Well Scotland is quite something! Edinburgh was one of the most beautiful cities I have seen, in my limited experience. Cobblestone streets and buildings that have seen the likes of hundreds of years, weathered and worn. Beautiful, happy people...really just a damn good time. We set off for The Calcutta Cup which is the rugby game between arch rivals, England and Scotland. I also had a separate agenda of finding the equivalent of Scottish born Gerard Butler and having him fall in love with me in under 48 hours and proposing to me in the castle....
Hmmm.... *sigh*......
I was itching to get out of work on Friday and basically bounced the whole walk home because I was so excited for my first bit of European travelling. The whole trip seemed to be defined by "just made it in the nick of time" type moments. By the time my flatmate and I left the house we realized it was too late to take the tube because we would have had to switch trains and what not. We had to take a train from Kings Cross to Luton Airport, so we decided to take a cab to the station. To our dismay, when we walked in there was a horrifically long line for tickets... and our train was going to leave in 7 minutes. Shari ran over to a rather portly, balding, worker and after just a few seconds, waved me over. After working her charms ever so cleverly, the man let us jump the line and we literally RAN down to the train and the doors closed right after we jumped on, panting from the full on sprint. We got to the airport with literally 15 minutes to spare before our flight left, and were the last ones on the plane! It was a close one all the way around...
I have heard people gush about staying at hostels for years, but have never had the experience myself. After imagining it for so long, I suppose I had morphed the concept into some sort of twilight zone experience. Well let me tell you...I wasn't that far off!
As soon as I walked in the door of Castle Rock Hostel (voted number 10 in the world) I fell in love. Suits of armor populate the corners and funky pictures of castle-esque themes adorn the walls. And the people are incredible and are all there for the same purpose. Because they are young, love to travel, experience new things, and have a lets get crunk kinda time.
So basically... it's college life, frozen in these little accommodations all over the world. And it is fan-freaking-tastic!
This was how night #1 went....
We went out shortly after arriving and made our way down to a stretch of pubs on a street below the hostel. Some French men joined our table and chatted with us for a good hour or two. They also were in town because of the Rugby game and 16 of them had traveled to Edinburgh for their friends bachelor party (whom they managed to pressure into wearing a kilt the entire time). They also pretty much saved our entire weekend by informing us that the game was actually on Saturday, as opposed to Sunday like we thought. WOW. That could have been TRAGIC. Thank God for the Frenchmen!
We then travelled down the lane to Biddy Mulligans, which we became "regulars" at in just a short weekend. Several pints and a jagerbomb later, I remember a strange young man with a bic'd head, his older awkward friend, and the whole pub breaking out into song every ten minutes. Scottish people LOVE to sing... they sing all the time, in unison. It was one of my favorite things about Edinburgh.
Back at the hostel, Shari was talking to the front desk guy (she has been at this hostel before) and I made my way to the Great Room. Think of it as a student lounge in college....aka the most freaking fun you could ever possibly have. It was like a straight shot of "youth" mainlined into the crick of my arm. I found my way to the nearest couch where a bunch of people were just hanging out. Met some guys from Romania and Spain... who were pretty cool... at least i think they were. I know we talked about my motorcycle, each others homelands, and what brought us to the hostel. At the young hour of...oh, hmmm.... about 5AM I finally crawled up to bed and didn't have to wait long for slumber to find me.
Day #2:
Went back to Biddy Mulligans for breakfast (bangin omelets). I wasn't moving too fast because I over did it on the "fun" the night before. Explored some cute shops picked up a souvenir or two, including my beloved travel gnome key chain which ended up being stolen from a bathroom (long story). Then we caught a bus and made our way to Murrayfield stadium for the gameeee!!
On the top of a double decker bus, we got the birds eye view of tens of thousands of people... half of them who were men in kilts... all making their way towards the stadium. Just like the Pats game we went to...the seats were FAB!
I had been praying all day that this would be the day I met my Gerard look-a-like...and while we were walking to our seats, I happened to catch the eye of the man I would be sitting next to. And he...he was....about the farthest from Gerard Butler one could get :( . Not even remotely close to Gerard. He was basically the complete and total opposite of him. What could have been my future husband, was actually five rows down from me, but because the universe hates my life, it wasn't destined to be. The only good part about sitting next to him was that he gave me his Scottish hat, and offered to buy me a drink. However, he came back with no drinks because he said the Police arrested him outside because they thought he was someone else. Riiiggghhhtttt. As Shari called him... "dodgy" very "dodgy". Unattractive AND a potential criminal, sweet! I was then harassed for my phone number and to have a drink with him after the game...luckily with some slick maneuvers I was able to escape that little scenario.
The game itself was rather boring as far as rugby games go. And even more anticlimactic was the fact that no one won. It was a tie! But the experience was phenomenal in itself. Hearing 60,000 Scottish people sing in unison, several times was pretty awesome. I really like the sport and hope to get more into it in my time here. After the game, went and had some Italian, then went back and passed out cold because my body said I wasn't allowed two nights in a row of all that fun.
Day # 3
Spent all day exploring the city. Architecturally breathtaking, with views of castles on every street and just a really cool old-world feel. One of those places where the structures seem to tell a story of the years gone by.
I was dreading the overnight bus trip back to London that left at 10pm. I'm not the type of individual that finds it easy to sleep on public transportation. So I thought it was a fantastic idea to do a pub crawl in order to make myself "drowsy" enough to sleep. Fast forward through six Scottish pubs later and I'm trailing behind Shari, backpack in tow, late for our bus, singing the "I would walk 500 miles" song in a poorly imitated Scottish accent the whole way.
Needless to say, I did sleep on the bus. Pretty much for the entire 10 hour ride. Arrived back in London at nearly 8am, managed to run home, shower and run to work by about 9:30. That was not a pleasant day.
So all in all, BOMB weekend. SO fun!! I am a traveller to my core and intend on doing a whole lot more of it!
Stay tuned for more adventures...and hopefully soon to come...another update on the job!
No comments:
Post a Comment