We left for Glasgow airport around 10am the morning of Friday, November 28. Glasgow is only about 1.5 hours from Cork so after a short flight we gathered our things and headed to the city. My friend, Alaina, and I hopped off a city bus right in the middle of downtown and were amazed by the beauty and opulence of this area! I love cities so much! I love the hype and the bustle and how there is so much to do in such a close distance. Glasgow immediately made me giddy with excitement and after a short wifi check-in at the local Starbucks, we were on our way.
We had reserved a hop-on hop-off bus tour so ran some errands on the way to our bus' stop. Right next to the stop was Charles Square where Glasgow's Christmas festivities were set up with a ferris wheel and other colorful activities. We began the tour and, although it was freezing, we saw the bulk of Glasgow's downtown in under three hours. During this tour we realized that it was taking longer than we anticipated so decided to stay a few hours later in Glasgow and skip our planned evening tour in Edinburgh that night. We got off the bus, sat down to a delicious Italian meal, and happily enjoyed our evening.
Then we realized that we had our time off by an entire hour! We had been following the time on Alaina's watch but didn't realize that phones were an hour behind. And since the sun had gone down at 3:45pm we were utterly confused. After a Twilight Zone sort of realization with our waitress we knew that we had plenty of time to make our Edinburgh bus and could still do our other tour! Thus, after our delicious meal, we walked over to the bus station and boarded a bus to Edinburgh which is about an hour away.
We had planned it all perfectly and should have made it to Edinburgh with about 30 minutes to walk to the meeting point for our tour. However, we had the sassiest bus driver ever and she took her time getting to the city. Also, it was not an express bus so every two minutes you would hear the little beep and we would stop on the side of the road for another patron to get off. Needless to say we barely made it to Edinburgh in time. We arrived in the city about 10 minutes before our tour left and we had no idea where we were or where we needed to be going. After trying to follow Alaina's phone's directions to the meeting point, we asked a nice looking stranger who pointed us in the correct direction. Luckily we found our meeting point, an Edinburgh Starbucks, just in time to meet our group for the "Dark Side of Edinburgh tour."
The next morning, we got up early to head on our day tour to the Scottish Highlands (after Starbucks of course). We just love tours apparently! Alaina and I took motion sickness pills because the bus was not very large but these made us tired and we passed out for the first hour of the tour. In my sleepy daze I got off at the first stop which was a lookout point over some bridges. I have no idea the significance because I slept through the description but after the freezing air touched my skin I happily got back on the bus. Our next stop was the National Wallace Monument which was built to commemorate the life and work of Sir William Wallace who fought and led Scotland in unity against the tyrannical King of England, Edward I. It was a very nice monument and exhibit with many many stairs to the top. We were only given 40 minutes to stop there so when we realized that we were out of time and still at the top of the monument's hill, Alaina and I ran down the hill in hopes of not being left behind. In case you are wondering, we were not left behind.
Our next stop was a viewing point for Loch Monteith. I slept through this description as well but basically the area that we were driving through had a lot of lakes and lochs so our driver wanted us to see some of them. And then finally we stopped for lunch! We made an hour-long respite in the Highlands town of Aberfoyle and we wandered into a cute little place called Liz MacGregor's. I ordered some chips and a chicken and cheese panini for lunch. It was a ton of food but I was starving after a long day already. We then made our way to Trossach's National Park to view the Scottish Highlands in all of their glory. However, it was a bit foggy so, according to our driver, we couldn't see all of the mountains as some were clouded over. Then our driver, Jamie, started playing the bagpipes! It was crazy and I was so confused!
And then was my favorite part, the hairy coos! These are the most adorable short little blonde cows and we got to pet, feed, and take selfies with them! They were so cute and I just wanted to take one home, but, yah know, weight restrictions...
We then wrapped up our day with another loch, Loch Katrine, and a quick stop at Monty Python's Duone's Castle. I was a bit disappointed because after doing the song "Loch Lomond" in high school choir, I hoped that we would make it over there. According to the map that I looked at it was right next to Loch Katrine but I will have to save that dream for another day!
After we arrived back in Edinburgh, Alaina and I went to a Mexican restaurant that we saw during our Dark Side tour. I have been craving Mexican food so much since being over here and it was great to have some enchiladas! We then did some shopping and headed over to the Christmas Market. It was so adorable and there were so many vendors with different gifts from all over the world!
After shopping we went to the bus station to head back to Glasgow. We eventually found our hostel, which was really nice, and called it a night.
The next morning we got up, got some Starbucks coffee and breakfast before shopping a little, and catched a bus to the airport. This trip was a whirlwind but we got so much sightseeing done in 2 days!
Yours,
The Opinionated Lassie
And for a video breakdown of this trip, watch my vlog! You can also see other videos of mine at my Youtube channel, The Opinionated Lassie.
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