The (successful) Quest for Deep-Fried Mars Bars and Highland Cows: A Weekend in Scotland!

Wow, can't believe how time has flown by!  I only have 10 days left in London, only one full weekend left!  This weekend will be all about cramming to finish up my final papers and projects, which are all due next week.  Next Thursday (1 week from today!) is our class going-away party, and then on Saturday I board a plane back to the States!

But more on that later... this post is about last weekend, our second-to-last full weekend abroad.  Eager to get in one more trip, Andreina and I headed to Scotland with one of our other classmates, Hannah.

At 11:45 PM on Wednesday night, we boarded a double-decker coach to Glasgow.  The ride took about 8 hours, and we arrived in Glasgow at about 7:30 Thursday morning.  Luckily, I was able to get some sleep on the bus ride, well, at least more than I was on the way to Paris.  Overnight coach was definitely not the ideal way to go, but it's definitely the most economical, costing us only £26 round-trip (so about $40).  But, we survived and arrived in Glasgow tired but ready to explore the city.

We found a bus that took us to our hotel, just south of the River Clyde, about a 10 minute walk from the city center.  It was too early to check in (unless we wanted to pay an extra £10, so we just left our bags with the front desk and sat in the lobby, pouring over brochures of things we might want to do during our stay.  Hannah and I wanted to visit the National Aquarium, but it was really out of the way and would have taken a couple of hours to get to from Glasgow.  Oh well.

We left the hotel and had breakfast at a restaurant in a complex behind our hotel, where they had a deal of 2 main courses for £10, so we were able to save some money.  Always good.

After breakfast, we headed out to explore the city a little bit, and ended up doing a little shopping as well.

Hannah and Andreina as we walk along the River Clyde.

After exploring for a bit, we were able to head back to the hotel room to check into our triple room.  Triple room? you may ask.  Yeah, I wondered what a triple room in a hotel was, too.  Well, we found out.  We had a double bed, and then a single bunk bed across the top.  The room had a bit of an interesting layout as well- no proper "bathroom".  Just one small room for the toilet.  The sink was out in the actual room, and the shower opened into the room as well, right next to the bed.  We had fun laughing about our quirky little hotel room, but that's what you get for £21 a night, I guess.

After settling in and freshening up, Andreina wanted to go to the Kelvingrove Museum, where they had the painting "Christ of Saint John of the Cross", by Salvador Dali.  It was about a 20 minute walk, but we ended up spending a lot of time at the museum, seeing not only that painting, but also ones by Monet and Van Gogh.  Also saw some Egyptian artifacts and some specimens of animals that are native to Scotland.  We ended up staying until 5, when the museum closed and they kicked us out.


We hopped a bus to the coach station, where we bought tickets to go to Edinburgh the next day, only £10 round-trip, then walked to the tourist information center hoping to reserve a Highlands tour for Saturday.  Unfortunately, it was closed, so we decided to just reserve the tour online.  We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby.

Next morning, we headed out and caught our coach to Edinburgh around 10:30; we'd bought open tickets, so we could go whenever we wanted, which was nice not having to worry about waking up and getting to the coach station at a certain time. 

The ride to Edinburgh took about an hour.  Our first stop there was Edinburgh Castle.

Looking up at Edinburgh Castle

To be honest, the outside is a whole lot more impressive than the inside, but we enjoyed the panoramic views of the city and the surrounding area, and saw a few interesting things, like where POWs slept and the Crown Jewels (Crown Jewels at the Tower of London =  way cooler).

One of many gorgeous views from Edinburgh Castle.

After the castle, we were hungry, so we walked down the Royal Mile (the road leading up to the castle) in search of food, getting sidetracked by the dozens of souvenier shops along the way.  We stopped at a little Italian place for lunch, and then after eating, set out on our quest for deep-fried Mars Bars.  A worker at the castle had told us to look for a "blue chip shop on the Royal Mile", but hadn't given us a name, so we wandered up and down the road, poking into any building that could be remotely described as blue.  Finally, a waitress at one restaurant gave us the name of the place to go, and we walked down and found it right away.  Turns out we hadn't walked far enough down the road in the first place, and this place, The Clamshell, advertised that it served deep-fried Mars Bars right in the window.  Success!  And deliciousness.

