As I sit in the university computer lab, I can't help but think about what I was doing exactly a week ago: panicking. For, at this time last week, I had missed the plane I had booked from Scotland to Ireland, and was thus stuck in the UK without a known or planned way home.
But, let me back up. I had previously booked a trip to Scotland with my roommate Kelly. And, as we had decided, we took a plane from the Shannon airport in Ireland to Glasgow. After landing there and eating some much needed McDonald's (what was soon to become our food of choice because it reminded us of the US), we took a very scenic bus ride to Edinburgh. Once there, we checked in at our hostel--a beautiful old house on the bay at the edge of the city. We wandered around the city before going back and having a few drinks at the hostel bar, meeting some very interesting Australian actors along the way.
The next day we packed up our things and spent a few hours exploring the city and trying to find our next hostel. We then sat in the sun in the park below Edinburgh castle before taking the treacherous climb up the cliffs to the site itself. And, of course, being me, I decided to take a "shortcut" up the hill instead of the path. But, by the time I was 2/3 of the way up, I was so scared of falling back down my newly created trail of ascent, I spent the rest of the way crawling up on my hands and knees. We then toured the castle, took a bunch of pictures, and met one of the guards of the jewels--Liam, a Scotsman through and through. Wading through his accent, he explained how much Scotland hates the UK and the US, providing justification with religious differences and concluding with the statement that "the Scots only like 5 ethnicities: the French, the French Canadians...and I forget the other 3."
At night, we made the bad decision of going, as Kelly calls it, "ghosting." In other words, we went on a haunted tour of the city, ending up in one of Europe's most haunted and dangerous graveyards; and, after being scared nearly to death myself, I ended up trembling and falling to my knees so much with fright that I forced Kelly to sleep in the same bed with me to prevent ghosts from getting to me.
The next day, we took another beautiful bus ride up to Iverness, from which we quickly proceeded to Loch Ness. And, while the people behind us on this 4 hour bus ride must have quickly tired of the endless jokes that Kelly and I made about our hopes to see, as we endearingly named her, "Nessers," we never did. We spent 3 hours at Loch Ness--mostly because we were waiting for the buss--taking pictures, watching the sunset, and exclaiming that we thought we saw Nessie.
The next morning, our last day in Scotland, we got up ridiculously early to catch a bus. Half an hour early, and the first people at the bus station, we were determined not to miss the bus. What we did not expect, however, was the fact that the bus driver, for whatever reason, refused to sell us (and two or three others) tickets. As a result, we were forced to take a later bus and miss our flight! And, because both of us are poor college students, we ended up buying the cheapest flight that would bring us over to the next island; so, after spending the night in the airport, we flew over to Derry.
Tired, frustrated, angry, and hopeless, we got of the plane in Derry and looked at the map to see where we were. As soon as we take a step out of the airport to do so, it begins to pour--it was so horribly cliche and pathetic that I almost thought I was in a TV show. It turns out that unless we had tried very hard, we could not have flown to a place farther away from Galway! We took a 6 hour bus ride from Derry to Galway, though we were able to tour the city a bit before we did so.
Needless to say, the last two days of my trip to Scotland were a bit too eventful for me. In fact, the only thing that got us through the last few hours was the countless jokes and cliches that we made about our hatred for the country. It was an experience I will never forget, but which I also hope never to repeat. I can only cross my fingers that my trip to Germany on Friday will be nowhere near as disastrous as this past one.
As always, I appreciate any e-mails or news from you. I hope everything is well!
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