April 4-7
In the morning we all slowly awoke as we had time to spare. I decided to pay the 3 pound fee to have unlimited access to the food in the breakfast nook (bread, jam, scones, juice, etc). We paid in a separate room, didn't get a receipt and probably could've just taken things unasked. However, I have a conscious.
The scones were delicious and I am now hooked. We think the hostel might have its own recipe for them as the ones at the grocery stores don't taste as good. We took extra for the journey ahead.
I went to use the upstairs bathroom in the hostel after finding out it was the nicest and actually had a window to provide proper lighting for make-up. The other one felt like it was in the basement of a cabin in the woods - this one felt like a cute cottage with a sunlight overlooking the scenery.
Then we checked out and headed towards a cafe we'd found online in the area to sit until our bus to Kyle of Lochalsch arrived (which we could see across the water). When we got to the cafe there was a sign saying it was closed. We couldn't see any other cafes in sight so we headed back towards the hostel. As we were walking back, I stopped to take this picture and one of the other girls pulled out her camera to take some more.
The others continued on and I ran to catch up to them. We saw a bus heading to Kyle of Lochalsch, it wasn't the one we were taking, but we were happy to know what to expect when the time came. We were beside the restaurant where we'd had our dinner the other night. It looked empty on the inside, but when we tried the door it opened. The girls ended up getting some scones and tea and we sat waiting for the time to take our bus. The other girl who'd taken her camera out at the same time as me still hadn't appeared. We figured she'd gone to the ruins which she'd been taking pictures of just prior to her last appearance.
While we were in there we saw a tour bus pull up and a group of oldies hop off and head straight to the restaurant's bathroom. They then filled the room. We were wondering how the restaurant could afford to be open when no one was out in town, but I guess it's one of those tourist rest stops.
Our friend still hadn't appeared and we were getting pretty worried. Her phone company had made a mistake and ended up cancelling her plan so she could only use wifi to contact us or use an emergency call. This is the same friend who had missed the train to Glasgow, had taken a long time during our tour of the isle of skye, so we were beginning to pair her with the idea she'd gone to those ruins and had lost track of time. I suggested she might have gone to use the internet at the hostel since it was one place she knew she had wifi access, but that wasn't the case.
We looked in the general area for her and we couldn't see her. You could see the ruins and no one walking around. The bus was arriving and there was no way I was missing it or my train to Inverness. Part of us felt responsible for her, but I kept repeating to myself that this girl was older than me and an adult who should be responsible for herself, so we got on the bus when it arrived without her. When we got off the bus on the other side of the bridge we got a message in WhatsApp from her saying she was at the train station. It felt like we were in some movie or something. Like how did she get there, why didn't she message us saying she was there. We were all so confused.
Remember that bus I mentioned prior that was heading in the same location as the one we'd be taking later? Well, she'd seen that bus leaving and not us, as we'd gone around the corner to see if the restaurant was open. She then assumed we'd gotten on the bus. None of us could understand why she'd think that as we'd said many times what time we'd be taking the bus, we'd even all gone to the bus stop and read out the bus time for the bus we'd be taking and she'd been there. She didn't even try to message us first to double-check that's what had happened. Instead she made the decision to walk to Kyle of Lochalsch, across the bridge, which is just less than an hour's journey.
It's hard to know what I'd do if that were to happen to me, but it's also unlikely to happen to me since I'm always self-aware and wary of others so I don't get lost from a group easily. I also tend to lead so if anything I'd be bringing people down with me. There's also the case that english is not her first language and we're all from different cultural backgrounds, so one has to take all that into account before getting angry at someone. To keep my cool and to get through the next few days of the trip with her I put myself in her situation and reminded myself that we all think and behave differently and that she must have been terrified to suddenly not see the girls she'd been travelling with.
Once at the train station, a very small train station, we found a room where the storage lockers were taped off like a crime scene and a restroom. I used the toilet, but there was no toilet paper. Luckily the bathroom was basically in the room we were waiting in so I was able to get one of the others to grab me some of the paper towels from the sink area, which was in the resting/locker room area. Thankfully we were the only ones there so it wasn't totally embarrassing. I left some extra paper towels for the next person to be inconvenienced.
