Edinburgh, Scotland, Sun 30 - Mon 31 Aug 09

Big sleep-in in the morning, still feeling like crap. Definitely had a full blown cold... damn! But I was determined to climb Arthur's Seat, I wasn't going to let a cold stop me from climbing one of the few hills I have come across in the last few months. So after a good sleep and a big breakfast we headed for the mountain at about midday. When I say mountain it really is just a big hill. According to Wikipedia it's about 20 meters higher than the Mount. So yeah not too tough of a climb but enough to get the heart pumping.

Arthur's seat is actually in the middle of the city too so it only took us about 15mins to walk to Holyrood Park at the base of it from our hostel. It doesn't have much vegetation like the Mount and it's front is dominated by the Salisbury Crags, a row of steep rock cliffs about half the height again of Arthur's Seat with tracks running along both the top and below the rock cliff.

It was mainly steps all the way to the top and then the odd bit of rock climbing before reaching the summit. The views were beautiful looking across Edinburgh. Sadly we couldn't stay up there very long as the wind was freezing. We made our way down another path where we found some blackberry bushes, yum! We had a lot of fun sourcing juicy blackberries and Nick even did the hard part of climbing up the bank amongst all the prickles to get the best ones.

We then walked the trail along the front of the Salisbury Crags which was a nice stroll to finish off our climb. I had a lot of fun, definitely miss my hiking.

We walked back up past Holyrood Palace which is the Queen's residence in Scotland (decided not to pay to go in) and wondered back up The Royal Mile, stopping for a late lunch along the way.

We decided we should see at least one festival show while we were here so we found ourselves a free comedy stand up at a local pub as part of the Fringe. I have to admit, it's harder than it seems to find a show to go to. There is almost too much choice, and it's difficult to wade through all of the listings just looking for one good show to go to. The standup was ok, not high quality but good enough for a bit of fun. The pub was really cool though with 4 stories down underground and lots of hidden rooms and dark spaces.

Monday was a pretty laxed day as I was feeling the worst I had over the whole weekend. We found a pub to chill in for a few hours and keep out of the cold. I didn't have the energy to do anymore sightseeing so we ended up taking an earlier train home so I could get back to my own bed. Unfortunately the train was delayed and packed!

By some miracle we both got seats even though the whole train was reserved, we managed to pick one of the few seats where the people didn't show up. Luck was on my side that day. I couldn't have handled a 5 hour journey standing up with a headache.

Besides getting sick I had a lot of fun in Edinburgh. It's a beautiful city with gorgeous buildings and a nice atmosphere. It's just a pity about the weather :)

Edinburgh, Scotland, Fri 28 - Sat 29 Aug 09

I'm a bit behind my blog! Whoops :) Oh well better try and catch up. We took the train up for the long weekend to Edinburgh. I decided we'd go by train because even though it's a bit longer I thought it would be less hassle, haha yeah right. The train network in the UK needs a serious overhaul. No seat allocation even though we paid a silly amount for the tickets, delayed and overcrowded trains. I think the UK could take some advice from the French, their train system was awesome.

So anyway, August is the Edinburgh Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A month long event of theatre shows, plays, dance performances, comedy shows etc. They also have the Military Tatoo on and lots of street performers and the like. We spent Friday night wondering around this madness, checking out the main street (The Royal Mile) watching the street performances and dodging the pamphlet pushers (there were a lot of them!). We had dinner in a nice japanese restaurant and did our best to stay warm in the freezing Scotland weather. Seriously, considering it was the height of summer, I could not believe how cold it was! I ended up getting sick thanks to the freezing wind. Only in the UK can you get a cold during summer! :)

We went and saw Edinburgh Castle on the Saturday. We had to queue for ages to get in so we ended up spending most of the day there. Edinburgh Castle is up on a hill at the top of the Royal Mile and the wind picks up off the Forth of Firth and blows a freezing gale across the castle grounds. The castle was fun, lots to see. We timed it really well and caught a free tour from the castle gates. It was great to hear some of the stories about the place.

At 1pm they fire a big canon from the castle grounds which was a lot of fun to watch. It gave me a huge fright when it went off even though I was expecting it! We had a look through the old Prison rooms which have been re-created so you can see what it would have been like to be a Prisoner of War there. We also saw the Crown Jewels (not as impressive as the British ones at Windsor). There was the Palace Quarters where Queen Mary of Scots was born and another room had a large memorial to the thousands of soldiers killed in WW1 and other battles. And of course we spent a bit of time just admiring the view across all of Edinburgh.

In the late afternoon we went on a mission to find a building we had seen from the castle. It was very old and black with age, in fact it was more of a monument really. We found it next to the gardens near the train station and tried to chill there in the sun but it was too damn cold in the wind so we kept moving.

