And the answer is…NOTHING!

I arrived in Scotland around 13:30 on Sunday – in the midst of “gale force winds”. I flew into Glasgow- Prestwick airport and caught the 14:00 train into the heart of the city. It was terribly windy (remember, I live(d) in the Hurricane state, I KNOW windy!), rainy and cold, just flat-out crappy! Made it to my Guest House without too much hassle- other than I’d find out later I took the most obscure way walking up more hills than necessary! After dropping my bags and discovering: Channel 4 was televising a “U2 Weekend”, I had free WiFi, and Charmed is on Scottish TV, I pulled myself away from English-language TV and ventured back into the darkening city to see what I could find. I found Scott Street (important for name alone), tons of stores, a used-book bookstore, a mall, and a restaurant for dinner. After wandering around the streets and seeing some monuments and stuff in the dark and rain, I returned to my room, and went online to find myself a tour through the Scottish countryside. I was in luck and there was a tour to Loch Ness leaving from Edinburgh at 8:20 the next morning. Of course I was still in Glasgow, but only being a 40-minute train ride, I figured that wouldn’t be a problem. HA! So I got up EARLY to make it down to the train station, planning on taking the 6:30 train (there is a train running every half hour between the cities). But for some reason the 6:00 train was delayed until 6:15 so they canceled my 6:30, so I had to take the 7:00, which was also delayed. So I missed the tour by the time I got to Edinburgh. Although a bit disappointed, I signed up for the tour on Tuesday, and had the whole day free to explore Edinburgh!

Being there at 8 am, not a whole lot of touristy things were opened. So I found my hostel, asked if I could store my bag there, and even had some breakfast! Then it was time to wander the main streets in the New Town (not that it is “new”, but it is not as old-as-Old Town). Then I headed over to Old Town, specifically High Street, also known as the Royal Mile. With the Edinburgh Castle on one end and the Holyroodhouse Palace at the other end, with hundreds of pubs and little shops in between. I even found the Historical Scottish Whiskey Tour – while there is no distillery on the Royal Mile, there is a museum (complete with tours and samples) dedicated to the hundreds of Scotch distilleries across the 4 Scotch-producing areas of Scotland. I figured “when in Scotland…” and drank my dram (2 oz.) of Scotch provided, I must say, I was proud of myself for doing it (when else is alcohol drinking considered an honor?) but I think 2 oz. of Scotch was all I needed to tide me over!

Perhaps I should have had more, cause after my Scotch tour, I wandered up and down the street for hours until the wind got to be too much for me (maybe a few more drams of Scotch could have kept me warmer longer?) In fact, there was so much wind that the Edinburgh Castle was even closed due to sheer force winds! (The following day our tour bus driver said someone literally blew off the castle once- but I don’t know if he was serious or joking – or if it was since the 19th century – but I did believe him that the castle is always closed on very windy days.)

Then I headed back down to the New Town to a Christmas Carnival/German Christmas market (getting warmed up for next week!). After all the stores started to close I headed back to the hostel to get some sleep since my Scottish Countryside tour was supposed to leave at 8 am. At my hostel, I was in a 4 person room but only 2 other people were there- a young girl from Australia (who was really sweet), and a crazy old Scottish/Australian woman who wanted to talk and talk and talk (6 years of karma coming back to haunt me?).

Next morning, I checked out early and headed back up to the castle for my tour. Unfortunately, the tour doesn’t “go” unless 6 people sign up, and I was the 5th :( so for the second day in a row, I didn’t get to go on my Loch Ness tour. Instead, they gave me a discount and sent me on the Loch Lomond, The Trossachs & Stirling Castle tour. It was nice, the weather went from nice, to rainy, to windy, to downright crappy, and any other combination of the four. The majority of this tour was all about William Wallace (Braveheart anyone?) and Red Roy McGregor. Also heard a great deal about Mary, Queen of Scots, and saw where she was born and raised (Stirling Castle) which I felt was fitting since I had already saw her tomb at West Minster Abbey a few days before. Stirling Castle, or rather the land it overlooks, is where William Wallace (NOT Mel Gibson) won his most successful battle (you know before getting his “arse handed to him, captured then tortured to death” – guess it has been awhile since I’ve seen the movie?).

And of course our tour guide let us in on the most elusive secret of Scotland. What do they wear – if anything? A true Scots man, wearing a true Scottish kilt (which is made of about 5 meters of fabric – very unlike today’s kilts) wore nothing at all, and the kilt is the length it is, because the Scots men were constantly walking through fields with grass up to their knees, and the “skirt” was an alternative to having wet pants. Of course my Scottish tour guide would probably have a fit if he knew I just referred to a kilt as a “skirt.”

After the castle tour, it was back to Edinburgh, which I went straight from the tour right to the Edinburgh airport to continue on my journey…Next stop: Dublin!