I somehow had an earlier train than the others, so I got one while they all set up a plan to explore the small town while they waited for their train, which would leave about 3 hours after mine.
I got a whole four-seat section to myself to chill and relax. This was when I uploaded a mass collection of pictures to Facebook and annoyed everyone by messaging them back. The train's windows were filthy so I couldn't take nice pictures of the scenery (hairy coos, horses, sheep, sheep, and more sheep). I did take a video of the snow as it came out of nowhere. Just a town over it had looked like spring and then suddenly there was a foot of snow on the ground. It was like I'd taken the train through a wardrobe and ended up in Narnia.
There were a couple train stations here and there that looked like bus stops. People got on at some. I saw a lone hiker get on and she sat in the table section across from mine. I watched as she removed her snow gear, getting smaller and smaller after removing all the layers. I was surprised she didn't nap on the train, but I suppose she was heading to a hostel or hotel in Inverness where she could take a proper rest from her travels. I debated talking to her, but I wasn't in the social mood (re: earlier) and it was the first break I had from people in a while so I was kind of happy to be in my own world looking out the dirty train window.
Once I made it to Inverness I explored a little bit as I made my way to the Airbnb. I cut through this cool covered market that I would later take the others too and again visit on my own.
As I made my way to the Airbnb I was surprised that the area wasn't as sketchy as it had looked online (normally it's always the other way around). The front door was open so I headed up but couldn't get into the room as I couldn't find the lock box. I panicked for a second, but checked the instructions again and realized that the lockbox was back down the flight of stairs. I then got the keys and went back up, but the key I was using wouldn't fit. In fact the key hole looked like one of those old locks so I was so confused. I was about to message the group about it being a scam when I realized there were two keys on the key ring and I was being silly thinking that the other thing was a key fob. Turns out the cool old fashioned key opened the cool old fashioned lock.
I took a video of the accommodation prior to everyone's arrival so you can all see how cool it was upon my return to ottawa.
I was going to go ahead and explore the city a bit, but I was tired so I decided to watch some TV. However, I discovered the TV only had sports channels and two drama channels that were playing shows I wasn't into. I discovered a hockey game and decided to just watch that.
I let the others in when they arrived and let them explore before we settled down to plan out our next steps (this took a while of course). We ended up pulling out little papers to decide room arrangements first and then set-up a grocery list so we could try and lower the cost of food as much as possible.
We explored a little of the town before heading back to the grocery store to get food for dinner. We decided to make tacos, which I was craving and happy to have. When getting food instead of calculating one bill and everyone owing one person money we all bought some things each and were fine with that. It felt weird, but I was very low on cash so it did make it easier for me.
When cooking we all had our own duties. I ended up on meat duty and cooked both the ground beef and chicken. There was no strainer for the beef, so it was more oily than I normally make it, but was fine in the end.
We then headed to bed after taking showers. I'd had the first shower, after finishing washing the dishes. I found it odd that the water would slowly get cold on me, but it was bearable. I later found out that we were low on hot water and that's why it'd been like that. It reheats after a while, but would take some time. So we ended up having to take that into account (i.e. wash dishes after showers etc).
The night before I suggested we head to Loch Ness and have a picnic since it was one of the only days I new it wouldn't rain and it was an area where one couldn't really seek shelter from the rain.
In the morning after getting ready we headed into town and I went to the tourist centre to look into info on getting to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle as we wanted to get there as cheap as possible. The guy there gave me some papers and information and we headed out to the bus station.
Once at the bus station we got a different story and the bus ride was more than we thought and the bus between the castle and the town where they have all the shops/Nessie things "didn't exist like said." We didn't want to waste time as the bus was there so we paid for the tickets and got on all confused.
Once at the Castle there was no where for us to sit and eat that wasn't the parking lot. We ended up deciding to split up as I had a free pass for the castle with the pass I'd bought prior to arriving. There were picnic benches that we could see from the parking lot so I figured I'd eat there. Two others joined me, deciding to pay the fee for the castle. Urquhart castle is mostly ruins so most people don't think it'd be worth the high fee, but it surprisingly had lots to offer in different ways.
