Friday we go to the Guinness Factory since we had nothing better to do. It was actually kinda interesting to see how they make beer and all the advertisements they would use for Guinness. And I tried a small glass in the tasting room. Yes Dad, I finally tried a Guinness...and I'm not a big fan. Too, I dunno. I just didn't really like it. But the storehouse was still cool to walk around. At the top there is a place called Gravity Bar, where you show your ticket and you can get a free pint of Guinness or a free soft drink. So I had the most expensive soft drink ever (cost me 11 euros). But the view was spectacular as we had arrived just as the sun was beginning to set.
Moving on to Saturday morning, I'm up at 5am to be ready at 5:30 for the taxi to take us to the airport. That was a fun morning. We got to the airport and got all checked in and stood in a really long, but surprisingly quick-moving security line. Once we were through, we discovered that there is a Butler's Chocolate Shop in the airport (they have the most amazing hot chocolate ever!!!!). So we treated ourselves to a muffin and a nice cup of hot chocolate. The flight was pretty uneventful and quite short. Only about 40 minutes long. Once we arrived at Preswick International Airport in Scotland we were ready to go through Customs, but we didn't have to for some reason. Still don't know why....
We take the train into Glasgow, which is about a 45 minute ride through beautiful countryside, because Preswick is right near the coast. Not even 10 minutes into our journey we pass a golf course, which made me immediately think of my dad :) I actually had the urge to pick up a set of clubs and go to a driving range, but alas, we had a bus to catch. Once in Glasgow, we took a connecting bus from the train station to the bus station and hopped a bus to Perth. Pretty uneventful ride, mostly tried to sleep. Once in Perth, we changed buses and got on a bus to Inverness. 2.5 hours later, we arrived in Inverness. It was early afternoon and it began to snow as we got off the bus (of course lol). We made our way to the River Ness and walked along the bank until we reached our B&B. Absolutely beautiful was the the walk. And our B&B was amazing!!!!!!!!! Finley, the older son of Mrs. Stephen showed us to our room, complete with an insuite bathroom and shower, and a COMPLIMENTARY BOX OF CHOCOLATE!! It was great. We also had a beautiful view of the river from our room. We were exhausted from our bus rides so we relaxed for an hour and found out that Supernanny is played in Scotland, but with American families. It was interesting to watch, but we got hungry so we left and found dinner at a cute italian restaurant about a 10 minute walk from the house. The penne pasta I had was superb and the brownie sunday dessert was to die for! Once done, we returned to the guest house where we all ventured to shower (which was an experience because to have hot water, you had to sacrifice some water pressure), but it was nice to be clean and warm. The bed was the most amazing thing ever!!!! Comfy, warm, and two very squishy pillows all to myself :) I was in complete heaven. We watched The Italian Job on tv and then all konked out around midnight. Here are some pics of the B&B we were in.
Breakfast was bright and early at 8:30am and we met Mrs. Stephen then. She is a lovely lady who is very nice and helpful. We had a lovely breakfast, it was nice to actually eat a decent breakfast, of eggs, sausage, and a potato scone. And I had COFFEE!!!!!!! Strong but good french press coffee. It was a great way to start the morning. Mrs. Stephen helped us find a tour of Loch Ness to go on and when it left so we headed back to the bus station with all of our stuff for the tour at 10:15. May I just say that Loch Ness and Urquhart (not sure of the spelling) Castle are absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
We tromped around the castle for about an hour and then hopped back on the tour bus to go back to Inverness. At Inverness we caught a bus back to Perth that would then take us back to Glasgow for the evening, where we had a hostel reservation.
Sooooo, here's where the fun starts. We get to Glasgow, and it's snowing again (of course) so we head out to look for the subway station that we need to take to the hostel. Turns out the subway is closed on Sundays. CLOSED!!! Thankfully they had also given directions by bus so we took a little adventure on the public bus....yeah I'm not a big fan of the buses in Glasgow because we had no idea where we were going and we missed our stop...by 3 miles. We finally get off because we are lost and have no idea where we are. So we decide to hail a cab to just take us to the hostel, only problem is we don't have the actual address because silly me forgot to write it down. The taxi driver was really nice though and found out the address for us and took us to the hostel...or so we thought.
We get there and go inside and boom, think stereotypical hostel and that was what we had walked into. I talk to the guy at reception and he looks through his book for our reservation. But it's not there. "hmmmm I think you might be booked at our other location" WHAT???!!!????? Apparently there are two Blue Sky Hostel locations and we were at the wrong one. He calls us a taxi to take us to the other location and we finally arrive where we were supposed to be. The lady checks us in and gives us the receipt for the night that we had to cancel and we go up to our room. Mind you it's about 9:30pm now and we're all grumpy and hungry. So we venture out in search of food. Finally we find something that's open and have a pretty decent italian meal again. Once we have food in our stomachs, we calm down a bit, but have determined that we really are not big fans of Glasgow since everything seemed to have gone worng and no one was very helpful. Back at the hostel, we check our flight info, hoping that it will be canceled so we can go to St. Andrews, which we couldn't fit in because of the bus scheduel. Unfortunately, no cancelation. So we go to bed and wait for Monday morning to arrive.
Monday morning comes and we get ready, pack up, and check out. We take the subway back to the train station (it was actually open this time) and get on a train to the airport. At the airport we go to check in only to find out that we were supposed to check in online and would have to pay 9.50 pounds to check in at the airport. SO we were pissed and paid so we could check in then got through security finally, long line and slow people. We were all glad when we touched down in Dublin again because at least we were back on familiar ground. Once through customs, we got on a bus that took us into the city and walked back to our apartment. Needless to say we were all very happy to be home. Though that was quickly killed by the fact that my kitchen was a mess when I got back and apparently I'm the only one who does dishes or really cleans. Ugggghhhhhh. But that's a story for another time. So that was my adventure to Scotland. Everything that could go wrong pretty much did, but we had a nice time in the Highlands and at least I was with friends.
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