Haggis, Castles, Lochs, Scotch and Shortbread….Check!
I left Florence via train at 1:57pm on Thursday. I arrived at the Pisa airport where I had my first Ryan Air experience. Known for being dirt cheap, Ryan Air defies what I have come to know as conventional airline travel. Everyday is free form Friday with this company. Exactly two hours before take off the ticketing counter will open to only passengers of that flight. We all know how psycho people get when they travel so I am sure it is easy to imagine the frenzy that occurs when the sign above the counter goes green. Now add Europeans general disregard for personal space and their poor line-up etiquette. This same fiasco also occurred when the boarding gate opened since seating is done on a first come, first served basis. After boarding the obnoxious blue and yellow cabin, I quickly selected an aisle seat under my lucky number, row 25. I had already been given a heads up not to order anything since a.) Nothing on these flights are free and b.) Everything aside from the drinks tastes like microwaved dirt. They also sell a variety of items on the flight... everything from Guess watches to makeup to scratch tickets, I found this odd and a bit annoying.
After the two and a half hour flight we landed in Edinburgh where it was dark and cold. Excited for my new adventure in Scotland I practically jogged to the Hertz rental car counter…only to find that they will not rent a car to a 22 year old. First of all, this is completely contradictory to what their website says and secondly when I called the hotline to cancel my prepaid reservation the agent I spoke with said since I had a valid student ID I could have rented from them, the people at the counter were just bloody idiots. Oh well …Thrifty/Dollar car rentals saved my day and put me in a Peugeot Corsa with GPS. Let it be known that I successfully drove a left-handed stick shift in Scotland with NO accidents or incidents… Whether or not I stalled the damn thing once or twice is neither here nor there!
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| My rental whip. |
I arrived at my hostel in about 20 minutes since it was located on the outskirts of town. Maybe it was the cheap price or just the thought of trying something new, either way I was looking forward to my hostel experience. (After all it can’t be any worse than some of the conditions I have been exposed to while fishing the bay) Ummm…..how about not. For starters I was the ONLY American there, which wouldn’t have been horrible if maybe say five percent of the other guest spoke English, but no. I checked into my room, which I assumed was all female since that was what I had booked and I was pleased to find that I was the only one in there at the time. After assessing my new living situation I located the shower room for a little post airplane scrub. Finally after a quick e-mail check (the wifi was free) I closed the curtain of my lower bed butt-hut (a term from college when you use spare sheets and blankets to enclose your bunk on a sleeping porch) and eventually got to sleep. The hostel provided me linens for the bed but even though they were obviously freshly laundered they were really yucky in my mind and yes (gasp!) I found someone else’s hair on them. (Insert puking noise here) This discovery naturally disturbed my sleep and I couldn’t help but wonder what other germs, cooties and the like were lurking nearby.
I woke up the next morning only to discover men’s clothing strewn around…clearly I was NOT in an all female dorm such as I had booked and my male roommates must have arrived while I was sleeping. I’m not a square about co-ed living but I am not cool with sharing any amount of my living space with strange men and I don’t even want to stop and ponder the dirty things that happen in co-ed hostel rooms. After collecting all of my belongings I headed to the bathroom to get ready for the day and then I was off in my rental car to St. Andrews.
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| The hostel. |
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| Self timed pic in front of the Firth of Forth. |
After only 50 minutes or so I arrived in St. Andrews and parked at the British Museum of Golf, directly across from the first hole at the Old Course. I don’t want to sound like a dork but this place was kind of magical to me. I have really taking a liking to golf over the past few years and the sport has always been a big part of my family. It was so cool to not only be in the same place where the best golfers in the world have played but also where the sport was born. I can’t even imagine what it looked like 400 years ago, let alone the equipment they must have been using.
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| 1st tee at the Old Course. |
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| The 17th Pin. |
After a zillion pictures I strolled over to the Old Course Shop where I needed to get my Grandpa a St. Andrews Links Polo and maybe a little something for myself. Of course I was successful in both endeavors and I look forward to Christmas Eve when I get to bestow Grandpa Dave with the forest green polo I picked out for him. After that I headed along the edge of the 18
th hole, stopping for a few pictures here and there and then I crossed over to have a cup of coffee in the Clubhouse and warm up. (It was freezing cold at St. Andrews) Once I had my fill of coffee the golf course I ventured over to the castle ruins and the Cathedral/cemetery. Since I needed to get on the road this was my last stop in St Andrews but I would definitely want to go back and play a round or two and perhaps watch the Open.
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| St. Andrews Castle ruins. |
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| The Cathedral ruins. |
Back in my Corsa I headed north toward Perth, where I stopped to grab some lunch before continuing on to Aberfeldy, the home of the Dewar’s Distillery. I would have preferred to have gone to either the Glenlivet or Glenfiddich distilleries but those where way up in the high country and I didn’t feel like driving over three hours each way just for a sip of scotch, which I don’t really appreciate yet anyway. Upon my arrival I paid my 5 pounds and then watched a short film (completely alone) about the history of the Dewar’s brand. After that I walked around a shrine to everything Dewar’s guided by a giant early 90s looking cell phone audio guide. Once that was finished I bellied up to the bar where I sampled the Dewar’s Aberfeldy 12-year single malt.
