Euro trip finale - a shitty start to Scotland that ended in me falling in love
I'd been back home for all of a week when I got itchy feet and booked a train to Edinburgh. I booked 3 nights in the city, then a bus from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and then car hire for a week so that I could do a bit of a roadie whilst up there.
Edinburgh was awesome - bloody cold, but awesome. It was so chilly I ended up having to buy extra clothes!! There is so much history and the streets are incredible - tiny little secret alleyways with exciting names like World's End Close, cobbled streets, spired buildings - it's easy to see where JK Rowling drew her inspiration for Harry Potter from.
I did the free walking tour and really enjoyed it - there was heaps to learn such as the haunted cemetery in Greyfriars, and a water fountain that they used to pin criminals to by their ears - all pretty gory stuff!!
I met a real nice girl called Salma on the tour and we hung out a bit, meeting up to go to a comedy show (when in Edinburgh!) where we got a gift at the end of some lipstick and a condom, a bit random... I hiked up to Arthur's Seat, checked out the museum and went to some art galleries - it was a pretty chill few days.
The hostel I was staying at wasn't the best - it was comfortable enough but a bit of a party hostel and not very friendly. I was woken up at 4am on my last night there by loads of noise, and I was about to moan about the noise when I tuned into what they were saying....they were talking about poo....on the floor.....my brain slowly clicked into gear and I tentatively took a sniff, and OH MY GOD SOMEONE TOOK A LITERAL SHIT ON THE FLOOR!!!!!! I was in shock and didn't know what to do so I buried my head under my covers and tried to pretend nothing had happened whilst the rest of the dorm room complained about the smell and called reception to come and clean it up. Ah man. City hostels. Urgh. The room went from smelling like poo to smelling like bleach and I struggled to get back to sleep.
I woke a few hours later to catch my bus to Glasgow, and from there caught another bus to the airport, and from there, called the car hire company for a transfer to their office to pick up my car. After my shitty (literally) morning, I was excited to get on the road and explore - I had a hostel booked in Fort William where I was planning on doing some hikes.
At the car hire place, they were being extra nice and gave me a free upgrade, which I was slightly suspicious by as we were in a dodgy gravel parking lot in the middle of nowhere, and then I realised why they were being so nice...
I didn't have a credit card, and they needed one to secure the booking - the only way they'd rent me a car was if I paid £300 on top of what I'd already paid and took out the additional insurance. Annoying. Being thetight savvy person that I am, I phoned the broker I'd booked through and asked them if there was anything they could do, and they rather wonderfully agreed to refund me and rebook me with another car hire company who didn't need a credit card, for pretty much the same price - cool!
So I headed back to the airport and settled in for a 3 hour wait whilst they got my car ready....only for them to tell me 3 hours later that they couldn't give me a car, because my UK license is now invalid because the address on it is out of date. And no, there was nothing they could do...
At this point I just burst into tears. The day had started awfully with the shitter, and I'd gone from Edinburgh to Glasgow to Glasgow airport to the car hire place to the airport again only to be told I couldn't hire a car, even though the previous company had no issues with my license and the new company made me wait 3 hours before telling me I couldn't hire a car. I was annoyed, tired, flustered, and had to be in Fort William that evening - a 3 hour drive away and it was already 3pm. That's lots of 3s!
Even though I am a fully grown adult, sometimes you just need to cry on the phone to your Mum, so that's exactly what I did and we considered my options - I was already at the airport so I could fly home, I could stay the night in Glasgow and work out what to do tomorrow, or I could try and make it to Fort William and hitchhike or bus my way around the country.
Flights home were very expensive and felt a bit defeating, there was no cheap accommodation left in Glasgow, so I looked at busses, saw there was a bus at 6pm to Fort William from Glasgow, and so duly got back on to the bus to the city centre and settled in for another 3 hour wait....sigh.
In the mean time I called the broker to ask for yet another refund on the car hire (which they gave me - rentalcars.com are AMAZING) and posted in a facebook backpacker group to see if anyone was doing a similar route to me and wanted company - a long shot I know!!
After leaving Edinburgh at 730am that morning and six bus trips later, I FINALLY rolled into Fort William at 930pm and fell promptly asleep.
In the morning a miracle happened - an Aussie called Will saw my FB post and had picked up a car the day before and was doing pretty much the same route I wanted to do and was happy to take me with him - SCORE!!!