In the visitor centre we got to see a few interesting items and even watched a very short film that reminded me of those old Jesus movies I used to watch in Religion class. We then headed out to the lawn area right on the water and ate our food right by the water and some very fat ducks. There was a man feeding them something, and I really hoped it wasn't bread as you shouldn't feed birds bread.
We took our time eating as there was a free tour that would happening we decided to join after eating. Whenever a boat arrived there'd be a lot of tourists and then when it left with them all on board there'd be a lot less people, so taking nice pictures was all about timing and patience.
On our way to the castle we passed this pit thing before passing over the moat bridge (which was a moat that never ever had water in it) into the castle.
The tour was a lot of information, too much that it was hard to grasp. The video from earlier helped a bit, but I wasn't really that interested in everything. Only a few things like how the people drank beer everyday and not water, the castle had been destroyed as a "we don't want anybody to have this anymore" type of thing. Also there was zero reference to Nessie which I found disappointing. Like it would have been a killer joke. If I were a tour guide and we were walking by the water I'd pause and be like "what's that in the water" and like stare for a long time and basically describe a Nessie creature and then go, "ah nah that's just Bessie, looks just like Nessie but isn't her so irrelevant."
After the tour we took a crap load of photos and spent a really long time before walking back to the town area. It was an even longer walk because we were talking the whole walk and even paused in a few areas to better hear each other. We also stopped in a co-op (grocery store) to get some treats for the bus ride back.
When we got to the town there was no time to look at the Nessie visitor centre (Nessieland) but I had some time to look in gift shops. I wanted something cheesy related to Nessie, but there was really nothing cheesy enough so I was incredibly disappointed.
The ones who'd headed out earlier went through the Nessie visitor experience and were quite knowledgeable on the conspiracy theorists. Both of them take history courses so it was funny to hear their versions of the information.
The Airbnb had some leftover pasta stuff, so we ended up making that. Well the others made it while I and one of the others decided to head out and take some pictures of the town. We discovered this little bee alley and scoped out the area. My foot was hurting at this point. Just before getting on the bus from the Nessie area I realized my ankle was hurting. I took this as just pain from walking around all day, but when we got back and I looked at it I found out my ankle had a big bruise on it. I didn't get sharp pains when applying pressure, so I took it as a weird mild inconvenience and blamed my orthotics.
After taking pictures we went back for food and I iced my ankle to prevent any swelling.
We then watched Outlander. It's not on the UK Netflix, but for some odd reason my European friends, when they log onto their Netflix, it's their country's stuff. We watched it with subtitles as it was helpful for them as english is not their first language, but also was helpful to me as I realized characters were saying different things than when I'd first heard it.
In the morning we realized we'd have to go to Culloden as it was the only day a bus would directly drive to it and back. This was a bit of an abrupt realization. There were also a few stores and locations that wouldn't be open on the Sunday (another annoyance). I really wanted to go to Leaky's bookshop so we headed there first. It was pretty cool and had a lot of really cool old books, but was a bit disappointing to me as it wasn't as cool as people claim it to be.
After exploring the Victoria Market (the covered market I mentioned earlier) we took the bus, this time having done our own research and ignored the info from the visitor centre guy (which was outdated) and had bought cheap day pass tickets on our phones.
Once in Culloden we paid for tickets to explore the exhibit and walked through. We all used the audio guides and most took their time so I was done before all of them. I'd wanted to try and walk to the Clava Cairns, which was a half-hour walk away, so I decided to split from the group and do my own thing. When I finished walking around the Battlefield I met up with them in the cafeteria area and ate my lunch. They told me their plan and I decided to get on an earlier bus and head back to Inverness and go to a few of the stores that wouldn't be open the next day and look for places that would be open. My foot was also hurting a lot so I couldn't take walking around much longer and that's why I gave up on the Cairns.
The bus to Inverness was very late, but there were others waiting with me so I wasn't too nervous, but it did worry me a bit. Once on the bus I overheard a few other conversations and I'm pretty certain I heard some people talking in Gaelic.
