The Motherland- the joys of travel

Let’s talk about how amazing Scotland is. I’m pretty much in love with it and am definitely going back eventually. The people were sooo friendly. Bus drivers would ask us where we were trying to go and give us directions, people brought us hot cocoa when we were sitting on a pier waiting for our bus, we were treated to dinner by the other couple that was staying in our bed and breakfast, and so much more. We were completely welcomed and helped out in every way possible it seemed. We aren’t sure if this is because it was just a shock being in an English speaking country again where we understand everyone (almost everyone lol… those accents are tough sometimes :D).

And yes, I realized how used to speaking Spanish to everyone I am. The first time we got on a bus I told the driver “hasta luego” and then realized that I was being ridiculous haha. I got a strange look.

But, let’s start from the beginning of the trip. Last Saturday morning I left my house in Sevilla with my friend Irene at 430 so we could get to the airport in time for our flight. We had a connection in Palma de Mallorca (one of the most popular tourist locations in the Mediterranean for the beaches). It was gorgeous even though we saw it from a plane and the airport. We waited there for about 6 hours and were ready to board our flight that would take us to Edinburgh. However, as we walked up to board they wouldn’t let us because we didn’t have some kind of special stamp that apparently you only need if you are leaving Spain on a student visa (the same thing happened to a couple other girls from my program too... not very clear in the directions). Suddenly we had 5 minutes to run through the airport and security, find a little office, get our ticket stamped, and run back to board the plane. (By the way, I’m wearing a boot now because my foot was becoming ridiculous and no, this was not an excuse to anyone at the airport to help me at all.) So we ran and ran and ran, sweating and wheezing the entire way. (I haven’t actually ran in a long time thanks to the foot… it was sad lol.) And let me just say that this airport is huge. It’s random and on an island, but there are 4 terminals and of course we were on the one farthest from the office. Finally, after asking numerous people where we were going, my zipper coming open and half of my stuff falling out of my backpack, and whacking a random guy with my water bottle that was tied to my bag (I got the death stare… no language barriers in that), we got the stamp and returned to our terminal only to see the arm just beginning to detach from our plane. We were seriously 2 minutes late after all of that. Let me just say we were more than a little upset. We were on an ISLAND lol. The flight was with a cheap, not highly respected company and they had absolutely no customer service. There had been one sentence saying to have our visa checked by security, but still I don’t understand how we were supposed to know we needed it stamped at their office and not just saying as we went through security we would need to show them our visa. We were not alone in this misunderstanding though. There was a Korean girl who is also studying in Spain who missed the flight for the same reason. The three of us bonded together and tried to figure everything out. RyanAir told us to walk around asking all of the other kiosks if they had flights to Scotland that night. The other girls story is worse than ours because she had left her bag with the flight attendants and when we came back it was no where to be found (we still don’t know what happened to it… they were so unhelpful and we looked everywhere with her). So she was there with her passport and that was it. No phone, no money, no friends, only her passport and ticket stub that was worthless now. So the whole situation was redeemed a little bit in the fact that we could help her get to where she needed to go (her Spanish is not very good yet and her English wasn’t much better). We got a flight in to Glasgow later that day and then took a bus the rest of the way so that we finally got to Edinburgh at around midnight (instead of 2 pm). In the process we had gone through security so many times (each time the thing dinging on me of course lol) that the guards asked us what was going on, why we’d been running and if we had gotten a different flight. Comical to say the least.

In Edinburgh we crashed at Irene’s friends flat (she is going to school in Edinburgh). It had been too long of a day to go out and try and do anything. We were just happy that we had gotten there Saturday! Sunday we explored Edinburgh a bit. We hiked up Calton hill which we thought was Arthur’s seat, the highest point in Edinburgh but there were still some great views, walked up and down the Royal Mile and saw the castle. Then we had some time to kill and started talking to some people at a bus stop who told us which bus we should take to go up to a little fishing village and eat dinner there on the water. (side note: Edinburgh has the best and most organized bus system of any city I’ve been in so far… and yes they are double deckers like in England.) So, we went and it was a precious little part of town and we ate looking out across the “firth” to absolute gorgeousness. Later that night we went to a tour of Mary King’s Close which is a tour of the underground city of Edinburgh. Back in the day they built on top of a whole bunch of the city instead of destroying it. So now the Royal mile is actually over old houses and buildings. They just opened it up for tours and stuff about 5 years ago. And finally on our way home from that we stopped in a pub that had live music and that was fun. All I’m saying is that anyone can dance like the Scottish dance… I wouldn’t ever feel stupid :D.

