UK Diary Part 3: Scotland
Day 15
WE'RE IN SCOTLAND.
It was a cold drizzly morning when we left Wigton. Caught the 10am train to Carlisle then the 11am to Glasgow.
I went a little crazy at the train station shop and cafe, buying things like yogurt, biscuits, and fruit - food items that I had taken quite for granted until we stayed with our hosts - and then rushing to the West Avanti restaurant car like a deprived child. So far this is the only train we've seen a dining car on. The rest only have refreshment trollies (if that).
Arrived in Glasgow. This city didn't give us a very good impression, especially after a week+ in the countryside. It was all grey and grim, bags of rubbish, little puddles of effluvia everywhere (saw human faeces once...), bird shit caked floors. The Glaswegians looked pretty grim too. Or maybe the people wandering Glasgow city centre are mainly transient types (students, food delivery riders, etc.).
Yet Glasgow has a special place in my heart, for it was here we visited Poundland(!) and Lidl(!) for the first time. When you spend much of your free time on British subreddits about saving money, it is impossible not to feel something as you pass through the entrances of these mythical retailers. We were awed by the array of discounted goods and groceries in both stores and could not stop gawking at prices. Why is salmon here £10/kg but $30/kg in Singapore?
Just for fun, we took the Glasgow metro, the laughingstock of sophisticated and moneyed Londoners. There is only one line: it's a loop which you can complete in under 30 minutes, with trains going either clockwise or anti-clockwise on it.
I made Jon go to Wagamama with me for dinner. He was not impressed. But I loved it. The lychee collins and curry veggie ramen exceeded my expectations and put me in a good mood.
Day 16
After a night at the Travelodge, we broke our fast with historical Scottish figure Ronald McDonald's. Och Aye.
Despite the wonderful porridge at McDonald's I had a meltdown, then we spent the entire afternoon on the train from Glasgow to Fort William. 4 hours!
It's beautiful here though. This is the view from our guesthouse.
Had dinner at a Wetherspoon: £2.99 curry and rice. How they manage to stay afloat, I have no idea. It's like a soup kitchen.
Day 17
Was dog-tired in the morning but we set out early for Fort William bus station to go to Glencoe.
BTW this took a little figuring out, so here's what we did. We took the CityLink coach 914 (to) / 915 (from) Glencoe Visitor Centre. This is a scheduled bus and we could only pick from 9.10am or 11.10am departure. We chose the former and booked return tickets on their website: we just needed to show the e ticket PDF to the driver. Others paid on the spot using contactless card.
The bus dropped us off at Glencoe Visitor Centre. Not to be confused with the Glencoe village a stop before. The visitor centre has a trail to where the Massacre of Glencoe took place plus a replica highland clan thatched hut.
The hut is in an absurdly beautiful locale, surrounded by mountains and the wind howling and the constant shaking of pine forests.
The actual site of the massacre - Inverigan ruins - is about 20 min walk away along the blue trail starting from the Visitor Centre shown here. We also walked thr yellow and black trails but there was nothing to see.
After looking at the ruins we continued down to Glencoe village and ate lunch at a picnic bench overlooking the loch.
Then we walked down the small road following the River Coe.
That's where my blood sugar plummeted and I suddenly went crazy. Eventually, after an age, we got to this incredible pool at Signal Rock andI forgot all of my grievances. Also there were goats.
Next stop was the alleged filming site of Hagrid's Hut. This involved an uphill scramble. Interestingly the site was unmarked and did not have a Harry Potter merchandise shop.
We then hitchhiked back to the Glencoe Visitor Centre where we sat and waited for the bus back to Fort William.
Had underwhelming F&C from the one chippy here - should hsve gone to Wetherspoons instead. Cheered ourselves up with cheap but good fake Magnums from Tesco.
Day 18
Here is a picture of us with Ben Nevis. Of course we did the weak Asian tourist thing and took the gondola up Nevis Range ski resort rather than climb the actual mountain.
Before setting out, we had breakfast from Nevis Bakery on the Ft William high street. They had a hot display of things like bacon, black pudding, sausages, lorne sausage slices (basically luncheon meat), fried eggs, and potato scones. You pick the items you want and the staff sandwich them in a soft hot roll and serve with brown sauce (HP), ketchup, or both. So like a pick'n'mix McMuffin.
Also got a "Lochaber" pasty and Scotch pie to keep for lunch. Not very keen on either when we ate them at the top of the gondola - I think at ambient temperature they don't taste of much.
We walked the 2 trails emanating from the gondola station on Aonach Mor then came back to the cafe to drink tea/chocolate and write.
Tomorrow we leave Fort William for Edinburgh - long journey with tiresome stopover at Glasgow - so must enjoy every last bit of tonight! Good thing it only gets fully dark at 9pm.
Day 19
Today has just been a train day. We stayed at a wonderful guesthouse, Craig Nevis, on our last night in Fort William. There was a huge fry-up for breakfast but I abstained and ate fruit, yogurt, muesli, and toast, in order to save space for my train salad.
I caught up on a bit of reading and writing during the almost 4h journey. So it was quite pleasant. The highland train took us to Glasgow Queen Street and we caught the connecting train to Edinburgh.
Checked into our housesit to find Nala waiting for us at the door:
Dinner was scampi, instant noodles, baby corn, xiao bai cai, XL egg, and RTE chicken breast from Lidl. Lidl is amazing. A few hours later, aided by a packet of Dreamies, I became Nala's couch.
Day 20
Finally ticked off one major Scotland action item: SHAGGY COOS a.k.a. highland cows.
First we had an extremely leisurely homestyle breakfast of fried eggs, Lidl pastries, yogurt, and 2 servings of coffee - one of the best things about housesitting is that you can make breakfast exactly the way you want it.