I clearly do not have much of a scotch palate yet, but it was fun to try a little sip, plus I was driving so I didn’t think anymore than a splash was necessary. Unfortunately they close production during the month of September to do repairs and maintenance so I didn’t get to see any scotch being made but they did let us peek into the warehouse and my kilted guide explained from A to Z how scotch is made.
A hour and a half later I arrived back at the hostel, tried from driving and a little hungry. Since this would be my last night is Scotland I knew I had to try some haggis. I was a little nervous to try my hand at driving in the city center, since I only drive a stick once a year and it is in BFE Alaska with no traffic and no hills. So I bought a round trip shuttle ticket from the front desk for only 2.50 pound.
During the shuttle ride I made my one and only friend of the trip. I can’t pronounce her name very well since she is Japanese but on the bright side she said I can come to Tokyo and she’ll show me around. Once we arrived in the city center my new friend left me for a classical music concert and I was left alone to find my way and a decent plate of haggis.
Edinburgh itself is gorgeous; the architecture is very stately, the streets are quite clean, and there are plenty of sights to see. I was saving the Edinburgh Castle and the Holyrood Palace for the next day so I decided to stick to Bridge Street. I did a tiny bit of shopping in H&M where I found a gold cuff that I really liked but then I realized that Florence also has an H&M and I was wasting precious time. At first my haggis mission was looking like it was going to be unsuccessful. Edinburgh has a surprising amount of ethic restaurants…Indian, Thai, Italian, kebabs, Chinese etc. but very few Scottish restaurants. Finally I found a sports pub off the main drag called South Enders where I sampled my first plate of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. (Haggis with mashed potatoes and parsnips with a whiskey gravy sauce) I asked the waitress to recommend a good Scottish beer and wound up with Belhaven Best Ale, which I found to be delightful. As for the Haggis…. I actually liked it. The presentation was a bit off, it was basically three lumps of mush but when mixed together and smothered in gravy it was pretty tasty and very filling. I don’t know what Haggis is exactly aside from animal parts but I am sure it can’t be worse than the contents of a ballpark frank, and truthfully I just don’t really want to know the details. It must be said that traveling alone, while not entirely miserable, is especially painful during mealtimes. I caught several curious bar patrons looking at me rather sadly and after awhile I even felt sorry for myself. A good tip to dining alone is to belly up to the bar whenever possible or at least face a TV so you can pretend like you have something going on in your life. After dinner I headed back to the shuttle pick up point and waited a very cold 30 minutes before getting picked up and taken back to the hostel. I was happy when the front desk had moved me into an all female dorm and then annoyed when I found out I was demoted to upper bunk. Then I was just plain pissed when one of my non-English speaking roommates thought it was okay to jabber on her ghetto cell phone for an hour. DO NOT forget earplugs or headphone when staying at a hostel, it will cost you dearly.
On my last morning I woke up early to shower and dress making as much noise as possible to hopefully disturb the girl who was on her phone half the night. After checking out of the hostel I drove to the Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin. (The church from the Da Vinci Code) Unfortunately I made a wrong turn here and there (the round abouts combined with the left handed driving and manual transmission made for a lot of these little mistakes) so I missed the 10am tour and had to wait 45 minutes for the next tour to begin. Of course I treated myself to some Walker’s shortbread cookies while I walked around the visitor’s center. I was a little bummed when I got to the chapel since it was shrouded in scaffolding and that obviously took something away from what I am sure is a beautiful exterior.
On the bright side they only very recently removed the tin roof that had been covering the chapel for years to prevent further water damage, so I suppose it could have been worse. Once inside I listened to the tour guide outline the general history of the chapel, highlighting important events and pointing out the various carvings within the chapel. The chapel began in the 15 century as a Roman Catholic Church for the St. Clair family and took about 40 years to complete. The interior is heavy in Masonic symbols and the church itself is called the bible in stone due to the huge presence of religious depictions. The guide then dashed my hopes when he said that it was unlikely anything in Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code was true with regard to hidden treasures being buried beneath the church. However he did say that scans of the floors have been taken and x-rays show that there definitely is something buried under the floor but it is probably the bodies of the St. Clair family in their armor. Unfortunately photos were not allowed inside but I did sneak this little guy in.
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| Sneaky picture inside the chapel. |
After Roslyn I was brave enough to try my hand at driving in the city center. Luckily for me most of the roads were flat but I think the stress significantly upped my blood pressure. After finding some street parking near the Royal mile I emptied out all of the pound I had left in coin into the meter…I had one just hour to see as much as possible. I started at the Edinburgh Castle and worked my way down the Royal Mile to finish at Holyrood Palace in record time. Of course I had to stop in the Starbucks and grab a latte and some lunch.
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| Why aren't these in Seattle? |
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| This made my day. |
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| Holyrood Palace. |
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| Edinburgh Castle |
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| Royal Mile |
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