A wee bit slow...

So this morning I woke up at 3:45am so that we could try and catch a boat tour on the other side of the country. We got off to a good start, by some miracle we found the car fairly easily and made it out of Edinburgh without trouble. I'm reading the directions and everything some to be going fairly smoothly, it even looks like well make it on time. The map suggests the amount of time each segment of the journey should make. It tells me 20 minutes, around 30 minutes in I mention to Sue that it seems to be taking a little too long, however after our ticket on day 1, sue says she doesn't want to take any chances and will only be going according to the posted speed limits she sees. When I realize its taken us WELL over an hour to complete a 20 minute drive, I'm pretty sure something isn't right. As we pull into the ferry terminal over an hour late, we're informed that the speed limit is not 30 or 40 MPH like Sue had been driving, but 60!


I will simply consider this another lesson learned and not resent the fact that I woke up before 4am!


The reason we drove a cross the country was to take the 3 isle tour of Mull, Io a and Staffa. So you have to take the ferry to Mull, the Mull bus to the other docks. To take the boat to Staffa, the boat again to Iona, the ferry back to Mull the bus back to the other ferry terminal and the ferry back to Oban. The experience is worth every second of the travel. Staffa is home to Fingal's Cave, which was one of the most breathtaking sights I've seen. You have to climb a cross Staff a to get to the cave, which was absolutely terrifying for me. I'm not a fan of heights, so to walk along a cliff with the ocean rushing beneath me has never been on my to do list (and it never will be again). I have never been so tense in my life. As you can see from the pictures it was totally worth it, but if I had to do it all over again I'll try the lazy way where the boat just drops you off in the cave.

I finally got my first real taste of Scotland today. For lunch I had Cornish pasty and for dinner real fish and chips, by far the best fish and chips I've ever had. To top it all off I closed dinner off with deep fried Haggis. The flavour is actually really nice its just the mental issue of not thinking about what you're eating. Sue has yet to try Scotland. In the fish and chip shop she ordered Hawaiian pizza. Who in their right mind goes into a fish and chip store facing the sea and orders pizza! I let her know how utterly disgusted I was. I'm still looking for my bangers and mash and steak pie.

A wee bit busy...

So this morning I got to experience the "full Scottish breakfast". It includes just about everything you could think of - eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, potato scones, hash browns, beans, tomatoes, etc... What I couldn't understand after eating breakfast is the shortage of fat Scottish people. This mystery was quickly solved as they walk everywhere and its all hills and valleys. I haven't yet seen a drive through anything.

o

We ended up going on three of the bus tours today. Why Edinburgh has something like 6 bus tours, 5 run by the same company, makes no sense to me. By the time we got on the third tour I probably could have hosted the tour. We got to see all the touristy sights like Edinburgh Castle, Parliament, the Holyrood Palace and went up to Leith. I've inherited my dad's love of the water and boats, so checking out the Royal Yacht Britannia was cool. When nobody was looking I thought it would be fun to have a seat in the queens drawing room. Sue brought it to my attention that after that we had a staff member follow us in every room we went into.

We were actually suppose to go see Rosslyn Chapel today, but as Sue had almost a complete mental breakdown driving yesterday, she said she's not getting back in the car until were leaving.

I still haven't had a proper Scottish meal. Yesterday we went to a pub and I tried to order bangers and mash - no luck, so I asked for a meat pie - again no luck. So I ended up with friggin lasagna, which was gross. Some how today again I had Italian. I'm determined to have some real Scottish food tomorrow.

To end today we toured an underground city called, Mary King's Close. A Close is an old street in Edinburgh and since it's illegal to live underground in Scotland, when parts of the city were being rebuilt many of the Closes ended up underground and some were preserved quite well. Its interesting how much the Close reminded me of my cubicle. No sunlight, small, cramped, dreary, depressing, I think it even has the same light blue/gray walls. At least now I know that me and 17th century Scottish people have something in common.

Wee bit of a rough start...

So I had a great flight to Scotland, there was an empty seat beside me so I get to stretch out and relax. There was some turbulence before we landed, but I've been through worse flights. Apparently Sue has not, she looked like death when we arrived. There were a few moments in the customs lineup when I was sure she was going to pass out, but she managed to pull through. It took forever to get passed customs and pick up the rental car and since the flight had departed late we ended up being way behind schedule. It didn't help that we got lost as soon as we left the airport. Sue had printed out all the directions, we simply hadn't counted on the road closure and trying to follow the diversion signs while Sue was still figuring out how to drive on the right side. She only hit one car and I'm not sure if she took off their side mirror, but luckily there was no damage to our rental car ;)


On the road to Edinburgh all I keep hearing was "TINA EYES OPEN!!". We somehow managed to arrive safely, only to park in a motorcycle only spot and get a £60 ticket. At least we've learned that "Only M/C" means that spot us designated for motorcycles. Lunch was okay and than we walked up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. That walk finally turned the trip around. The castle was amazing, Sue pointed out that we were standing where kings once stood. I pointed out that babies with dirty pampers had probably stood there too.


On the way back to the hotel we grabbed some hot chocolate at the Cockburn Cafe. We decided to take a quick nap before dinner at 6 and woke up at midnight. It's 3AM now, so I'm going to try and get some sleep.



Sue's snoring could wake the dead! I hope I fall asleep before she does tomorrow!