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Published: February 18th 2008
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Self-explanatory. This past weekend I flew to Edinburgh for Max's 21st birthday. It was the first trip I've taken by myself (I've always been with friends for previous adventures) and I'm surprised how easy it all was. I was out of my apartment by 6:30am on Friday morning - still very dark outside so it's a miracle I woke up at all. The sun doesn't rise in Dublin til almost 8 some mornings. I took the Luas (the tram) to the city centre and from there caught a bus to the airport. I live in Dundrum, which is a 15 minute ride from the centre. I had prepared myself for long security lines and general hassle at the airport but was pleasantly surprised; I checked in with the Easy Check-In machine and was through security in only a few minutes. In fact I've never been treated so kindly by airport security (the Irish charm prevails!). I got coffee and breakfast and it's a good thing I did, as I soon discovered my flight was delayed. Luckily we only had to wait for a half hour or so. The flight itself was only 40 minutes and mostly I listened to the family behind
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Atop Edinburgh Castle, the view of the city. me argue over the correct pronunciation of "Edinburgh" (it's Ed-in-burr-ah). Since Scotland is part of the EU, I didn't have to go through immigration or customs (alas, no new stamp in my passport, I confess I was looking forward to that) and so just a few moments after landing, I was on a bus to the Edinburgh city centre, about 25 minutes away.
Max and his parents met me at the stop, and after a happy little reunion we spent some time wandering the New Town area with its shops, kiltmakers, and pubs. We tried to eat lunch at The Elephant House, the cafe where J.K. Rowling first began writing Harry Potter, but it was packed, so we ate in the Scottish History Museum's cafe instead. (I declined haggis successfully all weekend, the traditional Scottish dish of god knows what, you're not supposed to ask). After that, we made our way to the High Street Hostel so I could check in. A hostel, if you're wondering, provides supercheap dorm-room style accommodations for students and travelers...and no, I haven't seen the movie. Often hostels can be pretty sketchy, and compounded by the fact I was traveling alone, I asked Max
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High Street (I think). to get some local recommendations, and he definitely came through. I slept in a 10-bed, all-female dormitory and was thrilled with the security, the quality, the breakfast, the free internet, etc. It felt more like a bed & breakfast.
The rest of the day included a open-top double decker bus tour of the city, St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, and a whisky tasting tour at a nearby distillery where we got to sample different kinds of Scotch. We had dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant (I had spaghetti carbonara....Mom's is better) and then went to various pubs for some drinks. I'm proud to say I represented Ireland with a pint of Guinness (although it doesn't taste as good there) and then everyone walked me back to the hostel for a few hours of sleep. The other girls in my room were American, Spanish, and French, but I think they were as exhausted as I was, and we didn't talk much. I had a hard time falling asleep at first, as the hostel was located on a very busy street and once the pubs let out things were noisy, but overall it was a very comfortable night, better than expected.
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On board the Britannia. Saturday morning came quickly. After a highly necessary stop at Starbucks, we hopped on another bus tour, this time to visit the Scottish Parliament building (interesting architecture) and the Holyrood Castle, the Queen's residence when she is in Scotland. The entire time I muttered jokes about Home Rule and 800 years of English oppression, but it was fascinating nonetheless. After lunch and tea came the tour of the former Royal Yacht, the Britannia, with a self-guided audio tour that we mostly ignored; instead we had a great time taking pictures and making comparisons to the Titanic. We ate at a Mexican restaurant for dinner, which I was thrilled about considering you can't get good Mexican food in Dublin whatsoever. We had margaritas and then raced to try and make it to a literary pub crawl, but we missed it. Instead we did some pub hopping of our own, even visiting Edinburgh's most famous, Greyfriars, and toasted Max on his rather irrelevant birthday (the drinking age here, of course, is 18). We also walked through the University of Edinburgh campus to see Max's dorm room, an incredibly long walk in the cold, but we ducked into a fish n' chips
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Hamish, the Highland cow. place for a deep fried Mars Bar to take the edge off. Most. Delicious. Candy. Ever. That night in the hostel I made friends with some Malaysians before crashing, this time complete with ear plugs.
Sunday morning I was awake at 6:30am again to catch a bus tour through the Highlands. Unfortunately, appallingly, Starbucks was CLOSED when we stampeded in. A quick stop elsewhere for breakfast croissants helped a bit. The tour lasted from 8am to 8pm, and we meandered through the Glencoe mountains with various photostops along the way including Urquhart Castle. The Scottish countryside is gorgeous, and we had beautiful weather so that the mountaintops were reflected in the lakes. We stopped in one of the many giftshops and I picked up a Scottish plaid blanket (tartan kilt pattern). The best part was Loch Ness! We took a boat, the Jakubite Sprit, across for a 30 minute ride, but I'm sorry to report....no Nessie. Our bus driver was decked out in a green kilt and literally for the entire 8 hours did not cease talking. I realize that it's his job to talk, but still! By the end of the day, all I could hear was Shrek's
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Urquhart Castle. voice. 😊 When he stopped for a (rare) breath, he would play Scottish music, so needless to say it was a stimulating trip. I was worried about getting sick considering the twists and turns, but thank god I didn't! We were exhausted by the time we made it back to the city centre, but we stopped to have a glass of red wine and review everyone's pictures and take some final photos. It was absolutely wonderful to see people from home, and Max and I made plans for him to come to Dublin in a few weeks for my birthday, so I can't wait.
My Aer Lingus flight back to Dublin was delayed too, so I whiled away an hour or so on the runway by reading a library book which I subsequently left on the plane. Oops. One of my friends in my program surprisingly ended up on the same flight back, so we stuck with each other for the trip back to Dundrum. It's a gorgeous, warm day here and I'm having a cup of tea as I write this. I'll post all the pictures soon on Shutterfly, I took about a hundred myself.
Slán go
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Loch Ness! fóill
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Charlie
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Lovin' it!
Thanks for this fantastic account of your weekend in Scotland. It's sounds like you're having an amazing time. LOL at the Shrek comment.