Scotland (Haggis Highland Fling tour)

Saturday 16th August
Set off on my Haggis tour of Scotland this morning. Our first day is headed north towards Loch Ness. I have to get used to the very different style of tour, rather than driving for a day before we reach our destination, our destination is the drive! Our first stop was at Dunkeld Cathedral, a gorgeous little spot with amazing grounds along the River Braan. As we continued north we stopped at a few waterfalls, creeks, lakes etc. The scenery is just beautiful if only if wasn't so ridiculously cold & wet.

We arrived in St Augustus (a cute little town at the southern point of Loch Ness) and were treated to a traditional kilt & weaponry show. Inside a traditional home, we were shown how kilts are traditionally worn (& how to put them on) and a display of the weapons the Scots used back in the day.

I had my first taste of Haggis tonight! It was actually really tasty (although it was only the stuffing of chicken covered in sauce but totally fine with me). After dinner we went out on our Loch Ness cruise. It was very cool being out on the Loch and it was lovely at sunset. The water is just so black that I'm not surprised there is such a mystery surrounding it. (Just in case anyone was fooled ;) or confused by the photo... they have a little sticker on the window of the boat so you can take photos of the Loch Ness Monster in the water... this is what tourists live for right!? Haha)

Sunday 17th August
Well if I thought the weather yesterday was bad, today has proven me wrong. The scenery & places we are visiting are so amazing but it is hard to enjoy it when you're freezing! The wind is like ice & it just won't stop raining. Think it makes it worse that it is warmer at home in Winter than it is here in Summer! Apparently this isn't normal for August though, I'm just lucky...

Anyway, today we drove up the length of Loch Ness, through Inverness, and stopped for more waterfalls and amazing views. We visited the 'Summer House', the little cottage in the forest where JM Barry apparently wrote Peter Pan and the oldest native Scotish tree (which is older than Australia has been colonised!) So of course we gave it a hug for good luck. I walked on the old Invermoriston bridge and met some hairy coos, then we stopped at a massive souvenir store and I found the Ferguson clan tartan and the history of (apparently we are responsible for the Scottish flag!). Also along the way we stopped at old castles, battle grounds and an ancient Pagan cemetery and of course a whiskey distillery (the largest independent one in Scotland). Still don't like whiskey but it was nice & warming ;)

Monday 18th August
This morning we made a stop to plant some native trees, it's an initiative Haggis supports as Scotland is overrun with Canadian pines and other 'foreign' vegetation so they are trying to reintroduce the native plants.

We crossed over the the Isle of Skye and drove through stopping to see the many amazing views. We stopped at Eilean Donan Castle and Loch Alsh, we saw so many amazing views, waterfalls (the benefit of so much rain) and coastline/cliffs.

Tuesday 19th August
Finally good weather today! Makes the scenery that must more enjoyable and therefore breathtaking. Photos don't nearly do it justice! Our first stop of the day was at the Well of the Seven Heads (a monument to an apparently true tale of 7 brothers being beheaded after they murdered 2 brothers, another classic Scot tale of the fight for power). Interesting monument where I, along with 2 other girls, were almost left! Literally, the bus left wothout us when we went down to see the actual well! Thankfully the other girls had another friend on the bus that raised the alarm and they came back and got us just as we realised the bus had left. THAT would have been an interesting story and a bit of paperwork for Haggis!

Next stop was a view of the Monument of the Unknown Soldier (not a monument to those who lost their lives in war like in every other country but one to those who lost their lives because they were killed in the search for a Scotish traitor; there was such a high bounty on his head that anyobe who looked like him was killed in an attempt to claim!). From here though there was also a fantastic view of the Harry Potter bridge! Haha and to continue our Harry Potter experience we found the train itself! If only it was off to Hogwarts ;)

We drove around the Ben Nevis mountain and 'North Face' (surprise, the northern face of the mountain). Running down the mountain is a set of 5 massive pipes, the Porridge Pipes.  I actually have no idea what they're for but our tour guide, Andy, told us they are a constant free supply of porridge to all (each pipe a different flavour)... haha a random funny story but what a great service... the way to end world hunger maybe!? ;)

Our last stop for the day was at THE  Bravehart hill/mound. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I've never actually seen the movie but had to get the photos on top anyway.

Tonight we are staying in a little town called Oban. It is super cute and has a lovely little wharf area. We enjoyed a traditional Ceilidh tonight (Scotish singing & dancing). It was lots of fun and I think one of the highlights of Scotland).

Well no wonder I'm having trouble keeping up with this, just realised I'm writing sooo much more detail than when I started!

