Bubbling Over

I took a lot of video during my European travels, not that you have seen any of it. I always intended to make lots of amusing videos set to music, conveniently forgetting my fear of video editing software (stemming from an unfortunate incident in high school, as do so many fears).

Today, however, I was stuck without internet or other entertainment for a 3-hour layover coming home for Christmas, and I put together a little something. Behold:


A bitty video of my time in Scotland! I'm pretty pleased with it.

Edinburgh, Entry I

We reached Edinburgh a little before midnight, and I checked into my hostel (Clarissa and I figured that 10 days of sleeping in the same room might wear on us, so I got my own hostel for 3 nights, then slept on her floor over the last weekend). A pretty cool place, right in the center of things. If I even decide to spend a month or two in Edinburgh (not out of the question, though I don't know what life circumstances would lead to such an event transpiring), it would be an excellent long-stay hostel.

Edinburgh was a much more relaxed time than running around to a new city each day. I slept in on a regular basis, and generally just walked around. 

My first day, I decided to orient myself with a bus tour. The guide had such a thick Scottish accent that I probably got just as much out of his narration as I do when I'm being guided in French! Which is to say, I followed it, but definitely missed out on many nuances. 

A proper-sized bustling hub of a city!

Aforementioned tour guide

This is where Robert Louis Stevenson lived!

Police box and a telephone booth! Love it. 

Clarissa and I met up for dinner and spent several hours catching up (apparently in 5 days of constant contact, we had barely tapped the barrel of available conversations) the first night. She kept trying to get me to order to vegetarian haggis, but I outsmarted her and got a Reeses shake instead. I was so insistent that they completely load it with Reeses that they actually served it to me with an entire monster Reeses on the side! 

Never did get to the castle, but it's on a list for future visits. It's good to leave some things unexplored, right? I need an excuse to go back! Something else I sorta meant to do but never actually did is take a Writing Tour of Edinburgh. So many notable writers spent formative and productive time in Edinburgh. Among them are Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and JK Rowling. I added myself to the list (self-aggrandizing, I know) with a day working on my writing in the main park that runs between Old Town and New Town.

An interesting part of my timing in Scotland was that it was in the two weeks leading up to the Royal Wedding. Every tabloid was all about it, and they had lots of engagement-ring knock-off jewelry in the stores. I actually considered a pair of 4-pound earrings based on The Ring, because it would be such a timely, topical souvenir, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend money on a copy that was so cheap the "sapphire" was see-through and light purple. Still, it was much good fun. I was in Greece for the wedding itself, and watched it with all of the other girls there. But more on that later...

Writing

Though I wasn't there for the Wedding, I was in the UK for another wonderfully UK-ish (British? Scottish? What on earth do you call something which refers to the entire UK?) thing: the premier of the new season ("series") of Doctor Who. Clarissa has a small viewing party that she would go to in the fall for new episodes of Merlin, and they decided to start it up again for Doctor Who. It was a fabulous time- we ordered pizza and flopped around on a couch, yelling at Dan whenever he messed with the TV, discussing various fandoms, and positing theories on the episode, while it was happening. It's been such a long time since I watched a TV show with someone. It's so much fun! 

The other main to-do of Edinburgh was our rainy climb of the craigs and Arthur's Seat, a dormant volcano. But that involves lots of pretty pictures, and my internet is quite slow right now. So it will get it's own post, then it's onto Glasgow and Greece!

Iceland update: booked the hotel, now to look into what adventuring I want to do. Add another European volcano to my list? Whale watching and glacier spotting? Geothermal hotsprings?

Scottish Highlands: Inverness, Part II

When we last left off, Clarissa and I had been thwarted in our plans to wander the ruins of Urquhart Castle. However, we remained upbeat and blew bubbles and went back into town. A yummy dinner at the Hootenanny followed, and then our lovely bed at our lovely hostel.

The next morning we packed up (this would be a recurring theme) and hopped the bus back to the Castle on our way out of town.

Upon reaching the Castle, we were ushered in for a little 15-minute video (not half-bad, actually) detailing the history of the castle, from the selection of the location through the blowing up. As we sat down, I noticed that behind the giant black curtain that backed the screen, there was obviously a window. 

"What do you bet that there is a dramatic reveal of the castle when the movie is over?" I joked to Clarissa.

Observe:

Called it!

Much gleeful running about and photo-taking ensued for the next hour until our next bus. 

All of Scotland was this ridiculously green

The day got a liiiittle windy

Trebuchet 

Loch Ness stretching out in one direction...

...and the other

The cool wheels on the trebuchet

The bus transfer got a little interesting, but we found a hotel restaurant to camp out in, and a book of puzzles! So all was well. 

Bubbles and the Bridge over the River Gary (I actually don't remember if this is how it was spelled- likely not)

Onward to the little town of Portree on the Island of Skye!

Scottish Highlands: Inverness, Part I

Inverness is the fastest-growing city/town/etc. in Scotland, a few hours north of Edinburgh by bus. It's the major city attached to Loch Ness. Clarissa and I both fell hard and fast. It is adorable!

We arrived in the early afternoon of Friday, and checked into The World's Cutest Hostel- the Bazpackers Hostel, for anyone interested in doing Inverness/Loch Ness on a budget. We wandered around the town for a little bit, discovering this oddity:

Like a TJMaxx, but with a pound-sign attached to the same price numbers instead of a dollar sign, thus making it actually much less of a bargain

...then continuing on to the river that runs through town. Sadly, this was before we commenced the Grand Bubble Tour, so I just have some normal pictures for you:

There is a castle on Loch Ness, Urquhart (Urk-heart) Castle. Our bus passes got us to the Castle without having to pay a special fare, which would turn out to be exceptionally handy...

We arrived at the Castle at about 4:30pm. It turns out that the Castle is only open until 5, and the last entry is 45 minutes prior to closing. Whoops.

This was at first quite distressing- we were planning on leaving relatively early the next morning to allow for the maximum amount of time at our next destination, Skye, on Saturday (when the buses would still run around the island). And the Castle didn't even open until 9 the next morning! But we hopped around and took what pictures we could. And it ended up being an excellent turn of events, because it led to the advent of the Grand Bubble Tour!

We could only get pictures from behind a series of prickly bushes, but we did what we could.

The Scottish flag

An example of the prickly bushes lining the fence that kept you from gaining unpaid access to the castle

Castle! The last inhabitants blew it up rather than see it overtaken, thus it's state of... well, blown-up-ness

The Very First Bubble Shot

Do you see Loch Ness in the background??

A wedding appeared to be taking place

We started out at the castle feeling very unhappy, but by the time we left, we were So Happy. Bubbles just make the world a happier place! 

We went back the next morning before Skye, but this is already a super long post, so I'll make that a separate post. Entirely likely I will get it up in just a few hours, but if I don't, it will be about a day, because we are heading to Glasgow tomorrow for the day.