Days 4 -12

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Ok, I know I haven’t updated in a while, it’s just been a pain in the ass lately. I’m in a hostel that charges for its internet so I’m trying to be online as little as possible. Quite a few things have happened the past few days. My last day of London was especially good. I started the day by going back to Abbey Road to leave my mark. I wrote on the wall “H.S. Don’t worry mom, you’ll make it here one day!” After that I went down to Buckingham Palace since I didn’t get a very good look at it from the Double Decker Tour. It started raining while I was on my way there. I got some really nice pictures and I think I stumbled upon the changing of the guard, which was cool. After that I went to go see the production of Rainman. Josh Hartnett played Charlie Babbitt and he did a wonderful job. The guy playing Raymond I think sounded a little too “Forrest Gumpish”. But all in all it was an awesome play. After that me and the two girls I was rooming with, Amie and Ashley, went to the hostel bar for some pints. After that we followed a few people over to an Aussie bar called the Walkabout. I got pissed as a fart and had to leave early in the morning. Stupid me. I only got about 3 hours of sleep and I had to be up to catch my train to Edinburgh. The day didn’t start out too well. I woke up a wee bit late and I didn’t pack my things the night before because I was too busy getting wasted. So I had to quickly stuff my bag full of all my crap and get out the door. I got on the underground and I knew I was going to miss my train. I ended up getting to Kings cross just as my train was leaving. I went up to the teller guy and he told me that I had to buy a whole new ticket, which would cost around 105 Pounds. Shitty! But I really didn’t care, I needed to get to Edinburgh. So as I was getting my credit card out, he said “I’ll be right back”. He came back with a little piece of paper stapled to my ticket that said “Authorized Time Change” and he said “I’m not supposed to do this, but you weren’t being difficult with the situation. Go find an empty seat on the 11:00 train”. I could have leaped over the counter and kissed the crap out of that guy! I got on the train and had the longest effing train ride ever! Four and a half hours later, I was in Scotland. It was a bad day. I got out of the train station and I had no idea where to go to catch the shuttle that took me to the hostel. I walked across the North Bridge, which is what the directions said to do. But I was more than lost so I asked a lady where Waterloo Place was. She pointed across the bridge and said “Yes love its right there over on the other side of the bridge”. My heart just sank. I had a 10,000 pound backpack strapped to my back and I had to walk all the way back from where I came from. Finally I find the bus stop where the shuttle picks people up. The van drove up and out popped a really cute, Mika lookalike, all smiles and just really nice. That was the best thing that happened to me all day. So I finally get to my hostel and it’s actually in the middle of nowhere. You pretty much need the shuttle to go to and from the city, which was really alright. At first I was pretty pissed off at this hostel, as they charged for their internet, had no power sockets in the room, and the people that worked there and the long term people didn’t really pay much attention to anyone else but themselves. I didn’t even go out that day. It was a dark, rainy and depressing day so I just stayed in and farted around on here, had a shower, and went to bed. The next day I went into the city and took a double decker tour of Edinburgh. It was a decent day. It rained, but not too hard. I saw all the sights and went off the beaten path to explore through a graveyard that was on the grounds of an old church. Not one of the head stones had a date younger than 1850. It was effing awesome. That was my first British grave yard that I saw. I also had an amazing street vendor hot dog too. After that I went back to the hostel and took a walk along the beach that was right behind it. I found some cool rocks and a bunch of sea glass that I shoved in my pocket. The next day I was setting off to find a way up to Edinburgh Castle. I by chance ran into Neil, the gorgeous shuttle driver from Liverpool, who wasn’t driving the shuttle that day and he told me how to get up to the castle. So I went and I walked the whole way up the Royal Mile, aaaaaaaaaaaaalllll the way up to the castle in the pouring rain. I could tell I was going to get sick but I wanted to see the castle. It was pretty sweet. I walked around a bunch of places and took some pictures, but my camera battery died so I ran a few errands and went back to the hostel, discovering that two guys from the Netherlands had checked into my room. That night I had a shower and did my laundry and stayed up for the better part of the night talking to the Dutch guys about Canada and the Netherlands and stuff. The next morning I was off to Glasgow. It was sad as I was giving Neil my last shuttle ticket. On the way into the city he told me about all the places on Liverpool I should check out. Then I was on the train on the way to Glasgow. I got into the city and found my hostel relatively easy this time. The minute I walked into the room I made friends with a girl named Elizabeth and we went and got fish and chips and we bought some haggis too. It was bloody delicious! We both loved it. Later that night another girl named Tia checked into the room and we all made plans to go on the Loch Ness, Glencoe Highlands Tour the next day. This was the most awesome tour ever. Our tour guide, Tom, looked EXACTLY like my papa. I had to do a double take as I was getting into the van. It was eerie but nice at the same time. The tour was frickin amazing. We went up to Loch Lomond and then up to Glencoe, through Fort William, up to Loch Ness where we took a cruise on the river, and then up to Inverness. After that we made our way back down to Glasgow. It was an awesome tour. Then today I decided that I had to try and phone my Great Aunt Margaret that lives near Glasgow. This is how the conversation went:
“Hi is this Margaret Blackshaw?”
“Yes this is Margaret speaking”
“Hi! Um, this is going to be weird but this is your brother Widdy’s granddaughter, Heather”
“OH MY! How are you doing?”
“I’m good! I just called to let you know that I’m actually in Glasgow right now, And maybe you’d like to meet up or something”
“ Well, I could pick you up in Glasgow. If I take the next bus out I can be there by 1:00!”

After that we worked out where to meet and how to find each other. We finally met up with each other and we went back to her little cottage house in Banton, a teeny tiny little Village in the middle of the hills. I’m seriously in love with this place. Its so little and peaceful and quiet. It’s population is around 750 people. VERY tiny. We had dinner and then watched Coronation Street and then took a walk around the village, which literally took 10 minutes to walk through the entire thing. We stopped off at The Swan, the village pub, that Aunt Margaret and her husband Peter owned quite a few years ago. We had a drink and then came back home, had some cheese toasties and watched the news. I would have to say that tonight has been my favorite night so far on my trip. Before bed, to ease my bitchin cold, she made me a hot totty and I gave me some cold and flu pills. Hopefully I wake up feeling better tomorrow.

Today is the 14th of September and at the moment i'm in Liverpool. I'm here for one night and an afternoon, then i'm on my way to Dublin. It was pretty uneventful today. I woke up this morning, Aunt Margaret made breakfast and then we were on the bus back into Glasgow so i could catch a train to Liverpool. at my station switch I got on the wrong train, but it only ended up being an hour delay so it wasnt that bad. It was a bitch to find the hostel i'm staying in (of coarse) and i'm not even going to unpack my backpack. i'm pretty much here to have a shower, sleep and go on the Magical Mystery tour, then i'm gone. Setting off on another train for almost 3 hours to Holyhead to take the ferry for an hour and a half to Dublin. Lots of traveling for the next couple days. These are the pictures from the past week and a half.

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