Scotland Adventures: Bus Tours & Monty Python Castle

On our third day in Edinburgh we were scheduled for an all day bus tour. Edinburgh is great but we wanted to see as much of Scotland as possible and so that required a trip out of the city. We booked a tour of Loch Lomond a great loch out of the city that showed the amazing Scottish countryside. It included a stop at the Loch and also a stop at a castle, how could we say no?

We got up early and walked to the Royal Mile to Haggis Adventure Tour (yes that is it’s real name). We met up with our tour guide/bus driver this awesome woman named Jill/Gill, never did find out the proper spelling of her name. She introduced herself and where we would be going and soon we were off!…..well we would have been except we had to take a slight detour. Apparently this school group that was named Team Argentina was supposed to be on this tour but were either to stupid or to entitled to realize that they had to go to the tour office, they though they would be picked up. Well team Argentina must have dropped some serious money because we did in fact pick them up. I thought it was amazing and very nice of the tour company to do so, seriously could you see any Boston tour going out of there way to pick you up because you were too stupid to go to the pick up point? They would laugh there ass off then drive away. But we were not in Boston so we did in fact pick them up. So once the surly and bored Argentinian youths we were finally off!

Once we were on the road the view slowly changed, from lots of buildings to lots of sheep. Seriously there are sheep everywhere in the country! While on the road tour guide Jill was awesome she would either tell us about historical events or people that happened the areas we were driving through or she would play Scottish music from her iPod, music that would range from traditional to modern it was sort of amazing. Our first stop was at the William Wallace monument. William Wallace was a proud Scottish hero but most people know him as Mel Gibson in Braveheart. However tour guide Jill told us about how he and Robert the Bruce fought Edward the Second and the battles he was in, it was really fascinating. We sadly could not go up to the monument because it was to early but it sure looked nice we also got tea which was also nice.

By mid day we made our way to Loch Lomond. Because it is a big Loch we arrived in the middle of a quaint little town. The rest of the group paid money to go on a boat tour but we did not feel like paying 10 pounds for a hour boat tour, so instead we took a very nice walk. It was quite pleasant we had some snacks, took some pictures and saw so many happy doggies it was really great. 
After our nice walk we boarded up again and continued on our tour.

As we were on our way to our castle stop, we pulled over to take some more photos of the country side when we made some new friends. 

Highland Cows!! Or as there called Heilan’ Coo! They are like regular cows just shaggier. They came right up to our group and were awesome! I got to pet one and Becca got licked and almost friendly gored by one. They even had baby coos as well! After saying good bye to the lovely Coos we were off again.

Our final stop on the tour was Doune Castle. Doune Castle has been around since the Thirteenth Century,  however Doune castle is most famously remembered for being in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was used in the scene with the French soldiers and the Trojan Rabbit. That little fact aside it’s a great looking castle, very well maintained and had a lovely view from the top.

There was much rejoicing for being at the castle…..Yayyy.

With the castle done our tour was over and we made our way back to the city. We made sure to thank tour guide Jill and gave her an awesome review. We decided to end the night with a visit to yet another pub!

This pub is called Cloisters  and I think it was my favorite pub of the entire trip. The reason it’s called Cloisters is because it was in fact a real cloister of a church. The church is still there today they just decided to turn the cloister into a pub. It was small but not cramped and had a very home like atmosphere. Also Cloisters had a ton of different local brews on tap and it was sort of like a game on which one to pick. We had a lovely night catching up with Becca’s friend Sam. And with another pub down we were done with our third day of Scotland.

Scotland Adventures: Onward Timmy to Adventure!

So our second day in Edinburgh was not nearly as rushed or crazed on time as the previous day so we decided that today would be a day for wandering and exploration. After a nice breakfast and a good cup of tea (yes tea is a real thing here) we headed out and started our wanderings.

Edinburgh is comprised into two parts; old town and new town. Old town is the part of Edinburgh since the begging and where you will see a lot of the historical and more classical European designed buildings. New town started popping up at around the early 1800′s and looks a little different. Still has a lot of very nicely and historical buildings but was planned better in terms of placement of buildings and locations. To give it some perspective Old town is designed a little like Boston where buildings rose up as history occurred but was not really planned, where as New Town is a little like New York City, sort of in a grid pattern and much easier to get around. So our hostel is located in old town so we decided to explore new town.

As we made our way over Becca suggested we check out Calton Hill, a nice park/historical site that has a great view of Edinburgh. Calton Hill is a park, but also has an old observatory a memorial to Admril Nelson and even a Greek style temple that turns out is a national monument. Also yea the view is pretty awesome. One side you can see the city on the other side was our next destination this hugggge mountain called Arthurs Seat.

After some much needed food (Haggis!) we made our way to Arthurs Seat. Now the picture really does not do it justice you think it’s big when your far away, but as you get closer you see just how massive this mountain is. There are different levels of how high you can go. From sort of high to holy freaking god that’s high. While we were willing our shoes and feet were not. We hiked a good 45 mins and reached a decent bight and claimed ourselves victors!

It took a little bit but we made our way back down and Becca wanted to show us around her old stomping grounds. We made our way back to Old Town and relaxed with a few pints. Afterwards Becca showed us her old flat and one of her favorite Indian Take Aways. She showed us this great field that all the university kids hang out at called the Meadows. It reminded me of Boston Commons except with a lot more high university kids. Also a cool thing about Edinburgh is you can barbecue and drink in public so there were a ton of small barbecues going on and a lot of public drinking. With our food Becca insisted this drink which is the top soft drink in Edinburgh something called Irn Bru.