Monday we headed towards Oban and the Isle of Mull. The bus trip was completely worth the 4.5 hour ride just to see the country side. Constant mountain/ hills covered with waterfalls, castles, and sheep. Hard to describe but I completely, 100% think that everyone needs to go. We got our ferry tickets across to Mull and tried to put together our plans for the following couple days. The trip on the ferry was absolutely gorgeous as well. Think of those inspirational posters that say stuff like strength and courage that they always have in schools but in real life. When we got to Mull, we realized that the website had lied (or just been conveniently vague) and the buses stopped running at about 6 pm. Therefore, our days were not going to be as full as we had intended them to be. So we rearranged our plans to work with the bus schedules and were going to rent bikes one of the days. We walked around a bit (took a random train thing that’s like a carnaval ride for 5 year olds because we didn’t realize what we were doing lol), had a run in with a sheep, and met quite a few really nice people that we continued to bump into throughout the couple days we were there. We rode the bus back to Tobermory (a precious little harbor town) and got to our bed and breakfast. The owner was precious and there was a couple staying upstairs too that offered us drinks and food and everything. So the first day, we didn’t see as much as we’d wanted but it was fine because we had plans for the next two days set.

So Tuesday began with an AMAZING breakfast… I mean, compare anything with a piece of toast with oil and a cup of coffee and its going to win, but it was delicious. It ended up being really cold so our bike plan fell through (a constant drizzle really makes the cold cut through you) and we decided to take the bus to see Iona (a little island off of Mull). The drive was supposed to be gorgeous. We got half way (to where we had to switch buses) and found out that the busses weren’t going to Iona that day because the ferry wasn’t working because of the weather. As Irene said, “The spirit is willing but the buses are weak.” So, we ended up going to Duart castle (yes, this is the MacLean clan castle). And that was awesome. I signed the book of MacLeans that have gone and visited and it was really neat. I got some awesome pictures. After that we went on a hike (we had a whole bunch of time to kill because the bus wasn’t going back to Tobermory where our B&B was for a few hours) But I’m so glad we did because again… it was gorgeous. We were soaked by the end of the day, but completely worth it. We went back to our place, microwaved a frozen pizza and some popcorn (hadn’t had popcorn since we’d been here) and called it a night after watching some Scottish TV (random fact: Did you know that they still wear the grey curly wigs in the courts in Britain? Think George Washington wig on normal modern people… funny!).

Wednesday morning we didn’t have time (actually the bus schedule was just crappy) so we didn’t have time to get to Iona and back before the ferry we needed to catch our bus back to Edinburgh, so we went on an early ferry and looked around Oban (the harbor that is on the mainland side). We ate some fish and chips (I’m officially a fan of haddock), drank an Irn bru (the signature soda of Scotland apparently… kind of like the Ale8 of Scotland for you Asbury people), and some Sticky Toffee Pudding (I’m looking for a recipe because it was sooo delicious). We were told we had to try those things before leaving. Haggis was also on that list, but we weren’t quite brave enough lol.

We got back to Edinburgh Wednesday night and then left Thursday morning again for Sevilla without anymore plane issues. All week we had been a little bit obsessive compulsive about times of everything.

It was one of those trips that was a learning experience throughout the whole thing. I felt like we had done our research and the websites made it sound like our plans were going to work but just had bad luck with how it turned out in the end. It was one frustrating thing after another but we were in Scotland and that was AMAZING. The fact that we didn’t get to do as much as we wanted to makes me want to go back and do it again the right way. My advice would be for anyone planning to go to Scotland… rent a car and have no plans (or loose ones). Just drive and see where you end up. And don’t rely on buses on the Isle of Mull because while the drivers are super nice, it’s just a very slow paced place.

I'll put up pictures later... It was gorgeous!!! Love you all!!