Finally, a chance to sight-see

The next morning, Saturday, we got up and went downstairs a little after eight for the breakfast we'd ordered the night before. One of the things I wanted to do while in Scotland was have a full Scottish breakfast. A full English breakfast is eggs, sausage, bacon, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, and baked beans, while a full Scottish breakfast is all that plus blood pudding and/or haggis. It was the first hot breakfast I'd had since my Grandma's send off breakfast six weeks earlier! The breakfast was fantastic, and the blood pudding was ok-- in fact, I probably could have eaten it if I didn't know it was thickened with blood.

We went back up to the room, gathered our stuff, and checked out downstairs. The lady found another few band-aids (read: plasters in the UK) for Katie Beth's finger, and then we were on our way to meet the Jacobite bus for our tour of Loch Ness. The bus took us through Inverness and along the River Ness which is a supplied from Loch Ness. And the Loch! Oh it was gorgeous! So I always figured Loch Ness to be perhaps just a little bigger than a large pond, yeah no. The Loch is one mile wide and 23 miles long!

We got to the dock and boarded a touring boat that took us on a half hour ride over to Urquhart Castle, which was the third most important defensive position in the Scotland back in its day. In the 18th Century it was blown up to keep it from enemies, but its ruins still remain for tourists to ooh and aah over. At the dock, there was a private boat in our spot, but our captain guy made sure he moved away in no small hurry (we were the much bigger boat).

Because of that minor delay, our one hour at the Castle was cut a little short, but we still got to walk around a bit and see a video showing its history. I've decided I really like the Scots. My mom's side is Scottish, I took an early Scottish lit class, and I've now been to Scotland. Must be fur real.

After a bit of anxious running to find Katie Beth and board the bus after stopping by the bathroom, we made it back to the City Centre with enough time to find lunch before going to the train station. We'd been wanting to try kebabs ever since seeing a takeout flyer for 'em in Cardiff, so we stopped by a little shop to try 'em out. I think they're a lot like gyros except without the cucumber sauce. Mm-mm, good! Except that I ordered a large because I figured the portion size would be about regular to me what with the whole European sizing and everything. Not at all! It was even bigger than an American large! I couldn't get my hand around the humongous glob of pita bread, garlic sauce, donner meat (kinda like spiced, processed beef), lettuce, tomato, and cucumber!

For the first time since our trip began, the transportation we booked worked out exactly right! The train was on time, we were on time, everything was great. We made it back to Edinburgh about 4PM but immediately hastened to Edinburgh Castle because it was closing at 6PM. Navigation was easy because the Castle towered over everything. While we did pay over £10 (can't think of the exact price right now-- too sleepy! Getting up at 6AM will do that to ya...) to get in for 1.5 hours, it was neat to walk through the Castle directly mentioned in one of the main books we read for my Scottish lit class. And we got to see the Scottish crown jewels! While they don't have quite the grandeur of the English ones, they were pretty neat to see.

After our quick dash through the Castle, we wandered back to the bus station before I was comfortable with us stopping for supper (wouldn't want to miss the bus again!). I dragged Katie Beth up and down the street to find just the right place to eat-- good food, reasonable price--almost impossible to find. I finally settled on a little Polish restaurant 'cause I'm all up for trying new foods especially if it looks like the entire staff is Polish (then the food must be pretty well authentic!).

Afterwards, we went back up to the bus station and waited for about an hour and half for the bus/driver to arrive and then take off at 10PM. While waiting, we chatted with a mom and her daughter from Canada and a young guy from New Zealand. Wow, the people you meet. I dawdled on my way back from the bathroom (for which I paid 20p for the pleasure of using. My goodness, that day I probably sunk over a pound just into accessing bathrooms) only to find Katie Beth right near the front of the bus line to board the bus-- without a ticket. I ran up, and we boarded with no problems. Hooray! But, we did have to sit almost all the way in the back which is where the engine is, so it's quite hot. Ah well.

As we settled in, I blew up my head/neck pillow and swallowed down some sleeping pills to prepare for the journey. Oh, as well as shoving earplugs deep into my ears because an older Indian man was snoring loudly just in front of us. I think I got about six hours of sleep total (in three hour chunks). Very weird trip. I'm almost glad we missed the night bus the first time because it's such a strange experience. You don't really go to bed, you just kinda try to sleep away the time. I drifted off to sleep while there was still light in the sky- Scotland has very long summer days because it's so far north.

We made it back to London safe and sound! We pulled into the Victoria train station around 7AM and got back to the flats by 7:30. I wanted to sleep but chose a shower and try (but desperately failing if you've emailed/facebooked me recently) to keeping up with emails. At 10:30, Katie Beth and I left for church. She had mentioned really wanting to attend a Sunday service, so I finagled the bus tickets to make it work and still spend the same amount of time in Scotland. Fantastic plan, horrible execution. Oh well!

Scotland was beautiful, though. I'd love to go back for a much longer visit but probably not this summer. The people were so nice there, almost Midwest-like actually. Plus, I've found I prefer Scottish brogues to English accents. It's a bit more rough around the edges.

All in all, I think missing the night bus cost Katie Beth and I $230 each. Gross. But you know what, absolutely priceless memories right there. We didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked, but what time was available was amazing. I imagine we'll be laughing ourselves silly recalling this weekend come this fall when school begins.

But this weekend was the last that I will travel with Katie Beth while in London (though there are now plans in the works for a visit to her house [on a farm] in early fall. AMAZING!!). I knew this point would come, but when she arrived three weeks ago I never figured it would come this fast. It seems like only a few days ago I was taking her over to the Earl's Court tube station to get her oyster card, quietly watching how she was taking in the big, rushing city. Wow.

So that was our trip to Scotland. As I said, planned out down to the letter for maximum results but cut away by leaving just a little too late on Thursday night. Ah well. The country was beautiful, and I got to spend more time outside the city and with Katie Beth so it's definitely all ok.

I haven't posted picture links in a while, but I am getting them up. Perhaps I'll have an entire post with the links. We'll have to see- I don't usually have much time after work before needing to get to bed. Kinda like right now...sleep........