Then we took bus 4 to Swanston Farm, which was only a 20-minute bus ride away.
Had lunch at the cafe - mine was kedgeree supposedly but I found it quite flavourless. At least it filled me up. it was like 7 degrees out and I was not prepared to traipse about without a full belly in the cold.
After walking along the prescribed shaggy coo trail and not seeing a thing, we decided to climb almost all the way up to the top of the hill. Finally we saw a mini herd of maybe 10 cows relaxing in the mist. Now we can buy all the postcards and toys.
For dinner we combined Tilda instant coriander & lime rice, beet and baby spinach salad, and hot-smoked salmon, all from Lidl of course.
I leave you with Nala and her dinner. Goodnight.
Day 21
Not doing too well. I don't know if it's the lack of solitude, the cold, or the homesickness, the exhaustion - everything together I suppose - but I've been feeling very down. I feel like I'm always being a wet blanket, letting Jon down, ruining our trip. Knowing these thoughts are irrational doesn't stop me having them.
I got a much-needed break today. Didn't have any plans so just took a walk around Haymarket looking at the restaurants and shops (remarkable lack of the usual chains) before going back to our housesit to cook and eat lunch and say bye bye to Nala.
Then we moved to Edinburgh's CoDE hostel, where we'll be staying for 3 nights. I quite enjoyed staying in hostels when travelling alone, but it's the first time I'm hostelling with Jon and I felt very self-conscious about it at first. However the feeling has quite faded away in the warmth and snug solitude of the pod.
After settling in there was just enough time to look at the David Hume statue and eat ramen and Italian desserts before it got too cold to stay out any longer.
Tomorrow: Mary King's Close, The Writer's Museum, The Museum of Childhood, and lunch at Edinburgh Mosque.
Day 22
Been trying to get used to staying in a hostel again. Thinking it was a clever money-saving thing to do, I decided to book 2 beds in a hostel in Edinburgh instead of a hotel/Airbnb. Edinburgh, like London, is crazy expensive - a double room near the train station ranges from £200 to £300 per night. In contrast, our pods were £35 each, so £70 total.
We are at the CoDE Pod hostel which is right on the touristiest of places: Edinburgh's Royal Mile. I picked this for its central location close to the train station and for the pod (rather than bunk) beds, which I've never slept in before. The pods are pretty much the same as sleeper train berths, but roomier, and they really do give you privacy. For some reason I sleep like the dead in one of these.
Cons: it's cold (though maybe that's an Edinburgh thing), it's a pain to pee at night, the doors open and shut loudly (earplugs help), and some person in our dorm keeps opening the window!! Oh well, it's only 3 nights and at least I do sleep well here.
Did the standard Edinburgh sightseeing thing today:
1. Rubbing Hume's toe
2. Fangirling Robert Louis Stevenson at the Writer's Museum
3. Hail :(
4. Lunch at the Edinburgh Mosque Kitchen
5. Pretty and pointless Victoria Street
6. Tom Riddle's grave
7. The Museum of Childhood
8. The Real Mary King's Close theatrical walking tour (no photos allowed)
KFC for dinner. I love the McDonald's and KFC here - both do £1.99 wrap of the day and it's such a steal. Slightly prefer McDonald's though because they do a grilled version. Then we went to Tesco Express to stock up on breakfasty snacks for our train ride tomorrow.
Day 23
Just a lot of owl photos (and 1 kookaburra) today!
Scottish Owl Centre
Directions from Edinburgh Waverley station: take the train to Shotts, about 45 min. From just outside Shotts station, take bus X22 to Polkemmet Country Park, about 20 min. It's about a 5 min walk from the entrance of the Park.
The Owl Centre is very far from Edinburgh - almost midway between Edinburgh and Glasgow - but it was relatively easy to get there. That is if you don't miss the train/bus, because the train is hourly and bus is every 30 min.
Entrance costs only £9.50/adult and it's super worth it because there are 60 owls to look at and learn about, plus a Meet the Owls session and a flying demonstration. The owl keepers were knowledgeable and passionate and it was a very educational experience. There's a gift shop where we may have bought far too many owl things.
Including lunch at the cafe next door - the chicken and rice soup was very good - we spent about 4 hours in total at the place.
Now on the train back to Edinburg to rest and maybe go for a pub quiz.
I'm sorry to say we had only 9 days to spend in Scotland, considering how vast it is. On hindsight we didn't allocate enough time to the Highlands. Lochs! Bens! Glens! The landscapes are ravishing, but the public transport is not. This is the sort of place where you do need to drive; otherwise, you spend most of your time waiting for the one bus service, or else walking endlessly to the closest village, which turned out to have zero shops.
Although we spent quite a few days in Edinburgh, I still haven't the slightest idea of the character of the Scots. This may be because we did mostly sightseeing and didn't talk to any locals.
It was rather a mistake to stay on Edinburgh's Royal Mile. The people we saw were mostly bored cosmopolitan students and gauche American tourists (obnoxiously taking selfies w/ a fan of cash against Adam Smith's statue or asking long-suffering bar staff to repeat their bill amounts, just to listen that Scottish brogue...). I think Edinburgh is a pretty liveable city though, with really good buses, trams, and trains. Would not stay in the city next time.
We found it surprisingly difficult to get hold of "traditional Scottish fare". I had expected rivers of porridge and salmon and cock-a-leekie soup. Finally ate haggis, neeps and tatties on the last night, but I found it a little underwhelming. Ate hot-smoked salmon from Lidl and found it tasted mostly indistinguishable from regular salmon. It is possible that we have far too many gastronomical imports in Singapore - it is hard to find something new. Still no sign of cock-a-leekie soup anywhere.
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