Spent more time wandering in and out of souvenier shops as we munched on our delicious treats, then walked to see the National Monument on a hill overlooking the city.  It was super windy up there, but we made fools of ourselves anyway attempting to climb onto the monument to take some pictures.  A guy saw us struggling and had to help us up.  A little embarassing, but we still made it.

National Monument

Made it up... with a little assistance.

Spent some time up on the hill, then decided it was time to head back to Glasgow.  On the way back to the coach station, we popped into more souvenier shops... they're everywhere in Edinburgh!

Back in Glasgow, we headed to the restaurant by our hotel for dinner, and then went back to the hotel, where we got online in the lobby and booked a Highlands tour for the next day.

Our tour the next morning left from the tourist information center in town at 9:30.  Anyone going to Glasgow or Edinburgh and wanting to do a Highlands tour, I highly recommend the company we went with, Rabbies.  I'd read multiple reviews of this company and all of them were amazing, and for good reason.  They keep the group sizes small, maximum of 16 people, so you're not stuck on a huge coach with 50 other people.  Our tour group ended up only having  8 people in it, giving it a more personal touch.  Our guide, Michael, was extremely friendly and knowledgeable about the area, and shared a whole wealth of historical information with us.  Part of me wished I'd taken notes so I could remember everything!

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't on our side.  It was cloudy and chilly, and later into the tour we got rain.  This, however, showed the other benefits of a small tour group: we could stay at each stop for as long as we wanted.  Our first stop was Castle Kilchurn, an old castle ruin in the middle of a loch (loch = lake).  It used to be entirely surrounded by water, but now there's a land pathway that you can walk on to get to the castle.  Luckily, the rain hadn't started yet, so we were able to spend a while there.

Castle Kilchurn

Inside the castle

Beatiful view from the top of the castle.

On the way from the castle, we spotted...

HIGHLAND COWS! how cute :)

The other nice thing about a small group, we were able to stop and coffee break easily, and Michael was very good about giving us chances to warm up with some hot chocolate or coffee, especially once the rain started coming.

The most beautiful part of our tour was definitely Glen Coe (glen = valley).  According to Michael, Glen Coe is actually better seen in the rain, because all these little streams of water come rushing down the hills.

Hills of Glen Coe

Although, it would have been nice if the rain had subsided a bit, just so we all would have been up for staying there longer to get some better pictures.  Due to the rain and the wind, though, most of the stops we made were very quick, just enough time for all of us to jump out of the van, snap a few pictures, and then run back into the van for warmth.  Again, though, the perks of a small tour group.

Glen Coe

Our final stop on the tour was Loch Lomond, a loch just half an hour from Glasgow.  Michael said that, on nice days, the place is usually packed.  By the time we got there, though, it was pouring pretty good, and we were pretty much the only ones around.  Oh well, the rain didn't stop us from walking down the muddy trail to the shore of the lake.  I mean, we were all already pretty drenched anyway.

Drenched at Loch Lomond.

Due to the fact that we didn't spend as much time as normal at most of the stops, we got back to Glasgow a little early, but I think we were all okay with that.  I was ready to warm up in a hot shower at the hotel.  After we'd all cleaned up back at the hotel, we went to the restaurant behind our hotel for dinner.  After dinner, we spent a little time at the casino next door to the restaurant, but had no luck on the slots.

Our coach back to London left the next morning at 11.  The ride back was pretty enjoyable, especially since the driver was nice enough to make 2 or 3 stops along the way so we could get food and a bathroom break (there was a toilet on the bus, but it was... eww).  We were back in London around 7:30.

I'm definitely glad I was able to make it out to Scotland during my time here, and I think it was a good last weekend trip to have.  Like I've said many times before, though, of course there is still so much I still want to do and see, but my time here is drawing to a close.  This week and weekend it's all about getting final papers done and figuring out how I'm gonna pack everything I have and get it home.

Honestly, though, STILL not ready to go home just yet.  If I could just have a couple more weeks, maybe that would be enough?  Maybe not.  I was actually hoping just a little bit that the Iceland volcano that just erupted might send some ash over this way and delay my flight a bit, but it doesn't look like that's happening.  Although, I've already paid for my cap and gown and stuff for graduation, so probably don't wanna miss out on that... 1 week after I get back!

That's all for now... don't even know if I'll be doing another post, as I come home in 10 days!  Yikes!