It’s been an awesomely crazy 3 days [:D].

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The 29th was a boring day but a fantastic night. During the day I thought I better figure where I’m going and what I’m doing for my couple of days in between Edinburgh and Glasgow. I had a few options: Isle of Skye/Lewis/Mull or I could go to the highlands. I reviewed all my options and how easy it was to get to them, accommodation available, etc. After many hours of research I had narrowed the choice down to either Isle of Skye or Inverness which is the hub of travellers before venturing in to the highlands. I decided I would sleep on it and figure it out tomorrow.
I met the Irish again in the bar downstairs of the hostel, they bought a couple of pitchers and I ended up having a few pints out of it 😊. We sat in the pub chatting and getting drunk for a few hours and then we all went out for Karen’s (one of the Irish girls) birthday. We all made our way towards a club called Stereophonic, too find it was closed. We turned the other direction and went towards the main club strip, along the way we were handed some free entry cards to a club that, I’ll quote the card, a punk funk electronic disco…wtf! We went and it wasn’t bad, I’ve been to better clubs but I have definitely been to worse. I had a blast though, just meeting and speaking to all the Irish people! It was really cool as they were all so friendly, a few of them supplied me with drinks, Hugh (the guy I ended up chatting to the most) was like “I understand you’re a backpacker and I’m not rich but I can find money” and gave me some money to buy a beer. A couple of other bought me a few beers and vodka/lemonades, oh…such nice and happy people the Irish are. We all left the club at 3am when it closed (everything closes at around 3am, CRAZY!) and went back to the hostel, we ended hanging out in the “Chill out Room” till around 5am and then hit the hay. I got happily tipsy had a big night and it didn’t’ cost me a cent, now that’s backpacking for ya 😄.
I didn’t rise from my beauty slumber until noon as the big night had certainly taken it out of me. I decided today I would go and see the Edinburgh castle so around 1pm I made my way up there. Along the way the weather made a turn for the worse and it started raining on and off, when I got the castle and saw there was a big arse line I was like “I’m not lining up for god knows how long in the RAIN!”. I turned around and went back to the hostel and decided I would cement and arrange all transport for the next few weeks of travel. I had spoken to a few of the Irish that were stationed on Isle of Skye as they are doing some geological mapping for uni, and they said that Skye gives you the highlands as well as the beautiful Isle of Skye. But I booked my hostel for Inverness as it was heaps cheaper and I’m going to book a day tour that will cover the Isle of Skye 😄. After a couple of hours I was all set and happy as I don’t have to worry about anything for a few weeks. I went and had a nap and when I woke up a few of the Irish were returning from their day out, they said they were going to grab some dinner so I joined them as I hadn’t had a good feed in around 2 months! We went to a Chinese restaurant called Jimmy Chung’s and man oh man was it good! An all you can eat buffet of really good Chinese food that also had a dessert bar 😄. I had 3 huge plates of food, a few desserts and then fruit salad, I was absolutely stuffed and it was GOOOOOOOD! As soon as we got back I had to lay down or I felt I would explode. Once my food had settled I headed down to the bar as I knew that’s where the Irish would be and “to be sure, to be sure” they were 😜. I met and had some decent conversations with some people I hadn’t properly met the night before, it was really cool. Everyone was going out again and I said I would go out for a bit, just to let you know I didn’t get to bed till 4am . First we went to a place called “Frankenstein’s” which was decked out like a creepy laboratory, the place was absolutely dead (no pun intended) so we stayed just for 1 drink. Next on the list was “The Tron”, I expected it to be super retro like from the movie Tron, it wasn’t but it was still really cool. It played good music and had a nice open area. I bought myself a strawberry beer which tasted like a strawberry milkshake, it was good to begin with but it just became too much but I did manage to finish it. Next was a club called “The Hive” but it should have been labelled “The Dive”. Each room had a different bad smell, one smelt like feet another sort of like urine and another was sweat. The last dance floor was so damn hot and humid from sweat, the music was awful but most people were having fun, the DJ seemed that she hadn’t grown out of her 90’s teen phase as that was all she played…ridiculous. I still had a great night; it’s ALL about who you’re with not so much where you are. I ended up speaking to a guy called Frank quite a bit about music and video games, 2 things I love so we got on well. It was so funny listening to him pull the piss out his girlfriend Helen the whole night…poor girl. It got to about 3am and I decided I would leave and started saying my goodbyes but then I found that we all had to leave as the club was closing anyway! Yet again a bunch of us headed back and hung out in The Chill out room, watched cops and spoke crap. Bed at 4am…SHIT the sun is up!! And I can hear the fucking birds chirping! GOOD NIGHT!
Today all the Irish were heading off so I got up at 9.30am to say good bye. I had booked my castle ticket over the net yesterday so I didn’t have to line-up and I found that a few of the Irish were going to go to the castle before they left so we were going to go together. We had a coffee and waited for Bridget to get back from getting her lip pierced? Then we set off to get some food and then hit up the castle. We found after all the waiting around that the Irish that were going to come with me now didn’t have the time. I said my good byes to the remained of them and continued to the castle. The castle was EPIC! 😊 It was so cool, the entry came with a free 30 minute tour which was good to get orientated within the castle and get a few cool facts about the castle. I went to all the different exhibitions and rooms and got to see the memorial to the fallen Scottish soldiers, the crown jewels of Scotland, the coronation stone (aka “The Stone of Destiny”). It was beautiful and old, the views were amazing, I don’t really know how to say it…it was just excellent. After the castle I headed back to my hostel to collect my bags, as I had to change hostels due to not booking enough nights and the one I Was in (St. Christopher’s Hostel) was full. I grabbed my stuff and moved to the Caledonian hostel, a few of the Irish had told me it was a horrible dirty place but when I arrived I was pleasantly surprised. It’s actually a really cool place, big bar, big kitchen, bathrooms are reasonably clean…nice! 😊 I had some food, watched some TV shows and went to sleep as all the partying over the last few days was wearing on me.

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Photos

The 7th gate
The gate with the spike on it is the furthest any army ever came to entering the castle. It's the 7th of 8 gates to enter the main part of the castle.

Crazy roof
Looks like the hull of a boat