Haggis and bagpipes

So I haven't posted in awhile, because once we arrived on the British Isle everything became more expensive again. Plus there was so much to see and do in Edinburgh truth be told I couldn't be bothered. Currently we're in Hull at my friend Stuart's house. I met him originally four years ago in Australia on the International Air Cadet Exchange. We have some down time and he just got a new laptop so here it is.

The day after my last post we were up at 4am. It means we got to watch the sunrise from our Hostel Boat, but we were a little groggy and rushed to appreciate it. By 7:30am we were on an EasyJet flight to London, where we would transfer onto another flight to Glasgow. Unfortunately we booked them seperately so had to go through Customs in London, which we learned is very comparable to US customs. The lady speaking to David told him "Don't be sorry, be happy I don't send you back to where you came from". Haha, all because we didn't fill in the address on our landing cards, because we weren't 100% sure which one to give and we didn't know the hostel address in Glasgow. In the end we gave them Stuart's address and they were happy; its a good thing we had more than four hours in between our flights. We got to Glasgow and did some wandering in the afternoon before getting on a bus to Edinburgh in the evening. I am glad everyone we talked to to us not to stay in Glasgow and spend as much time as possible in Edinburgh. Even the old crazy man on the street in Glasgow told us not to stay there, and he was only happy after we reassured him we were going to the bus station to catch a bus away from Glasgow. Edinburgh was beautiful, and we did see (mostly hear actually) pipers in the street. We settled into the hostel, chatted with some fellow backpackers in the hostel before calling it a day.

In the morning we met up for another one of New Europe's free tours... I tell you this company is a dream come true. We saw all the major sights and heard many interesting stories behind them all. It seems this country's history is based solely on legends and lore rather than dates and names; this makes it very entertaining. After the tour we wandered up to the castle, but didn't pay the £12 entrance fee (holy expensive). From here we basically walked down the main old street stopping at the writer's museum and for free haggis samples (not so bad I must admit), all the way to the edge of town. Here was Holyrood palace (the Queen's residence in Scotland) and the new parliament building. It stands out drastically new against the old stone of the rest of the city. Its supposed to represent all of Scotland and has random rocks and puzzle pieces and sticks attached all over the outside of the main cement structure. On this side of the city is also park land, with some trails and we walked up the mountainy hill to Arthur's seat. Here we had an awesome 360 degree view (when we weren't in a cloud and it wasn't raining). We could see the whole city and the ocean on the other side. In the the evening we paid for one of New Europe's supplementary tours; a Ghost Tour of Edinburgh. It wasn't really scary, but you get to hear a lot more stories, mainly the eerie or spooky ones. They took us to a cemetary, and the sites of witch burnings and pagan rituals etc. Afterwards they dumped us off at a bar with free drink tickets. We stayed and chatted for awhile then went to the club mentioned in the tour. It is built into the old vaults of the south bridge, where all kinds of things used to go down. A pretty cool, but eerie place, it was dead so we didn't stay long. Back at the hostel we recognised some people from the night before and also met two new cynical Danes who were great entertainment.

In the morning we were introduced to their penguin, Rowdy (yes it is in tribute to the stuffed dog on Scrubs) who they were touring around Britain with. In fact they were going to walk 450km from one side to the other, but hadn't started yet due to misplaced luggage. When we finally left to catch a bus to Hull we learned we had missed the once daily bus at 10:50am... and trains are more than twice as expensive... but not with a railcard. We bit the bullet and bought a railcard (we will use it again and it paid for itself in one use), however it did cost us almost $300 Canadian for a 4hr train ride, ouch. Last night in Hull Stuey took us out on the town. We pub hopped to few places, but my favourite was "Ye Olde Hart". A totally old place, with a ton of history and a skull behind the counter. We even met a guy lodging there who proceeded to recount stories about the multiple ghost encounters he had experienced. It was here I also developed the title of "the angry lady". Really I just had to pee bad and all the stalls were busy, so once I did get one I may have shut the door a little forcefully.

Today Stu took us into the city of York. It had an amazing cathedral, but we didn't get to view it in detail as there was a wedding taking place. We were lucky how ever as there was a multi-cultural festival taking place, so we had some yummy indian food and enjoyed the music. We also picked up info on the Peak District (our next stop) and had chivalry lessons at the castle tower... I was even dubbed a knight.

After some time in the books and online we have an idea of where we'll be in the Peak District the next week or so, however, we're not sure of the facilities and we will be camping, so this may be the last update for awhile. We're hoping the weather clears up as the area is supposed to be beautiful and world reknown for climbing... fingers crossed.

Till next time