Our trip up to Scotland started out with us going to catch our bus from Victoria station. When we got off the tube at Victoria and then had to find the coach station, which if you look at the signs feels like as if it very close to the station. 10 mins later and lugging our backpack (only took mine as it was 4 days, so I carried it) around the station and up the street we finally made it to the coach station. We were met buy the Melbourne girls who were all laden with their bags as they have no one to leave their stuff with.
As we are waiting for our bus to arrive we notice we are still without Ashoor. As the bus approaches we walk up to it with our ticket and bag….. then running in comes Ashoor he had slept in and had just made the bus.
The ride up was interesting. Kieran and I sat together. I was lucky, I got a book (Cosmopolitan about a bar tender in NYC, cost me 1 pound) just before leaving London, so I had something to read where as Kieran tried to sleep most of the way. It was to be a 10 hr bus ride. We ended up having only one stop where we could get off and stretch (The bus had a toilet), the one stop was for a whole 45 mins. What the bus company did as the drivers are not allowed to drive the whole way like back home they can only do some many hours without a stop, so when they needed to stop they would meet another driver and just change drivers. We ended up with something like 4 drivers. Was an interesting way to do it.
Like always there are freaks on public transport, we ended up with a few of them on this trip up. One was a guy who looked like John Malkovic, he would wash his face with a washer and then rubbed toothpaste on his teeth with his finger and put on some aftershave but the weird part is he had B.O and did nothing about that. He was constantly trying to talk to me. And he was drinking beer on the way up which I though was strange. The next weirdo was this guy who had a clicker (like in the click adds with Ben Affleck) He kept clicking this clicker thing, we didn’t know what he was counting. Maybe an OCD thing?
After passing through places such as Milton Keynes and Newcastle, we finally made it to Edinburgh at 7:30pm. Got our bags and then had to find our way to the pick up point for the courtesy bus to the hostel. We are lucky we had the Melbourne girls with us as neither Kieran and I or Ashoor had details on where to find the bus. We ended up walking to where we thought it was. Couldn’t find it and were just walking around trying to find the restaurant on the map. As we were walking we saw the globetrotter van pull up, by chance the driver of the courtesy bus found us. We all piled in and headed to the hostel.
In the hostel they didn’t use cash, we got these card things that we had to put money on and then swipe them when we wanted to buy things. It was a good idea. The cards also got you into your rooms. Kieran and I were staying with Ashoor and 2 other people that we never saw or met, only heard occasionally. The Melbourne girls were together.
After we had settled into our room we headed to the bar and met up with this guy who could book tours for us. We ended up booking some tours through him and then having dinner and finishing the night with some drinks.
The next day we had the whole day to explore the city on our own. We all went in together on
the 11:30am shuttle and headed to go up to the castle. It was pissing down rain and neither Kieran nor I brought an umbrella with us. It 
wouldn’t have done any good anyway the people who did have them up lost them from the wind or they turned inside out. I was lucky to have a rain coat on so I just put up the hood and walked into the rain. The girls did not have anything and were pretty wet by the time we made it up the hill and to the castle.
Walking around Edinburgh castle was great. It was amazing to see all the history. I could have 
spent ages there. Unfortunately they had to close the castle due to the terrible wind conditions. We were being blown sideways (check out the video). As we left we got our money back for it being closed on us, we were lucky as we had almost finished but I was disappointed as I wanted to see more.
On our way down battling the wind and rain we walked through a lot of shops and then had some lunch in a nice little café where we both had soup and a hot drink and scones with jam mmmm scones. It was perfect weather for it. That night we were going on our ghost tour and had another 5 hours to kill. As all the tourist places were closed Kieran and I decided to go and catch a movie. Even though we were in Edinburgh and could have walked around town looking at the sites, the weather was still bad and you don’t want to
walk in that for 5 hrs. After Happy Feet had finished we went to pub near where the ghost tour runs from. Always end up at a pub somewhere, had a nice dinner and a few drinks. We then met up with the tour group and headed off to be scared.