Once in Inverness I went to a few gift shops and stores. I really wanted a Scottish sweater (it's something I'd wear and use, so worth it). I ended up finding a store with a huge sale and got one for only 15 pounds that was a perfect wool blend, in that there was enough cotton to prevent it from being itchy.
I then headed back to the Airbnb and had only just rested when the others all arrived. We decided that we would go out for a late dinner and try and catch a ceilidh or at least some live Scottish music. I ate some of the sausages we had bought and hadn't eaten prior while we played some Trivial Pursuit.
We then went out and couldn't find the right spot. The first place we went to wasn't what we'd expected, then next had no seating, and so we ended up at a Weatherspoons (cheap pub chain). I had some Haggis, neeps, and tatties. It wasn't as good as the haggis from the isle, but the neeps and tatties were good.
We waited it out at the first location for the live act to see if it was what we were looking for. It was very awkward (especially when the crowds was 30s-40s and above). He finally performed (10 minutes later than he was set to perform) and didn't sing any Scottish tunes. Instead he sang Stuck in the Middle, some Rod Stewart, and basically American classic rock. He was a great singer, but it was a bit disappointing. We then went back to the Airbnb.
The next day was a craze as we hurried to pack up before check-out time. One of the girls wanted to really clean everything, but we'd paid a cleaning fee so it wasn't really necessary, however days later when we got the review from the host it left a good impression on him, so I suppose it was worth it.
My foot was really bothering me and I was limping while walking. The added weight of my back-pack probably made it worse. We went to the train station and rented a locker to store our heavy stuff. The girls didn't think we'd be able to fit everything into one locker and were going to pay extra to rent another, but I (with plenty of Tetris packing experience) managed to fit three suitcases, two backpacks, and a few other things into one locker.
We walked through the old town where we stopped at the Old High Church (oldest Gothic style church in town). While we were taking pictures this nice lady approached us and invited us in to take a short tour around before the Sunday mass (which we were invited to but didn't join). It was a pretty cool church, they had an old edition of the bible and a bunch of other interesting things. We then signed a guest book.
After that, I braved the steps up to the castle that looked more like a parliament building than a proper castle. You couldn't pay to explore the castle, but to look at the view from it (which is weird) so we just walked around it and saw the view from the ground (probably just a nice since there was a lot of construction in the city).
We then went into the mall and ended up at a little cafe where I had a delicious scone and tea and we all ate some of our lunches. We split up again, me staying in the mall to relax with one of the others who wasn't under the weather and another who wasn't up to the other stuff. We ended up going into the Waterstones (book store) and spending a lot of time there.
We went to other stores too. The others met up with us and we went to the grocery store that was attached to get some food to get us through our time back in Newcastle as we rested there. I grabbed some scones and jam and a few other Scottish things.
We then headed out for dinner at this Chinese Buffet. It was a very good buffet that reminded me of the ones we used to go to back in the states as kids. The soft serve ice cream was just like I remembered filling myself up on.
I also tried a lot of interesting dishes (including fried squid). They ran out of fried noodles and it was funny watching people go up to it and being disappointed. It was also funny how as soon as it was refilled the same people all got up almost at once to get some (myself included).
After leaving we grabbed our stuff from the train station and then made it to the bus station. There were two buses when we arrived and both could potentially be our buses so it was hard to really form a queue when there's no one to tell you which was for which. Luckily the bus drivers announced when they came to load the luggage and fewer people joined our bus. This meant we got seat to ourselves.
When the bus transferred in Edinburgh we were a bit late and the last to get on so we all had to sit beside strangers. I can't even remember who I sat beside, it was so late and I was tired. One of my Finnish friends approached me while we were waiting on the bus and spoke to me about a paragraph of Finnish whilst I stared at her incredulously. I was expecting at one point for one of them to speak to me in their native language, it just surprised me when it happened. We had a good tired laugh when I told her. She then told me the others had gone to the bathroom and that the bus driver had let her on even though the others had had her ticket so she was surprised she'd been allowed on without a ticket.
We all arrived in Newcastle in the early hours of the morning so we all took Ubers home. Three of us live near each other so we took the Uber to that area. I nearly forgot to send my "I made it home" message to them all because I was so tired.
*Happy Birthday Mom - here's your present: one massive blog post
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