Wednesday 20th August
Lots more amazing views today and even some sunshine as we make our way back to Edinburgh. A few stops before we get there though, first to meet Hamish, the oldest Hairy Coo in the UK (he was a baby when they culled them all because of mad cow disease but he was saved). And finally, of course we stopped at the National William Wallace monument.
Once we were back in Edinburgh it was an abrupt end to tour as we were dropped roadside and everyone went in their different directions. We had a really good group on tour (& I finally found the other Brisbane people in Europe!), it's a shame it was only 5 days but that is the beauty of the Facebook era!

Thursday 21st August
I wasn't sure where I was headed to next so a couple of people recommended visiting St Andrews, a small town north of Edinburgh. After arriving and making my travel plans to get to Northern Ireland, I explored the town which is the 'home of golf'. It really is a beautiful little town, reminded me a bit of Newcastle (although smaller and with ancient castle ruins and cathedrals on the coastline).

Staying in my own room tonight! So nice to curl up and enjoy a nice quiet night in watching a movie! I've been away for 3 months today! I am enjoying it and have already seen so much but it's really starting to feel 'normal' now... not just an extended holiday.

Friday 22nd August
Walked down to the beach this morning, past the famous St Andrews golf course, then caught the bus up to Dundee. Dundee is apparently Scotlands 4th largest city or something but it's a bit dated. Just stayig here for the night as it's more easily connected to the ferry for Northern Ireland.
I had a wander around and ended up at a little community theatre showing  a play of Steal Magnolias. It was very amateur but entertaining none the less.

Saturday 23rd August
A long travel day today, starting with a bus to Glascow where I had a quick look around & got some lunch (does that classify as another city visited?), then a bus to Cairnryan to get the ferry across to Belfast.

Northern Ireland

Sunday 24th August
I am staying at an Airbnb place here and it is the best yet, it is actually a B&B, Mary the host is a lovely lady and has a full breakfast spread laid out each morning. After I wandered into the city and found absolutley nothing open (Sunday trading is a distant memory now!), except for the tourist information thankfully, I found the St George markets, some small weekend markets that were quite cute. I did a tour of the Crumlin Road Gaolwhich was very interesting. It has such a long history, all the way up until the 90s! They carried out executions there too and they took us through the process (including the hanging room! Eek).

Monday 25th August
Today is a public holiday (however there is more open today than yesterday, go figure) so I organised a Black Cab Tour on pretty much everyone's advice. It was very interesting to hear details about The Troubles and see the murals but I didn't find it as good as everyone makes out. I didn't think it was worth the $$ either but then again it's per cab so being by myself didn't help there. Oh well, I learned a lot and can say that I've done it.

The new mayor of the city is apparently trying to prove herself and organised a beach party at City Hall (which itself is a very impressive bulidng that the city is basically built around). Apparently the idea was to give families a free trip to the beach (as that's a luxury for a lot of people), great idea except for the fact that today was cold, wet and miserable! So after checking that out for approximately 10 seconds I headed to the Ulster Museum.

Tuesday 26th August
Before I leave Belfast I had to check out the Titanic museum and docks. They have done a great job with the exhibition (they opened it for the centenary), and I ended up spending a few hours there before heading to the Titanic dock and pump house. I thought that would be quite boring (but when in Belfast!) but I actually found it really interesting. By the time I finished there it had turned into a beautiful afternoon so I just wwnt back to City Hall and sat on the grasa and enjoyed the sun and warmth! (I think I've been in the UK too long, the sun is already a novelty.)

Wednesday 27th August
Caught the train to Derry today to see some of the Northern Ireland scenary. It was a nice ride and I arrived in Derry early enough to have a wander and do a walking tour. They are very passionate about their city and it's history before and during The Troubles.
I have arrived in time for the 'Walled City Tattoo', it's only in its 2nd year but again that passion for their city shines through. I didn't end up going to the Edinburgh tattoo as I hadn't planned to be there for it and when I checked to see if there was tickets available they only had packages worth £300+! So I thought I would check out the Derry version and wasn't disappointed. Of course it was absolutely freezing and wet but it was worth it, very entertaining!

Thursday 28th August
Today I explored the Northern Coast and Giant's Causeway. I toyed with the idea in Belfast of hiring a car to this but ended up deciding to just use public transport... oops! They have kind of tried to make the area accessible with buses (& even offer entry discounts if you use public transport) but they have failed. There are too many different bus routes, none of which go often enough or link up to eachother! But anyway, I managed to get to the main sites and saw the coastal route so all in all it worked out. Giants Causeway is interesting and beautiful. I didn't walk the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge but took the walk to it for spectacular views! Then I checked out the very small town next to it Ballintoy before heading up to Ballycastle which is a cute seaside city. Finally I took the late bus back which was a nice trip back along the coast at dusk.