On the Gohst tour our leader Red Phoenix told us about a bit of history and few ghost stories. I didn’t find it that scary or that good of a tour to be honest. I was disappointed. We were walked around in a circle and then went into the secret underground vaults that were meant to have a poltergeist, ghost and witches. But there was nothing and when a guy jumped out to scare us it felt like it cheep end to the experience. Kieran still had a jump in the chamber where they split us up. After the tour we ended up at supposedly the most haunted pub in Scotland (they never told us why). Then we had to get a taxi home as the shuttle bus had finished.
We woke up the next day nice and early at 6 am to get our tour bus for the highlands. We were picked up from the hostel and then traveled into town to pick up a few more people. The seats were crazy small so I had to move to the front near the door where there was more leg room.
Our guide/driver is a Scotsman who I can’t remember his name but he loved saying the word free, and I think he liked the sound of his own voice. We started our travel driving up to the highlands. It was bad because the weather was so crap that we were forced to use one road in and out. That limited our sight seeing ability. All the other roads were closed. We later found out that if they closed the road we were on we were stuck up there.
On our way up it was raining the whole way. We got to make a few
stops, hope out to go to the toilet and get a snack. On our drive into a little town we saw that the river was flooded and was moving into the town. The river had grown heaps and was over the train tracks and everything. Was interesting to see as I have never seen a flood like that before.
We ended up having lunch near loch ness but the weather was so crap we had to run around in the wind and rain, it was crazy. I ended up having a nice pie and beer for lunch. We hoped back on the bus after our hour break and headed back home listening to our guide talk about the 
history of Scotland and a few stories to whole way back ( some of the stories where how William Wallace is also robin hood, and that Robert the Bruce is the real Braveheart) . We were meant to stop off at Sterling castle but never made it there. As the weather was so bad we didn’t get to see anything really so it was disappointing. We just drove around in the bus looking out the window and listening to stories about Scottish history for 12 hrs.
After our tip ended we were dropped back in town and had to catch the courtesy bus back to the hostel which we didn’t have a ticket for. We still had to pay for the hostel bus which was 1.50 pounds each way. We got the driver to let us all on and made our way back. Had dinner again at the hostel they cook good food there.
Back up at 6am had to be on the hostel bus to town at 7 for the 9am Coach back to London. We had some time to wait around for the bus. We got a nice bus home with leather seats and a lot more leg room which was good. I read most of the way Kieran slept. On the way back there went as many freaks, but still freaks all the same. We were back to Marisa and Richs place at 10pm at night.
As we are waiting for our bus to arrive we notice we are still without Ashoor. As the bus approaches we walk up to it with our ticket and bag….. then running in comes Ashoor he had slept in and had just made the bus.
The ride up was interesting. Kieran and I sat together. I was lucky, I got a book (Cosmopolitan about a bar tender in NYC, cost me 1 pound) just before leaving London, so I had something to read where as Kieran tried to sleep most of the way. It was to be a 10 hr bus ride. We ended up having only one stop where we could get off and stretch (The bus had a toilet), the one stop was for a whole 45 mins. What the bus company did as the drivers are not allowed to drive the whole way like back home they can only do some many hours without a stop, so when they needed to stop they would meet another driver and just change drivers. We ended up with something like 4 drivers. Was an interesting way to do it.
Like always there are freaks on public transport, we ended up with a few of them on this trip up. One was a guy who looked like John Malkovic, he would wash his face with a washer and then rubbed toothpaste on his teeth with his finger and put on some aftershave but the weird part is he had B.O and did nothing about that. He was constantly trying to talk to me. And he was drinking beer on the way up which I though was strange. The next weirdo was this guy who had a clicker (like in the click adds with Ben Affleck) He kept clicking this clicker thing, we didn’t know what he was counting. Maybe an OCD thing?
After passing through places such as Milton Keynes and Newcastle, we finally made it to Edinburgh at 7:30pm. Got our bags and then had to find our way to the pick up point for the courtesy bus to the hostel. We are lucky we had the Melbourne girls with us as neither Kieran and I or Ashoor had details on where to find the bus. We ended up walking to where we thought it was. Couldn’t find it and were just walking around trying to find the restaurant on the map. As we were walking we saw the globetrotter van pull up, by chance the driver of the courtesy bus found us. We all piled in and headed to the hostel.