So he came to pick me up, I checked he wasn't a serial killer, and we trundled on up to the Isle of Skye - which, by the way, is mind blowing.
The weather wasn't the best, but it didn't really matter because the place was just so frickin beautiful. We did a hike up to a waterfall which was stunning, and had a lot of drives because it was too rainy to get out - when the rain did stop, we went to Neist Point lighthouse where it was so windy the waterfalls were flying back on themselves, a really interesting sight.
The next few days were spent dodging rain and lots of car time, but the journey was absolutely stunning, even in the rain. We drove to a hostel in the middle of nowhere - Achvraie, taking the scenic route along the NC500. The mountains were insanely beautiful and made me well up inside. The hostel was adorable - no internet, very cosy, thick stone walls and bathrooms you had to go outside to get to - very old school. I'd love to go back there with a bunch of friends, booze, board games and food.
We carried on to Inverness and stayed at a youth hostel there that felt very horror movie vibes, then the Cairngorms, and eventually back to Edinburgh where we hit a comedy club before parting ways.
Scotland was BEAUTIFUL and I cannot wait to go back and spend more time there.
I used BlaBlaCar to find a ride to Manchester to stop off and see my good friend Cesca - I haven't seen her since she had her kiddo Joseph so was very excited to meet him. BlaBlaCar is pretty awesome - you sign up and say where you want to go, and it matches you with people doing similar rides to you (also works if you're heading somewhere and want to share the car). I ended up paying £25 for a door to door car ride with some wonderful Greek people whereas I could have got a train for more than double that and it would have taken even longer.
It was SOOOO nice to see Cesca and David again - and to meet the little human they created!! Honestly it blows my mind how my friends now have kids. The weekend was spent catching up in the company of good friends and dog walks - it was pretty wonderful.
Then back home to Kent, where I spent some more time with family and Sepha, a quick weekend in Paris to visit Becky, before hopping back on a plane to Auckland.
I was nervous to go back - I was going back to nothing - no job, no house, but also very ready - I'd had my fill of family and England and bouncing from place to place, and was looking forward to some stability. I was also interested to see how it would feel when I landed - I distinctly remember last time that it felt like home, and I wasn't sure how much of that was tied up with Aric. But I breathed a sigh of relief when it still felt like home when I landed this time too - so that's a nice sign.
Edinburgh was awesome - bloody cold, but awesome. It was so chilly I ended up having to buy extra clothes!! There is so much history and the streets are incredible - tiny little secret alleyways with exciting names like World's End Close, cobbled streets, spired buildings - it's easy to see where JK Rowling drew her inspiration for Harry Potter from.
I did the free walking tour and really enjoyed it - there was heaps to learn such as the haunted cemetery in Greyfriars, and a water fountain that they used to pin criminals to by their ears - all pretty gory stuff!!
I met a real nice girl called Salma on the tour and we hung out a bit, meeting up to go to a comedy show (when in Edinburgh!) where we got a gift at the end of some lipstick and a condom, a bit random... I hiked up to Arthur's Seat, checked out the museum and went to some art galleries - it was a pretty chill few days.
The hostel I was staying at wasn't the best - it was comfortable enough but a bit of a party hostel and not very friendly. I was woken up at 4am on my last night there by loads of noise, and I was about to moan about the noise when I tuned into what they were saying....they were talking about poo....on the floor.....my brain slowly clicked into gear and I tentatively took a sniff, and OH MY GOD SOMEONE TOOK A LITERAL SHIT ON THE FLOOR!!!!!! I was in shock and didn't know what to do so I buried my head under my covers and tried to pretend nothing had happened whilst the rest of the dorm room complained about the smell and called reception to come and clean it up. Ah man. City hostels. Urgh. The room went from smelling like poo to smelling like bleach and I struggled to get back to sleep.
I woke a few hours later to catch my bus to Glasgow, and from there caught another bus to the airport, and from there, called the car hire company for a transfer to their office to pick up my car. After my shitty (literally) morning, I was excited to get on the road and explore - I had a hostel booked in Fort William where I was planning on doing some hikes.
At the car hire place, they were being extra nice and gave me a free upgrade, which I was slightly suspicious by as we were in a dodgy gravel parking lot in the middle of nowhere, and then I realised why they were being so nice...
