We had seen a good bit of Befast and so we departed for Edinburgh. It was going to be a long travel day so I got up and ran a quick 5 miles down the River Lagan the opposite direction I had gone the day before, which ended up being far less scenic (pretty much industrial wasteland) than the huge nature reserve I had discovered before. Either way, it got me up and prepared for the 8 hours of travel to come...
When I booked the cross-channel express (bus and train) rather than a short 45 min flight, I had mostly money in mind. However, it ended up being an experience that Ruth and I both enjoyed more than flying. The first part of the trip after a short bus ride to the harbor was a Stena Line ferry across the Engligh Channel to Scotland. This was basically a luxury cruise complete with on board restaurant, free hot drink refills, and most importantly, WiFi. We were able to blog and catch up on Facebook because of this. We also got some nice pictures on the deck as we neared the Scottish mainland. After leaving the ferry we jumped on the second threeish hour bus part of our trip. This part was even better than the last because we got to be entertained, see scenic views, and then rest up. First, we laughed at the antics of a Scottish family consisting of drunken father, toothless mom, one tooth grandfather, and 5 kids who enjoyed saying foul words just to get one their mum's nerves. Just when we were starting to get a bit annoyed by this scene and the noise, they got off at one the first stops and we were left to our iPods and Scottish countryside. We passed pictureque coastside towns, many of which seemed to have more sheep and cows than people. It was incredible to see the history, castles and old buildings, interwoven with the more modern architecture. Ruth slept a ton on this ride and I could have done more had I not been distracted by the window views. As we passed through Glasgow, Ruth and I agreed even before seeing Edinburgh that it was a really good last minute audible from Glasgow. Glasgow just looked far to modern and gigantic to really see and appreciate in 3 days.
Immediately upon arrival to Edinborugh bus stations, Ruth and I were blown away the beauty of the buildings, parks, and castle on the hill. Personally, I had not seen any other city like it save for maybe Florence, Italy. A short walk through the center of the city and we reached our hostel, St. Christopher's, directly above a bar! Of course, the first thing on our mind was food followed by drink so after dropping our stuff in our room upstairs, we shared some nachos in the bar downstairs with Ruth's student discount (we found out that this is a great meal for us to share since Ruth loves the really cheesy top chips and I prefer the less cheesy bottom ones to dip in assorted toppings). Again, we were just in time to get over to the hostel pub crawl that started up the street from us. Upon entering the first bar, the rain started to pour and was unrelenting throughout the night. Gladly this didn't stop us from having a really excellent time. We met some interesting people and made some fun memories. For times sake, I will just mention the highlights (in order of occurrence):
1. Meeting a couple who had just graduated from Chico State and staying at our hostel. We even stumbled back home at the end of the night with the and they gave us a preview of the walking tour along the way.
2. Meeting Adit from India and Anthony from Singapore. Adit thought that a tour group from Indiana was actually from India and got really excited for a minute. Anthony expressed upon us that in Singapore you can be hung or whipped for possessing marijuana (yea, harsh right?).
3. Seeing a scary lead singer woman from a rock band performing in one of the bars and calling me our in a songs as I took a picture.
4. Seeing a midget almost throw down a drunken group of male macho tourists for making fun of him on the dance floor.
5. Attempting to hit on a 25 year old French woman by using my French...fail.
6. Ruth and I both lifting up a barrel in an Irish bar to the dare and chants of "USA!" from a group of Irish guys. Needless to say, the bartender was not a fan of this.
7. Drunkenly cheering on the 2am breast cancer walk on our way home from the crawl.
No comments:
Post a Comment