Edinburgh for a day! :)

We had one day to spend in the lovely Scottish capital city of Edinburgh! It was so easy to get there from Glasgow! It was a direct trip from Glasgow Queen St Station to Edinburgh Waverly Station. The trip lasted about 45-50 minutes each way. And let me just say that Edinburgh is BEAUTIFUL! There is so much to see and do! Guess what we did? If you guessed Hop on Hop off tour then you are correct! Maybe I should get paid to advertise for them! Ha! But seriously.... The tour was great and we decided to add a tour of Edinburgh Castle, too!

The castle. Oh the castle. It definitely needs its own paragraph. Ok so we wanted to see the Scottish Crown Jewels so we got talked into going to the castle. There were approximately 52 million people also excited about the Crown Jewels, I suppose, because it was straight up CRAZY! We could barely walk an inch an hour!! Ha! It was crowded, guys. So crowded that I probably wouldn’t recommend it. The castle is gorgeous on the outside so you should probably settle for a photo of that! The Crown Jewels were underwhelming in a BIG way but I have no pictures to prove it because photography was not allowed. :( So the moral of the story is that you should save your 17 pounds. You’re welcome.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the city, taking lots of pictures (to follow), and doing some shopping! It was a great way to end our Scottish adventure!

Loch Ness and so much MORE!

No, we didn’t see Nessie :(. But what I did see is probably way cooler than seeing her (maybe). We started our day bright and early on our bus (actually a Mercedes van) but we will call it a bus in this story! Anyhow, after our guide, Alistair, laughed at us for attempting to get on the bus on the wrong side, we were ready to go! Silly Americans!  Because of the roads, if you get car sick (and I do), I would recommend a Dramamine! I took one and while I had a hard time keeping my eyeballs open on the bus toward the end of the trip, I didn’t vomit. So I’m calling it a win!

Our first stop on the trip was Loch Lomond. It was pretty. BUUUUUT, I was attacked (and bitten) by midgies. Don’t know what they are? Follow this link:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_midge
Also, it was pretty overcast while we were there but you will see in the photos that the day improved!

After Loch Lomond, we stopped in Glencoe. Ummmm that was probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen! And to find out Harry Potter (and Skyfall, which I don’t know much about) was filmed here made it even better! But seriously, this place will take your breath just right away! The sky was still a bit overcast but that’s ok. I know my pictures don’t do it justice so if you ever get a chance to go, GO!!!

After Glencoe, we passed through Ft Williams on our way to Ft Augusta to see Loch Ness. The sun was finally out and while it was cold and a bit chilly, it was BEAUTIFUL! The water is so blue! Ft Augusta is a super cute town so we enjoyed our 1.5 hour stay there!

We had a wee bit (a little Scottish talk for ye) of extra time after Ft Augusta, so our guide stopped off for us to see this awesome bridge and small waterfall! It was exquisite! I love little things like that! But it gets even better! We then stopped to get a glimpse of Urquhart Castle, which was beautiful sitting right there on Loch Ness. And if that wasn’t good enough, we stopped to see highland cows! If you know me, you know how much I love animals! So this was THE BEST! I loved them so! And just so you know, the natives call them hairy coos! ;)

We passed through Inverness (super cute town) and then pitstopped at Pitlochry (also a super cute town) before making our way back to Glasgow! We caught a glimpse of Stirling Castle which was amazing! We ended the night at Piper Bar in Glasgow where we ate delicious food (which was macaroni and cheese and fries for this vegetarian!!)!

It was one heck of an amazing day! I think Heather, my dear friend from college who is on this trip with me, would agree!

Great Scot!

Sooooooo guess where I am now???? Only in Scotland (well probably not only in Scotland) can you find a man in a kilt playing the bagpipes....in front of a Gap! I’m in Glasgow! We left Newark last night around 5:20 PM. Guess who didn’t sleep a wink on the plane? It’s meeeee! I CANNOT sleep on a plane! And I even medicated myself! Hmmmm. Anyway, the Aer Lingus flight was as smooth as could be until the end when we had to circle Dublin for a long time because of dense fog. Even so, we had a smooth landing. We made it through customs (why are those people always so angry?) quickly and walked suuuuuper fast to make it to our Ryanair flight to Glasgow. It was a quick 40 minute flight but I took advantage of if and got a small amount of sleep! We made it to Glasgow and did the Hop on/Hop off bus. It was a great idea but I was thinking I needed toothpicks to hold me eyeballs open! So because I’m currently suffering from the following: sleep deprivation, dehydration, a sore body, heat stroke (left over from NYC), and just a little bit of sheer crazy, I’m going to add more photos to this post a different day! But here’s my brief summary for you. This Airbnb kicks trash. Glasgow is pretty cool. And I can’t wait for tomorrow! Where will I be? Better come back to find out!