowing whistles too. We think ‘this is odd…’ Then we see the huge rainbow flags on the trucks and it all comes together. This truck was followed by many more even gayer trucks. We observed for a couple minutes laughed, and left. That night we walked up the Eiffel tower (as high as you were allowed to walk. Then we took the elevator). It was awesome. The views of the city were awesome. Paris is a lot prettier than London in many regards. London is really pretty and has a lot of pretty areas, but they also have some not so pretty industrial looking areas. Everything we could see in Paris just looked nice and pretty. Too bad it was dirty and smelly….

The next day we met up with a friend of mine from LSU, Melanie Little, and we ate lunch with her and her friends. After lunch we went to the Pantheon and ate dinner. This was our last night so we had to take night pictures of the Eiffel Tower. This would have been fine, except for the fact it was raining. So after dinner we go to the Eiffel Tower about 8pm and try to wait out the rain. 4 Hours later we succeeded. It quit raining and cleared up well enough to take some pictures. We stayed out till 2am taking pictures (since we didn’t start till midnight).

On our last day we met back up for lunch with Melanie and her friends and then went on a riverboat cruise of the Sienne river. The cruise was really good and the weather was perfect. The cruise was just a little late in the afternoon…we had to run back from the cruise to our hotel to get my back and then run to the train station to catch our train. We made it in time…but as close as I’d like to cut it.

Overall Paris was great- really beautiful, really historic, and a lot cheaper than London. However, the horrible smells of the Metro, the French language (which I don’t speak), and the constant presence of PDA from couples of young and old EVERYWHERE left me ready to go back to London! I’ll go back to Paris one day- just not without a woman and a slight knowledge of the French language.