Carlisle, Edinburgh, Glasgow

Jonathan and Eve picked us up at the train station in Carlisle and took us back to their place where me saw Emma and the 2 dogs again and met the newest member to the household – Mimi a little kitten. We had a fairly relaxing afternoon/evening. The next day we minded the animals and did our washing and just had a good relaxing day. Johnathan cooked a nice meal and we all caught up. Eve is so big now and is walking and running everywhere. She loves Mimi. On Monday, we borrowed Emma’s car and drove into Carlisle City and just walked around and did some shopping. That night we played Trivia Pursuit… haha it was quite fun but it was very British bias. On Tuesday we had another day at the house which was good, I went on a walk with Emma and Eve and the dogs and then played with Eve outside. Jonathan had night shifts on that night, so Emma took us and Eve to the beach to walk the dogs and then we had fish and chips for dinner. It was good.

We left for Edinburgh on Wednesday morning, the train was nice and quick and as soon as we arrived there the rain came. My rain coat for my pack broke – so we did a quick fix with a safety pin and we walked to our Hostel. We were able to check in straight away and we then to the Royal Mile. Our mate Danny (tour guide) let us use his name to get ourselves a discount for a 4 day tour we are doing next week starting Monday morning. So we were very happy to get a 20% discount. We walked up and down the mile and stopped and ate ourselves silly with an all you can eat pizza hut buffet. Cindy found a bargain in some Scottish shorts (like the Canterbury shorts at home) so we got a pair of them. A person was giving pamplets out on the Royal Mile for free highland tours, so when we got back to the hostel we went online to check them out and decided to book ourselves in for Friday.

That night we made a spaghetti at the hostel which tasted okay and watched a movie.

Thursday, we had big plans to do things but didn’t do much – the weather was pretty eurgh and we just didn’t feel like doing much so that was a nothing to really write about day.

On Friday, we did the free highland day tour which was great. It works kind of like the free walking tours that we’ve done throughout Europe but you get to go on a cool Orange bus (Irene the hairy coo) and go up into the Highlands – Everything is Free… you just leave a tip if you think the guide/tour was good. So we went up north and saw the Falkirk Wheel, Stiring Castle (again), Inchmahome Priory which is in the middle of Lake Menteith (which is the only Lake in Scotland), Loch Drunkie, Hairy Coo spotting, Duone Castle (where Monty Python and the holy grail was filmed), we then went to see the Forth Bridges. We thought the Guide was great – he is the joint owner of the business (which has only be operational for the last 7 weeks). Hairycoo.com is the link – It’s a great Idea – for a 9 hour tour we tipped 30 pound for the both of us. Some people tipped between 20-40 each. It’s pretty crazy.

When we got back into Edinburgh we found a pub and had dinner and a few drinks waiting to meet up with Danny, he came a bit late but we spent a good few hours catching up. We plan on catching up again next Thursday night.

This morning we got up and got ready to leave to find that someone had decided to steal our travel adapter…. bastards… so with that annoying start to the morning we left to catch our bus to Glasgow. Bus trip was good, got to our hostel (we wanted to stay in the city centre as we’re only here for a night) and got in early and had showers and went out.

We bought a cheap digital small camera (as Cindy’s has died) and It’s handy to have a small camera, and then went to poundland and got a cheap case for the camera. We then went to Primarks where Cindy got new 4 pound Jeans as her ones she bought in November are very worn. We got some lunch and then made our way to George Square where the Glasgow Pride Festival was happening. We had a walk around – It wasn’t too big but had a good atmosphere and we walked around getting free pens, and note pads.

After awhile we went to Buchanan street (shopping street) and asked in a few stores about travel adapter… not many people knew what we were talking about. We thought we would try in the post office where the girl behind the counter was very friendly and helped us out! She gave us a discount too – so now we can charge the computer and phones again! I still can’t believe someone took ours.

Tomorrow, we going to my Aunt’s place to have lunch with my Grandpa and Ellen to catch up before going back to Edinburgh for our 4 day tour on Monday. We’re thinking about leaving our big packs at Ellen’s… but haven’t decided.

Next will be our tour to Skye, and a little of Glasgow. Photos will be coming aswell.

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