Goodbye Edinburgh

Random collection of photos from Edinburgh, Scotland.








Calton Hill



Overall Thoughts
Edinburgh was a nice break from the busy-ness of London however after 7 days, it felt like it was time to move on. It is a lovely city, very beautiful as expected, especially once you step away from the Royal Mile.

Would I re-visit?
When travelling through the highlands, I thought to myself that I would love to visit Scotland in the summer or spring months for hiking purposes. I would actually love to visit the Isle of Skye too. However, I think it is similar to New Zealand with the mountain ranges, the sheep and the natural beauty. Not identical, but similar so maybe I re-visit won't be happening anytime soon (since it would be cheaper to get to New Zealand).

Pelted by Hail in the Scottish Highlands

10th December 2014
So what is a trip to Scotland without visiting the hyped Loch Ness? Without a car, the easiest way to see the Scottish Highlands was by a tour. I'm personally not the biggest fan of tours but it is convenient. The day that we went was the day which proceeded the "weather bomb". The weather was quite unpredictable, moments of rain, snow and hail. Although I had prepared myself mentally for wet and cold weather in Europe, I never even considered hail. Being pelted by hail isn't exactly fun and resulted in quick dashes from and to the mini bus.

I actually stupidly/ carelessly deleted photos off my SD card before I completely  transferred them over and although I did recover a dozen or so, I do have some missing. Namely, of Loch Ness. Of course.

I think the history of Scotland is so interesting and complicated. Just fascinating. Countryside Scotland actually reminded me a lot of New Zealand to be honest. Gorgeous and stunning.

Urquhart Castle and the only photo I have of Loch Ness.

Glasgow

Glasgow. I had always wanted to visit the city after Love Actually due to one of my all time favourite pieces, "Glasgow Love Theme". Yes really. I pretty much knew nothing about Glasgow apart from (i) the rivalry between Edinburgh and Glasgow and (ii) it was very much an industrial or worker city.


Glasgow Cathedral



Until my trip to the US, I had never visited a cemetary before. These days, I am quite open/ interested in visting one and it is why we ended up at Glasgow Necropolis.






People make Glasgow






An amazing mac & cheese with cajun chicken for an early dinner.

Overall Thoughts
Glasgow is very much a worker city and not quite appealing to tourists as Edinburgh. However I think it would be quite a lovely place to live in. I really had no expectations of Glasgow and found the Cathedral and Necropolis interesting (if that can be said...)

Would I re-visit?
No.

Edinburgh I

7th December 2014
I stayed in Edinburgh for a total of 7 days and I believe that later posts will simply be compilations. The weather was pretty good for the first three days however a "weather bomb" affected Scotland which brought strong winds, rain and snow!




I am not the biggest fan of Harry Potter, but for the famous cafe that J K Rowling visited, you would think they could have selected a better font. Seriously. Out of all the fonts.

Edinburgh Castle






The Christmas markets were very disappointing and seriously overpriced!

London III

6th December 2014
One of my favourite places on my last visit to London was Greenwich Park. For our last day in London, we stayed in a hotel in Greenwich and decided to catch the sunrise from Greenwich Park before catching the (disappointing) Virgin train to Edinburgh.










Super cool English canals.

Overall Thoughts
I enjoyed London a lot more on my previous visit. This time I realised it was just an insanely busy city. This feeling was probably further exacerbated by the Chritmas shopping crowds and the overall frenzy on the streets. It was weird transitioning from Paris where things closed relatively early to a place where things were open to 11pm (if not later) 7 days a week. Of course this was only really restricted to central London but I feel that it was kind of reflected in the suburbs.

Would I re-visit?
Not anytime soon. It seems that I am not much of a "big city" kind of person anymore.

London II

3rd December 2014

This was probably the second best morning I had in London in terms of weather. Last time I visited, I saw the end of the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. This time, I decided to see it; it's just one of those things that should be seen once ... I guess.






In hindsight, I wouldn't recommend it at all. It was so boring and long and I became frozen by the end of it.


How I felt too




The coolest thing in London during my visit was the Paddington bears that were scattered throughout London. There are 50 in London (more info here) to celebrate the release of the film, Paddington.




Christmas tree at Somerset House. The Christmas tree at Trafalger Square was so disappointing.


Near St Peters Cathedral


Also found Twinnings' Flagship Tea Store accidentally. It was very cool (I am a tea lover) but crazily expensive!

London I

2nd December


Last eclair in Paris
The Eurostar ride from Paris was very very boring and kind of painful. I can't read, watch movies or do pretty much anything on transport due to motion sickness and resorted to being bored for the entire ride. It was painful because of the change in air pressure in the tunnel. Ah well. I have to say that the UK customs/ immigration is one of the most difficult that I have experienced. Last time, the woman grilled me with all these weird quetions, "why are you travelling by yourself?" "Why are you coming to the UK if you don't know anyone", which at the time I thought was a little weird. This time round, the man was really cold. Well colder than the average immigration officer. The weird thing wa that he asked how many days we were also going to be in the Republic of Ireland (as we didn't include it in our total duration question on the form). In hindsight, the Republic of Ireland isn't even in the UK so I have no idea why it was any of his concern.

We stayed at the same place that I stayed at last time, near the Swiss Cottage tube station which is just outside Zone 1.


Regent Park



First stop was an early dinner/ super super late lunch at Bone Daddies, allegedly the best ramen in London.




Tantanmen 2

T22

They both tasted really weird. They weren't meant to taste traditional but the flavours were really really weird. The Tantanmen 2 that I ordered felt as though someone had poured an obscene amount of peanut butter with the broth. Not a very pleasant experience, especially with the compulsory service charge added (not happy Jan).

Regent Street and Oxford Street were insanely packed but also very very pretty with all the Christmas lights. I'm not the biggest fan of shopping and when I do shop, I shop with a plan. However we did pop into Hamleys on Regent Street which was opened in 1881. It is the oldest toy shop in the world and it has 7 floors of toys! The best part was definitely the employees who were trialing the toys around the store and also performing magic tricks.












Disney store!!