Scotland April 3rd-6th, 2011

I know this blog is long term overdue....

SCOTLAND

It all started on the 3rd of April. I could honestly say that I was scared, because I've never traveled by myself to a place that I've never been to before, or have little knowledge about. However I was excited to go out there and explore. The bus ride from Hunstanton to Kings Lynn pretty fast. It took just about 30 minutes to get to the train station, followed by a 15 minute wait for the train. I had to make about two changes on the train, from Kings Lynn to Ely, Ely to Peterborough, and Peterborough to Edinburgh.

The train ride was lovely, despite having to stand for an hour and wait for a seat. But in all, I got one in the end. Also, I saw two ends of a rainbow as the train was going along.

Finally, I arrived at Edinburgh. Had no idea where to go, so I asked around. And everyone was just so friendly. I ended up catching a taxi to the hostel - budget backpackers corner of Cowgate and Grassmarket Road. I'd rate it a 5/5, it was definitely clean and safe, except it wasn't a party hostel, but no matter. it was still worth the money.

A while after I unpacked and put my things in my locker, the sun was still shining (about 6pm), obviously got excited because when I first arrived in England, the sun would be down before 4pm, but now it's daylight savings and Summer is just about to start, the sun's up at a later time. I took a walk to Calton Hill, which is where a lot of the monuments are. And to add - the views were amazing!

The next day (4th of April), was the start of the Haggis Adventures Skye High Tour. The day started really sunny, and mildly warm, at least for the normal temperature of what I'm used to. Before the tour started, I had already met a few people that were on the same one as I was on. Felt really good to meet others without having doubt or anything like that. It took a while to wait for the bus to arrive because most of us were early. We finally got on the bus, and it took a while to kind of comprehend what the tour guide was saying - obviously because he was Scottish and we still weren't used to the accent, as well as the slang.

There were also quite a few Australians on the tour, as well as the other bus which as five day tour, although we all stayed at the same accommodation for the two nights, and they moved on from the third day.

We started from Edinburgh and drove into the highlands, which was spectacular view. We spent the night at Fort Augustus, which was a small town in the middle of the mountains. There were a few pubs and convenient stores, but that was it. Other than that, there were a lot of breathtaking views of lakes and a few alps. It was also really cold, and when I say cold, I mean below freezing!!

The 'hostel' which was really a lodge was really nice as well. We had our own ensuite! I shared a room with four other Aussies (Canberra/Brisbane) and my new friend - she lives in Germany but is originally from China. And this is pretty much what our room looked like (from the perspective of me sitting on the corner of the bottom bunk!)

We also drove past one of the Harry Potter bridges on that day:

Also a few views of Scottish scenery:

This was in the middle of the day (literally 12pm'ish) and it was about minus eleven degrees celcius! Yep! It was definitely FREEEEEEEEZINGG!!!

The tour overall was very cultural. It rained all week, and hence our group name was Team Jagerbombs from the "MacRainAllWeekClan". Which is self explanatory in the next couple of photos! :)

What's typical about Scotland? The Loch Ness creature!!

The mountains...





And the awesome blueness!

I loved the trip to Scotland. I met many amazing people, although they were a few years older than me, it was so easy to get along with everyone! And a well educational tour! We did party and have drinks on all nights of the tour, but what I loved about it was that the bar was in the accommodation, so going to bed was easy! What I also loved about Scotland was that alcohol was so cheap (or compared to London + many other European cities).

I would definitely recommend it to anyone who absolutely loves freezing yet rainy weather! :) xx