Back to Edinburgh after our trip, Gillian immersed herself in her studies while I slept for days and watched a lot of tv, attempting to get over my illness. By Saturday I was feeling okay, and bored of sleeping all week, so we joined Rory and Isla and went off to a party. You know a party is good when you are hanging out with 19 and 20 year olds, and they feel old.
Sunday we cooked our £4 chicken and had a delicious feast before heading out to see Duncan's band, Crow Road, play at Maggie's Chamber. It has been forever since I have been to a gig and it brought me back to my highschool days. And they are actually really good!
On Monday I took the train to Oban, to meet my Dads relatives, Jane and Colin. I spent all week there, reading, eating fantastic food and sleeping a lot. Oban is absolutely beautiful.. a touristy getaway in northern Scotland. My dad described it as the Banff of Scotland, and he was pretty spot-on.
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| The Atlantic from Colin and Jane's house |
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Friday night I headed back to Edinburgh, with one day to spare before going to Manchester for my $49 flight back to Canada on Sunday.
Gill and I wandered around Edinburgh on Saturday, trying to pick up some last minute souvenirs before going on a ghost tour. Since I don't believe in ghosts, it was more of a tour of the underground city of Edinburgh.
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| The tunnels of Edinburgh |
Which in itself is still pretty cool. I was really surprised that out of our group of over 20 people, there was only about 3 people who didn't believe in ghosts.
We cooked some shephards pie for dinner before heading to Potterrow. Apparently the way you go to this bar is by lining up at 9, getting a wristband and a stamp, then going to the bar nextdoor for cheap drinks until everyone is drunk enough to dance. Seriously everybody turned around the minute they got in the door to get their stamps. Bizzare.
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| Potterrow. |
We got home at 4:30, just enough time for me to pack the rest of my things, and get in a taxi to the bus station to catch my 5:10 bus to Manchester.
The 5 hour bus was terrible, as I couldn't find my pillow before I left, and had put my bag with everything I could have used as a pillow in it, under the bus. I managed to drunkenly pass out with my head on the window for a bit during the ride, and everytime we turned or stopped I would curse buses and wished there was a train that I could have taken. At 10:30 I arrived in Manchester and I was starting to feel hungover and disgusting as I didn't wash my face or brush my teeth before leaving Edinburgh. So there I was, some random bus station in Manchester where it was raining cats and dogs, and I had only 4 hours until my flight took off. After finally finding some directions I waited for the tram that would take me to the train station to find a train that I could take to get to the airport. After about 20 minutes of waiting for the tram I really started to panic that I would miss my flight. I had forgotten it was Sunday and transit is shit on Sundays.
At the train station I got a ticket to the airport, and got on a proper train, with no idea how long the train ride would be. Half an hour later, we arrived at the airport, and I am really starting to freak out since I now only have about a half an hour before check in closes. Getting from the train station part of the airport to my actual terminal was terrible too, for some reason they only have elevators to get there. Why no stairs?! So everybody from the train is trying to squeeze into the elevators with their suitcases and since there were so many people everyone assumed someone else would press the buttons and uugh, it was just terrible and all I wanted to do was eat some food and brush my teeth.
To make a long story shorter, my flight was delayed and I made my flight. After an hour and a half wait to get through customs in Calgary I was finally reunited with my folks and happy to be home.
And for the wrap up I'll just say that the trip was unbelievably awesome and it was really sad to leave Edinburgh. Thanks to Duncan, Rory, James and especially Gillian for letting me stay with you for so long.