Friday 29th August
Explored some more of Derry today, walking around the rest of the city walls we didn't do in the walking tour, saw The Troubles murals properly and checked out the Craft Village (which was really disappointing even though I wasn't expecting much). The Tower Museum has apparently been voted the best museum in the UK a few times so I checked that out. I can see why it's won awards, it's small but intimate and is well set out. There is a hell of a lot of history in a small place though. I learnt a lot but wow the Northern Irish history is complicated and surprisingly there are a lot of similarities between their 16th/17th century history and The Troubles!

Feeling like I need to do something 'normal' today so took myself to the movies! Such a small thing but just what I needed.

Saturday 30th August
Heading back to England now but flights out of Derry are rare so I'm catching the bus back to Belfast for tonight and catching the ferry across to Liverpool tomorrow. So another couple of relaxing travels days this weekend.

Sunday 31st August
All day ferry to Liverpool today, a chance to finish my book, catch up on this and even see movie (the services on the UK ferries are much better than the European ones).

Edinburgh

Tuesday 12th August
Scotland has welcomed me with fantastic weather... wet and absolutely freezing! I knew it would be cooler in Scotland but WOW! I am most certainly not packed for this kind of weather.
Still, I got up and jumped on a walking tour which was really good. Saw some of the 'old city' and got lots of history and stories (including a few Harry Potter locations!).
Because I wasn't quite frozen enough, I thought I might as well continue on and visited the Edinburgh Castle. I did a tour so got all of the history and stories behind it all. There is so much there and it has a good mix of Royal and Military history etc.
Tonight I thought I would get into the Fringe festival and found a free comedy show. It was ok, nothing ground breaking but had a few laughs.

Wednesday 13th August
The Fringe Festival is in full swing and there are so many people around, half of which are leafleters promoting their shows. I think I've already been given over 100 flyers! After soaking up some of the festival atmosphere I found half price tickets to one of the city Underground tours as well as for a comedian my tour guide from yesterday recommended.
The Underground tour was ok, we went down into the vaults underneath the city from back in the day but this was specifically not a ghost tour so it ended up being a little boring. Having said that though, I'm pretty sure I have a photo of an evil spirit on my camera!!! Will post when I can but I've showed a few people and most have been freaked out. So maybe not quite as boring as I thought.
The comedian was pretty average, that's the problem with sooo many shows on, there's no guarantee on quality (& this one was recommended!)

I have some nice people staying in my dorm (in particular a couple of Germans) so we all went out to watch the Military Tattoo fireworks from the bridge. They were short but pretty impressive, I would have liked to have gone to the Tattoo but you have to get tickets a fair way in advance and my trip wasn't that organised.

Thursday 14th August
Decided to check out a Fringe theatre piece (rather than comedy), so actually used one of the thousands of flyers I've received and saw an adaptation of Oliver Twist set in WWII. It was relatively ameature but I enjoyed it... an interesting link between the 2.
After that I tried another stand up show but again wasn't overly impressed.
So back to the theatrical performances tonight. This one was recommended by my German roommates and was really good! My favourite show of the Fringe.

Friday 15th August
I thought I should probably see a bit more of Edinburgh rather than just the Fringe stuff so I walked down to Holyrood Palace (the current Royal Palace for the Royal family went they visit Scotland). I didn't go in but had a look and saw the beautiful landscape behind it (which comes out of nowhere right in the middle of the city) aka 'Arthur's Seat'.
In the arvo I checked out the National Museum of Scotland. It's a big museum with lots of different exhibitions. I was a bit over all the history stuff so spent more time in the good old animal, geological and communications exhibitions. The museum also has a pretty good view over the city, a nice little bonus. And last but of course not least, I found Dolly (the cloned sheep)!!! Randomly placed in the middle of a kids hands on exhibition!

Tonight I had dinner with Rachel and Ryan, they have just got back from their Honeymoon so great timing to be able to catch up with Rachel after so long.

Munich

Oops, I'm getting worse at keeping this up to date...

Friday 1st August
I arrived in Munich and had a wander around, I already love this city... such cool architecture & so much to see and do!
I started with a 'Munich by night' tour, not the best way to get the lay of the land (in the dark) but it was an entertaining tour full of myths & stories. Got a bit of extra entertainment too when the drunk Americans made a scene because the guide called them out on the fact they were late!

Saturday 2nd August... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!
Got a better understanding of the city with a normal walking tour this morning. Munich has so much history and it is so interesting. 

