Scotland
SCOTLAND: EDINBURGH IS HAUNTED!!
Aite let’s get this out of the way first…Loinz, I blame you. Now that that’s out of the way, allow me to reflect on what I remember of good ol’ Scotland.
Loinz, for as long as I’ve known him (unfortunately since like 9th grade) has been obsessed with Scotland. Which made me go from curious to interested to obsessed, so I knew I had to go. So originally, when we found flights to Dublin, it was just booked as a way for me to get to Scotland. After all, I had lived for 3 months in Dunedin, New Zealand (Dunedin = Dundee + Edinburgh), the Scotland of the South Pacific, so I needed to see the real deal.
Anyways, as usual, I can hardly remember anything since this was in 2012 and I have the memory of an ADHD goldfish, but here’s what I remember…
First off, SO GREEN! Oh man. Although Ireland is too, it was just so beautiful. Unreal. But yeah, when we landed we saw a little tourist booth that had a ton of flyers and since, as usual, we had no plans, we had a look at what things we should do, which came in very handy later. (Teaser!!!) (Spoiler: It was a haunted tour and it ruled. See below).
We wandered Edinburgh city and it was just fantastic. Like unbelievably amazing. It’s this beautiful sleek modern city with lots of cool fashion and hip looking people, but anywhere you look there’s this massive medieval castle on a hill. It feels so surreal and that feeling never got old, we loved every second we spent in Edinburgh.
I loved the fact that the stereotype of Scotland was 100% true. I imagined greenery (duh, true), castles (ditto), lots of red hair (oh yes), tons of kilts (SOOOO many) and bagpipe music playing from everywhere. All was true and I loved it.
We trudged up the hill to Edinburgh Castle and it was phenomenal. Just a rad place, lots of shops and bagpipers and stuff around. We didn’t go in but whatever, I’ve seen enough castles in my lifetime.
Another fun memory is when I was exploring a grocery store for the 8,000th time, I had to show my ID to buy a bottle of Irn Bru (more on that later and no, it’s not alcoholic, I just had to show ID because I was using an American credit card). The pimply faced kid (not sure if that’s true, just a generic recollection) came over to check my license and was all excited about Utah. Like, way excited. “Utah! Amazing! So choice!” And I’m like uh…yeah? And he told me his life dream was to go to Utah, to which I’m like…you know Utah is…Utah, right? This ain’t LA. And he told me he loved motorcycles and he and his dad worked on little dirt bikes and wanted to race them in the Bonneville Salt Flats someday. Crazy. I told him coming to Scotland was my dream and he said going to Utah was his dream. Cool stuff.
Now, speaking of Irn Bru. Oh Irn Bru. I had it in the USA once or twice from a foreign foods market but man…it’s phenomenal. In fact, if I’m remembering correctly, my recent trip to Peru introduced me to the wonders of Inca Kola, which is similar. Namely, it’s liquid bubble gum flavored soda and it’s so good. I remember buying like 5 bottles and prying open our hotel window (wasn’t supposed to open) just enough to put them on the windowsill overnight for a cold breakfast Irn Bru. Drink it kids.
We wandered around Waverly Mall once when it was raining and loved the crazy and cool fashions.
The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art was also fun, one because the grounds and building itself are gorgeous, but also I LOVED the giant neon lettering “EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT” across the top of the building. So cool. It was very quiet and creaky and we loved being there.
Our hotel in Edinburgh (maybe someday I’ll figure out where and how to find it, this was ages ago you know) was AWESOME! It was a big old house looking place with thick red carpet and a nice fireplace in the lobby. At the time we went, I still had a job so it was fun to go sit by the fire and work at night, and since Edinburg got quite chilly at night, the fire was perfect. Also, they had these massive oldschool skeleton keys for the rooms, it was very quaint.
But yeah all that being said, Haunted Edinburgh was the real highlight. So the Royal Mile is the cool old city part of Edinburgh, and somehow we happened to be in Edinburgh on Halloween. We had no idea Edinburgh is supposedly haunted, but hey, when in Rome, right?
First off, there’s this nutso thing called the Samhain festival which is a bunch of people dressing up creepy (like Halloween in the USA) and involves lots and lots and lots of fire (not so much like Halloween in the USA, hopefully). We had no idea what was going on we just saw all these crazy creepy human animal hybrids with torches and effigies and bonfires and music and it was pure insanity. Absolutely loved it. And that was just on our way to the tour.
So yeah, we show up at this pitch dark town square, and everyone in our group sans us is intoxicated and/or in costume, so we knew it was going to be wild. The guide gives some spiel about how evil Edinburgh is then we immediately headed into these creepy dark side street alleys where they recounted all these horrible crimes which supposedly happened on these very spots. It was foggy outside so it was actually creepy, haunted tour or not. But when we went underground? Yeah, that was nuts.