Now apparently Irn Bru has been around in Scotland for what feels like forever. It is the one soft drink that is more popular then coke over there and Becca insisted I tired it. Well I took a sip and this was my reaction

It took me a very long time to properly identify what it felt like I was tasting. After five minutes it came to me it tasted like liquid bubble gum. It was really interesting I didn’t hate it but I don’t know how much I would jones for it. Becca described its like Moxie some people love it and some people think it’s the most vial disgusting horrid death liquid you could ever drink. Guess which camp I’m in?

After Indian Takeaway was achieved we had one last thing to do for the night and that was to go on a haunted ghost tour. Becca had been on this one in the past mentioned how good it was, so that didn’t take much to convince us. We went down to the Royal Mile and purchased tickets with City of The Dead and there ghost tour of Greyfriars graveyard and The Mackenzie Poltergeist. Our tour was led by this awesome tour guide Gerry (with a G). He was funny, insane in the good way, and looked like David Tennant so basically a perfect tour guide. He brought us to the graveyard where he had to contractually tell us this story of the most famous dog in Scotland ever by the name of Bobby. I will not go into detail because Bobby the dog is told alllll the time, if your interested look it up but poor Gerry with a G had to tell the whole story man did he hate that dog. Once that was out of the way then we got into the good stuff. He told us about Edinburgh’s history and how the graveyard became what it did today. I learned about exactly just how many people are hurried there (a whole hell of a lot) and how the graveyard has inspired a full number of artists and writers such as Bran Stoker, Mary Shelling, and even J.K. Rowling. It was actually in Greyfriars where she found the grave that inspired the name for Tom Riddle

I also learned a huge ton of Scotland’s bloody past and about George Mackenzie. Seriously wiki this guy and Greyfriars and you will understand why this place is haunted. We went into a sectioned off area of the grave called Covenanters Prison (were the concept of the concentration camp was originated), where supposedly the poltergeist can be, and while there was no attacks the place was so spooky I could believe something went down there. Tour guide Gerry with a G also told us this hilarious story about a homeless man Mackenzie’s tomb and a security guard and I can now totally believe why it’s haunted. The tour was amazing the only sucky part was at the end a guy jumps out and goes boo! Apparently people have complained to City of the Dead of not being scared that they had to put that in. Personally I don’t think it was necessary but ah well. Seriously to anyone reading this if you are in Edinburgh for any reason go on this tour historical, funny, spooky, and fantastic!

With that last act of the night done, we decided to have one final pint at this pub called The Last Drop. The last drop is very cool it stands on a part of Edinburgh called The Grass Market. Way back when The Grass Market used to be the site for public hangings so The Last Drop was there because supposedly that is where they would take the condemned for there last dram of whiskey before hanging. So pretty awesome that it’s still there today.

And with that last pint we concluded our 2nd day in Edinburgh. Not bad for a second day on Holiday.

Scotland Adventure!: Getting to Edinburgh!

Greetings everyone! First off apologies all around. I really wanted to update everyday however wifi is a spotty and rare thing for us us this week. I’ve either had no access to Internet or I have had crazy hours and really did not have time to update. However! I now have some time so it here we go with the adventures!

So last Thursday I met up with my friends Kate and Becca and said goodbye to Boston and made our way out towards Scotland. One quick layover in Newark, New Jersey and we were airborne and out of the country. Sadly the overnight could have gone better. Thanks to Continental’s weird seats I could not really sleep at all but whatever I was too excited to really care. We arrived in Edinburgh at around 10:30 am which meant it felt like 5:30 back home. As we were taking our bus into the city, I forgot how wonderful the countryside looks. As we got closer and closer we saw more unique and very European buildings, until finally we saw it

Edinburgh Castle right there smack dab in the middle of the city. I’ve seen photos before but they really not convey how amazing and grand this castle looks. It’s also the most central place of the entire city and can be easily seen almost anywhere. Its like instead of having The Prudential Center in the middle of Boston it’s a big freaking castle……oh if only.

We proceeded to walk to our hostel. We stayed here

I’ve never stayed in a hostel before but I was really pleased with this place. It was very affordable for our entire stay, the rooms are big and private, clean linens and clean modern bathrooms. Also all the workers there are friendly Scottish kids with tattoos and piercings which I just liked personally. Another great thing about this hostel was it’s location it’s pretty much right near the center of town, very close to prince street and the royal mile, also legit a 5 min walk away from the castle. We checked in stored our luggage and we we’re immediately off towards the castle.

Like I said the castle is big, it’s also very grand and just so intimidating in a way. I’ve been to maybe one or two castles before but this one has been the most impressive by far, also the view of the city is amazing!

We spent about over two hours exploring the different areas, from it’s great hall to secret chambers and there impressive war memorial. We also got a chance to see The Scottish Crown Jewels. They were really amazing and I was really struck by how old they are and just how ornate they are. The crown is what you would expect a crow too look like but it’s the details yes those are all diamonds or jewels encrusted in that thing, yes that is real gold despite the fact that it looks like that yellow plastic you would find at a costume shop. The entire castle was just so full of history we got our learnings on hardcore.

After our time was done from the castle Becca showed us around the city for a bit. She used to live there for university and it was nice having someone around to show us different places also so Kate and I didn’t have to wander around lost like dumb tourists. We were able to meet up with Beccas friend Sam for a nice dinner and then to cap off the night at this great pub called Sandy Bells.

The pub was this wonderful local place that was packed full of happy laughing people. Also what’s cool is every night they have different people come in and play live folk music, it made everything just about perfect. It was the perfect end to our first day in Scotland, and that was just the first day. Once. I find some more wifi I will update again. Until the

ADVENTURE!!!