We walked along Princes St, the main shopping area and kept going till we reached Carlton Hill. On the way we found an old graveyard full of beautiful tombs and monuments from the 18th century. Once we got to Carlton Hill we walked up to the summit to enjoy the view over to Arthur's seat (Edinburgh's mini mountain) and the Old Town of Edinburgh, including the view back over the castle. Man how I had missed hills! London is way too flat. I love the challenge hills bring to walks and the views always make it worthwhile.

Carlton Hill had a nice collection of monuments on top too. One was this collection of huge pillars that Nick managed to climb up on (I was too short and couldn't make it up). We chilled up on the hill for ages and found a nice spot near the edge to enjoy the views.

We'd had a pretty full on day so we headed back to the hostel. Unfortunately within half an hour of being back and relaxing at the hostel I started feeling terrible. My throat was dry & sore, I had a hazy headache and my body was aching. I knew for sure I had caught a cold. I couldn't believe how fast in happened. Damn this weather! I had absolutely no energy to leave the hostel so gave up on the idea of a night out whiskey tasting and instead got Vietnamese takeout (they had Pho, which is the tastiest dish ever and perfect for killing all sorts of nasty bugs - lots of garlic and chilli!).

Glasgow & Loch Lommond, Scotland, Fri 19 - Sun 21 Sept 08

Interesting experience arriving into Glasgow late on a Friday night.. there were definitely some 'different' characters around :) Took me awhile to find the hostel after navigating the buses and the maze of streets where the hostel was located, but it was a pretty cool one with a great view back over the city and a good lounge to chill out in. Duncan & Claire, if you read this you'll be happy to hear I enjoyed a good dose of Iron Bru while I was there too :)

Saturday morning was an early wake up call to head down to the centre of town to catch my day tour bus. I had booked in for a day trip with a local scottish small tour group into the countryside. Our first stop was Sterling Castle, a cool castle with heaps of nooks and crannies to explore. You could even go into the guards towers and look down into the underground prison. Sadly I didn't get to find out much history about the castle, the audio guide and booklets really didn't give much info about any interesting events or battles which I'm sure would have occurred there. The castle was up on a hill though which great spectacular views back over the valley.

We headed on towards Loch Lommond and stopped at a little road side cafe where a local friendly Highland cow called Hamish hung out. Hamish was gorgeous! Massive horns and a big shaggy coat, he was so tame I got to pat him, and oh so cute!

Our driver was really friendly and gave us a great rundown of Scottish history, plus he had the coolest accent! We drove up into the Trossachs National Park and wow Scotland is beautiful! This was the Scotland I'd been imagining; beautiful lakes and forests with mountains dotting the horizon.

We stopped at a little village called Aberfoyle for lunch. I headed for the pub of course and enjoyed a nice glass of wine with some pub grub. I then strolled along the river walk to check out the cute local sheep :) felt like home!

After lunch we headed to Loch Lommond (Loch means Lake). It was a huge lake surrounded by mountains and was the perfect place for a walk. I took off from the group and found a path that led around the lake to a bay. It was a stunning view and the perfect quiet spot for some chill time. It was so peaceful I could have stayed there all afternoon.

The last stop on our tour was the Glengoyne Whiskey distillery. Yay! Whiskey tasting ;)
We got to sample a dram of the 10yr on arrival before taking a tour. It was really interesting seeing how whiskey is made and the smell was fantastic. At the end of the tour we were treated to a dram of the 17yr. Too good. Sadly due to the airport liquid restrictions I couldn't get a bottle (I was on hand luggage only) so I settle for a miniature bottle of the 17yr.

On Sunday I had planned to have a bit of a sleep in but in a hostel that's not the easiest of tasks. Thankfully earplugs help. After breaky I headed into town for a look around Glasgow. It looked a lot nicer during the day and it seemed like a great town for some shopping but again sadly I had no room in my hand luggage for that. So I simply headed down for a walk along the river. I made my way along to a park where there was a 'viewing platform', I walked onto it and found myself staring at a factory.. hmm interesting... not my choice for a viewing platform... hehe.. finally figured it must have been used to watch rowers or similar on the river.

In the park I found a lovely garden cafe inside a large greenhouse where I enjoyed a rest and a coffee, then headed up the hill to the cathedral and Necropolis. The Necropolis was beautiful. Lots of old gravestones, shrines and tombs dating back to the early 1800s up on a hill overlooking the city. I wondered through for ages reading all the inscriptions.

Across a bridge was the Cathedral which I popped into for a sec but didn't stay long as it wasn't technically open for visitors, they'd just finished a service. Beautiful gothic style church. Not too much more to see in Glasgow so I hung out in the park opposite the hostel till it was time to catch my plane home.