My run of perfect weather ran out as a storm suddenly appeared... of course about an hour before my booked bike tour! I think I am officially cursed when it comes to bike tours, every single one I've done has either been cancelled due to bad weather or has been very wet! But it was fun just the same and we got a good show with the river being massively swollen and raging due to the very wet Summer they've been having (apparently the river is usually clear & calm). 

Sunday 3rd August
After 3 tours in 24hrs I was a bit toured out so had an easy day today and went back to see some places in more detail. Of course the forecast was for rain so I went prepared and it was a warm, lovely day! I walked up through the English Gardens and lucked upon the big beer garden in the middle, I even embraced being in Germany & had a beer with lunch (well a 'radler' aka a shandy).

Had a dumb tourist moment & took the bahn (underground) back down to the city but walked the wrong way when I came out & ended back where I got on! Oops! Haha

I eventually made it back to the Residenz (the Royal Palaces). An extremely impressive building & massive... you can only visit about 90 of the rooms (ONLY 90!!) The Bavarian Royals have a long & interesting history and they definitely did not skimp on anything. For example the king's bedroom that was only for show for visitors, never actually used! Random!

A big walking day today, definitely worked off that beer ;)

Monday 4th August
This morning I visited Dachau concentration camp. Dachau was the first and the training centre for all of the others. It was, of course, horribe but moving to be there and very different from my visit to Mauthausen. (It was hot and sunny compared to the middle of winter in a snow storm last time). 

A much lighter night with the arrival of Melissa (from my Spain tour) and her Busabout friends! We had some drinks and went for dinner at the Augustina beerhall (mmm pork knuckle ;) ). It was lovely to have friendly faces around and they even sung me an early Happy Birthday :)

Tuesday 5th August
I figured I should do something a little special &/or memorable for my birthday so did a day trip out to Neuschwanstein castle (the castle built by 'crazy' King Ludwig II and the one which THE Disney castle is based on). Of course the weather was terrible again because part of the tour was a bike ride around the mountain on which the castle sits. It was fun anyway and such a beautiful area. We rode around Swan Lake (unfortunately no, not THE Swan Lake) which was just breathtaking. After lunch we hiked up the mountain (hence the very red face in the photo), to the castle. I had heard that the inside of the castle is pretty disappointing because there are only a few rooms that were ever finished but wow, definitely not disappointing! The rooms are exactly what you would expect inside the Disney castle and there's even a man-made cave inside! So random but very impressive.

During the day I met some cool Americans and so crazy, 3 out of the 4 of us all have birthdays this week! So it was a nice little birthday party for all of us. We continued the celebration at the Hofbrauhaus beerhall which was fun. Bit annoying that I had to leave pretty early as I don't have my own key for the Airbnb place I'm staying at so needed to be let in.

After the disappointment not being able to get on a tour and simply being away from home on my birthday it ended up being a really great day!! So glad I decided to spend it in Munich!

Wednesday 6th August
Time to say farewell to Munich, Germany and Europe as a whole as I head off to the UK!
I am staying with Barbara (another of Em's friends that I met in Wales) for a few days, looking forward to seeing another friendly face.

London

Thursday 7th August
Met up with James this morning and had a great walk around London. We saw the WWI centenary memorial being set up at the Tower of London (whwn it's finished there will be one poppy for each fallen soldier from the Commonwealth. From there we walked across Tower Bridge and up along the Thames, then back into the city and went up oto Primrose Hill for a great view across London. After we parted ways I visited the Tower of London and ended up spending all afternoon there.

Friday 8th August
Took an easy day today and explored the Borough Markets and just chilled out for the afternoon before catching up with Chanelle, Amy and Annaleise from my Spain tour who are all livng in London. Had a great night catching up with them.

Saturday 9th August
Spent some time this morning exploring the Camden Markets and then met up with Barbara and walked along the canals. It's a lovely area and nice to see a more chilled side of London. I tagged along with Barbara to a dinner with her friends which was lots of fun. It has been really nice spending a few days 'living', just doing normal social things (rather than being the eternal tourist), and catching up with friends. It is really reminding me how long I am away for and making me miss home though.

Sunday 10th August
Today Barbara took me exploring around her side of London (East). We started with an awesome brunch (breakfast is the 1 meal I haven't been eating out for, I do miss a good cooked brekky!). Then we walked through Brick Lane, the flower and food markets and around the area. We saw this cool art exhibition where this lady has set up a little corner store where absolutely everything is made of felt. In the afternoon we were invited (through a friend of Barbara's) to a birthday celebration for the owner of a small local restaurant. It was a fun evening with great food and even some dancing with a lovely community atmosphere!

Monday 11th August
Off to Edinburgh today... 9hrs on the bus... so not much to write!