I didn't have a credit card, and they needed one to secure the booking - the only way they'd rent me a car was if I paid £300 on top of what I'd already paid and took out the additional insurance. Annoying. Being the
So I headed back to the airport and settled in for a 3 hour wait whilst they got my car ready....only for them to tell me 3 hours later that they couldn't give me a car, because my UK license is now invalid because the address on it is out of date. And no, there was nothing they could do...
At this point I just burst into tears. The day had started awfully with the shitter, and I'd gone from Edinburgh to Glasgow to Glasgow airport to the car hire place to the airport again only to be told I couldn't hire a car, even though the previous company had no issues with my license and the new company made me wait 3 hours before telling me I couldn't hire a car. I was annoyed, tired, flustered, and had to be in Fort William that evening - a 3 hour drive away and it was already 3pm. That's lots of 3s!
Even though I am a fully grown adult, sometimes you just need to cry on the phone to your Mum, so that's exactly what I did and we considered my options - I was already at the airport so I could fly home, I could stay the night in Glasgow and work out what to do tomorrow, or I could try and make it to Fort William and hitchhike or bus my way around the country.
Flights home were very expensive and felt a bit defeating, there was no cheap accommodation left in Glasgow, so I looked at busses, saw there was a bus at 6pm to Fort William from Glasgow, and so duly got back on to the bus to the city centre and settled in for another 3 hour wait....sigh.
In the mean time I called the broker to ask for yet another refund on the car hire (which they gave me - rentalcars.com are AMAZING) and posted in a facebook backpacker group to see if anyone was doing a similar route to me and wanted company - a long shot I know!!
After leaving Edinburgh at 730am that morning and six bus trips later, I FINALLY rolled into Fort William at 930pm and fell promptly asleep.
In the morning a miracle happened - an Aussie called Will saw my FB post and had picked up a car the day before and was doing pretty much the same route I wanted to do and was happy to take me with him - SCORE!!!
So he came to pick me up, I checked he wasn't a serial killer, and we trundled on up to the Isle of Skye - which, by the way, is mind blowing.
The weather wasn't the best, but it didn't really matter because the place was just so frickin beautiful. We did a hike up to a waterfall which was stunning, and had a lot of drives because it was too rainy to get out - when the rain did stop, we went to Neist Point lighthouse where it was so windy the waterfalls were flying back on themselves, a really interesting sight.
The next few days were spent dodging rain and lots of car time, but the journey was absolutely stunning, even in the rain. We drove to a hostel in the middle of nowhere - Achvraie, taking the scenic route along the NC500. The mountains were insanely beautiful and made me well up inside. The hostel was adorable - no internet, very cosy, thick stone walls and bathrooms you had to go outside to get to - very old school. I'd love to go back there with a bunch of friends, booze, board games and food.
We carried on to Inverness and stayed at a youth hostel there that felt very horror movie vibes, then the Cairngorms, and eventually back to Edinburgh where we hit a comedy club before parting ways.
Scotland was BEAUTIFUL and I cannot wait to go back and spend more time there.
I used BlaBlaCar to find a ride to Manchester to stop off and see my good friend Cesca - I haven't seen her since she had her kiddo Joseph so was very excited to meet him. BlaBlaCar is pretty awesome - you sign up and say where you want to go, and it matches you with people doing similar rides to you (also works if you're heading somewhere and want to share the car). I ended up paying £25 for a door to door car ride with some wonderful Greek people whereas I could have got a train for more than double that and it would have taken even longer.
It was SOOOO nice to see Cesca and David again - and to meet the little human they created!! Honestly it blows my mind how my friends now have kids. The weekend was spent catching up in the company of good friends and dog walks - it was pretty wonderful.
Then back home to Kent, where I spent some more time with family and Sepha, a quick weekend in Paris to visit Becky, before hopping back on a plane to Auckland.
I was nervous to go back - I was going back to nothing - no job, no house, but also very ready - I'd had my fill of family and England and bouncing from place to place, and was looking forward to some stability. I was also interested to see how it would feel when I landed - I distinctly remember last time that it felt like home, and I wasn't sure how much of that was tied up with Aric. But I breathed a sigh of relief when it still felt like home when I landed this time too - so that's a nice sign.
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