In the hostel they didn’t use cash, we got these card things that we had to put money on and then swipe them when we wanted to buy things. It was a good idea. The cards also got you into your rooms. Kieran and I were staying with Ashoor and 2 other people that we never saw or met, only heard occasionally. The Melbourne girls were together.
After we had settled into our room we headed to the bar and met up with this guy who could book tours for us. We ended up booking some tours through him and then having dinner and finishing the night with some drinks.
The next day we had the whole day to explore the city on our own. We all went in together on
the 11:30am shuttle and headed to go up to the castle. It was pissing down rain and neither Kieran nor I brought an umbrella with us. It 
wouldn’t have done any good anyway the people who did have them up lost them from the wind or they turned inside out. I was lucky to have a rain coat on so I just put up the hood and walked into the rain. The girls did not have anything and were pretty wet by the time we made it up the hill and to the castle.
Walking around Edinburgh castle was great. It was amazing to see all the history. I could have spent ages there. Unfortunately they had to close the castle due to the terrible wind conditions. We were being blown sideways (check out the video). As we left we got our money back for it being closed on us, we were lucky as we had almost finished but I was disappointed as I wanted to see more.On our way down battling the wind and rain we walked through a lot of shops and then had some lunch in a nice little café where we both had soup and a hot drink and scones with jam mmmm scones. It was perfect weather for it. That night we were going on our ghost tour and had another 5 hours to kill. As all the tourist places were closed Kieran and I decided to go and catch a movie. Even though we were in Edinburgh and could have walked around town looking at the sites, the weather was still bad and you don’t want to
walk in that for 5 hrs. After Happy Feet had finished we went to pub near where the ghost tour runs from. Always end up at a pub somewhere, had a nice dinner and a few drinks. We then met up with the tour group and headed off to be scared.On the Gohst tour our leader Red Phoenix told us about a bit of history and few ghost stories. I didn’t find it that scary or that good of a tour to be honest. I was disappointed. We were walked around in a circle and then went into the secret underground vaults that were meant to have a poltergeist, ghost and witches. But there was nothing and when a guy jumped out to scare us it felt like it cheep end to the experience. Kieran still had a jump in the chamber where they split us up. After the tour we ended up at supposedly the most haunted pub in Scotland (they never told us why). Then we had to get a taxi home as the shuttle bus had finished.
We woke up the next day nice and early at 6 am to get our tour bus for the highlands. We were picked up from the hostel and then traveled into town to pick up a few more people. The seats were crazy small so I had to move to the front near the door where there was more leg room.
Our guide/driver is a Scotsman who I can’t remember his name but he loved saying the word free, and I think he liked the sound of his own voice. We started our travel driving up to the highlands. It was bad because the weather was so crap that we were forced to use one road in and out. That limited our sight seeing ability. All the other roads were closed. We later found out that if they closed the road we were on we were stuck up there.On our way up it was raining the whole way. We got to make a few
stops, hope out to go to the toilet and get a snack. On our drive into a little town we saw that the river was flooded and was moving into the town. The river had grown heaps and was over the train tracks and everything. Was interesting to see as I have never seen a flood like that before.
We ended up having lunch near loch ness but the weather was so crap we had to run around in the wind and rain, it was crazy. I ended up having a nice pie and beer for lunch. We hoped back on the bus after our hour break and headed back home listening to our guide talk about the 
history of Scotland and a few stories to whole way back ( some of the stories where how William Wallace is also robin hood, and that Robert the Bruce is the real Braveheart) . We were meant to stop off at Sterling castle but never made it there. As the weather was so bad we didn’t get to see anything really so it was disappointing. We just drove around in the bus looking out the window and listening to stories about Scottish history for 12 hrs.After our tip ended we were dropped back in town and had to catch the courtesy bus back to the hostel which we didn’t have a ticket for. We still had to pay for the hostel bus which was 1.50 pounds each way. We got the driver to let us all on and made our way back. Had dinner again at the hostel they cook good food there.
Back up at 6am had to be on the hostel bus to town at 7 for the 9am Coach back to London. We had some time to wait around for the bus. We got a nice bus home with leather seats and a lot more leg room which was good. I read most of the way Kieran slept. On the way back there went as many freaks, but still freaks all the same. We were back to Marisa and Richs place at 10pm at night.
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