Apparently Edinburgh has all these massive tunnels under the city and part of the tour takes you underneath the city. It’s super eerie down there, completely silent (when people would actually shut up) and they have installed lights but when they turn them off it’s just crazy. So crazy that a bustling city is above your head. Anyways you wander around for an hour or so, there are a few cheap scares (jump scares and such) but for the most part it really is quite creepy. At the end they gave us a choice of witches blood or some other wannabe creepy sounding drink which I didn’t know was alcoholic so I had to trade my bats brew (or whatever they called it) for witches blood and everyone thought it was weird I didn’t drink. And one of the girls in our group was dressed as a zebra but the Scotland pronunciation was more like zeh-brah and it was never not funny. We got home at like 2am but it was one of the most fun things we have ever done.
Lastly, we took a bus tour out to Loch Ness. I’ll be durned if I’m not gonna see Nessie when I’m in her hometown, right? And don’t get me wrong, it was cool. Scotland is so phenomenally beautiful that we couldn’t stop talking about it until we got so tired of trying to mention it that we just took it all in. But holy freak the tour was longggggggg. I think they told us it would be but I just assumed it wouldn’t feel long since it was Scotland but yeah…it felt really really bloody long.
I can handle road trips if I have some modicum of control, but on this bus we had none. It was just neverending, and I was carsick after like 10 minutes. But we did get to see the James Bond Skyfall house which was rad. We also stopped in some cool little towns, including for dinner, but it was such an insanely long day that I can’t say I’d do it again. They also asked us to tip the driver and guide at the end, which I hadn’t seen outside the USA but it’s all good, we did.
And that, kids, is what I remember about Scotland 7 years later. It was insane and Loinz, thanks for convincing me to go because I loved it and it remains one of my favorite places ever. And PS…we didn’t see Nessie and I’m still furious.
PPS… for posterity’s sake, I want to remember/forget this: I had these awesome gray pants that I loved but they were getting pretty thrashed. I think my plan was to ditch them at the end of the trip. In Edinburgh, just like in a movie, I suddenly wondered why I felt such a draft all of the sudden, only to look down and see pretty much the entire crotch of the jeans had torn while we were out. Sadly, I had no other long pants on the trip so my legs froze until we got to Greece.
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GEAR
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So yeah, since we went on this trip 8 years before I did Jetset Wanderlife, I have no idea what we actually took. But if and when we return, this is the stuff we’ll be taking:
Caitlin’s Stupid Awesome Space Saver Day Pack Thing: I told her she had way too much junk when she bought this, but I digress: You win, Caitlin, and if you only read this blog you’d see me say this. Oh well. This bag was SUPER cheap, amazing to take on day trips, and folds up into practically nothing. Seriously, just do it now.
Amazon Prime: C’mon, it’s 2019. Get free 2-day shipping (which was necessary since we always found something we needed at the last minute) and lots of good music and TV/movies which make road trips more enjoyable. Try it free and you won’t be disappointed. Plus, pretty much everything below will ship to you free in 2 days in the USA.
AUKEY Powerbank External Portable Charger: This thing has saved us many times. It’s nice to have around the house, but it’s nicer to have during a long flight or a 12 hour day at Machu Picchu. It has 2 USB inputs and charges our iPhones really fast. It’s a bit bulky, but we get 2-3 charges from it each time. SO worth having.
Anker External Portable Charger: Yes, we take 2 portable chargers on our trip. This one isn’t as long-lasting, but it’s much smaller and lighter. It’s a bit annoying charging 2 every night, but really worth it to have charged phones the entire day.
My Pants: Ever since my days braving the brutal Wellington rain in a suit, I HATE having wet pants. These Columbia pants were perfect to put on over my jeans if I needed, which I only did a couple times. Never got even a drop under them. Well worth it.
My Bag: As I said above, we travel LIGHT. Especially with cheap airlines like Ryanair, where things are expensive, having a versatile bag is a must. This bag is not incredibly nice, but it has a lifetime warranty and it can cinch down to unbelievably small sizes. It’s made it through 4 continents with no problems yet.
Ponchos: Another must for pretty much whenever. Just get something waterproof that won’t blow off immediately.
Towels: I didn’t bring mine to Peru but it would have been nice at the hotpots, because we had to use our hotel towels (sneakily) then didn’t have any the next morning. These ones are awesome because they fold up small and dry incredibly quick. We got an off brand, our friend Loinz has an original Packtowl which he raves about. Your call.
Space Saver Bags: These have proved invaluable on our travels. It’s amazing how small clothing can shrink down to in one of these! Highly recommended.
Outlet Plugs: Of course, when traveling overseas you need a plug
adapter. We’ve had these exact ones for at least 5 years. We’ve taken them to 6 continents and they’re still going strong. And, they’re super cheap and have everything you need all in one, so you don’t have to bring a bunch of different parts. Highly recommended.
Aux Cable: You probably already have a million of these. Most cars we’ve rented have a USB that connected directly to the music, so we could charge our phones and blast tunes at the same time. The longer cable is nice so if someone is in the backseat they can still charge and control the music or navigate or browse Instagram or whatever)
MacBook Air: OK this is probably pushing it for necessities, but I do have to work on the road and it’s perfect to take with us. Small, lightweight, powerful, and mine has a pink cover for good measure.
