scotland

I came back from Scotland three days ago, I’ve taken time to rest for a while since then. I’m still quite impressed with myself, I never ever expected to travel with a friend due to how introverted I am. I’m eternally grateful for such a beautiful experience with a close friend. I had arrived at the airport earlier than I needed to of course, my flight was at 10:30am but I arrived around 7:00 am. This was mainly because of all the indecisive decisions made with the London TFL train services, I didn’t want to take any risks being late so my dad drove me to the airport extremely early in the morning. I always like arriving to places early to avoid any altercations, surprisingly there were quite a lot of people to check through security so I was glad. One lady next to me was started to become frustrated as her flight was in 30 mins and other people's luggage still needed to be checked so I told the member of staff that her luggage could be checked before mine even though there were still a few others that needed to be checked before hers. Anyway, I wasn’t in a rush since I was early so, I bought a sandwich from Pret at the airport and messaged a few friends and family, updating them on what I was doing.My friend I was traveling with is studying abroad in Switzerland so he had take two flights to Scotland. He originally suggested a different country to travel too, but after reasoning with him he offered to travel to Scotland with me. I kept telling him I felt so selfish asking and choosing Scotland as it’s quite far away so I said if we ever travel again, we can go wherever he chose. Getting onto the plane felt familiar since I had traveled to Korea a year ago, there was not much upper head space for luggage which delayed the flight a little bit as people were trying to help each other store their luggage somewhere. As I helped others find space, the flight attendant spoke with me for a while and asked if it was my first time going to Scotland. She was from Edinburgh and her accent felt so refreshing to hear because it was so new to me, sometimes I couldn’t understand what she said which shocked me sometimes since we were still speaking English lol. After talking with her, I realized I haven’t been around many people for so long with different accents so it made me more curious about different types of accents in Scotland and how Gaelic would sound like in person. What was supposed to be a 2 hour flight, felt like half an hour from London Heathrow airport to Edinburgh Airport. Since it was a short flight, there wasn’t a TV but we did get food to eat. The menu was quite fancy to say the least, the meal I choose was definitely not something I would choose again..but I liked the desert. but I’m glad I tried it.

After arriving at Edinburgh airport, I caught the 100 Airline Bus that cost £4.10 to my accommodation, got a lost for a little while and found a long flight of stairs that lead me to my location. After arriving, I messaged my friend who had already started to board his flight but would be arriving later. I took a rest and walked around for a while before meeting him at the bus stop. I jump scared him at the bus stop actually, he didn’t notice I was there so he was shocked which was hilarious. We walked around, caught up with each other about life, ate pizza, took photos, ate jollibee's (which I had never tried before but really wanted to). I’d like to write and share all the things we had talked about because I loved our discussions but, that would truly take forever. Sometimes good conversations can’t be retold, it’s better kept as a memory. We then rested before our second day which would be the start of our 3 day tour of the beautiful Isle of Skye, Highlands and Loch Ness with. A few extra stops in between.

So, we woke up early and headed to the meeting point to catch the coach for our tour and to meet our tour guide, Paul B. There were other people from different countries too, Holland, the US, Spain..There weren’t many people, just the right amount and we stuck with the same group of the people the whole tour which was nice. We headed to Glasgow and then all the way to Portree which was a day to night trip. Our tour guide was the kindest, sweetest, friendliest and warm hearted person ever..He would speak continuously throughout the whole three day tour, whilst driving about the historical elements of the areas we would pass and Scottish history. He would play songs, sing, make jokes, organize and reorganises events when the weather was too unpredictable or just pouring rain. Although it Is what you would kind of expect from a tour guide, my friend and I feel he went above and beyond and so did the other people on the coach too. That reminds me, I still need to leave a positive review and feedback for him. My friend and I walked around our area we were staying a tin Portree, it was such a cute and small town. We were looking for spots to have dinner at and found another hotel that served more dinner options. My friend said the fish and chips there was the best ever, now thinking about it..I think it was too. At first I said, there were nicer places in London but, I think the one we ate there was a lot fresher for some reason. Next day, the coach met us outside to take us on our lovely tour. The coach journey was long but I thoroughly enjoy long car / coach journeys

Next day, we woke up early again and headed the various tour spots we had for the day which were quite a lot including the photo stops our amazing tour guide would stop at for us to get photos.

The the environment we were constantly surrounded by was truly astonishing to me, a someone who never sees mountains or hills in London. Whilst we walked around the mountains, I told my friend that seeing views like these really make all our worries and problems seem so small and he agreed and said that was a nice way to put it. After a while, we stopped for a small lunch break before heading back to the coach and to our accommodation. I sat in the lounge for a while and my friend joined me, there were a few board games and whilst we were looking for games to play I realized I have completely forgotten how to play all of them. Most of those games were childhood favorites like monopoly but my mind has erased any memory of how to play so , we ended up trying to solve a 750 piece puzzle instead lol. Whilst we were doing this puzzle, another guy came to talk to us. He’s from India and said it’s his first time traveling ever, he went to London and is now in Scotland and plans to go to Ireland soon. He asked us where were from, what were doing here and even what company we work for like..our jobs which was, pretty strange because it’s not a question anybody has ever asked me before, especially someone I just met so we just laughed it off. He asked how my friend and I met and I explained to him, after explaining to him. He asked why were here and my friend told him that he asked me to come, I added that it was quite a spontaneous trip and not something I thought I would ever do since I enjoy being alone. He said he hopes to find friends to travel with and asked me how he could make friends in London, I suggested maybe using apps or just sparking a conversation with someone. Our conversation went on for a while…he suddenly spotted a guitar in the corner of the lounge, he didn’t know how to play but started strumming it, as if he did. It was so funny, he asked my friend for his phone because he wanted to look on YouTube for a guitar tutorial video on how to play. He often asked me if he was placing his fingers on the guitar correctly so, I helped him out sometimes. It was really funny, I started dancing around whilst he was playing and my friend was just laughing and recording us. His name was Patreek by the way, he asked for my phone number so I could send him photos of himself “playing the guitar” so I sent them to him on WhatsApp. My friend went to his room for a while and realized after further interaction with Patreek, he wasn’t a nice person. I was really surprised and asked what happened, he told me and I feel we both internally agreed we probably won’t speak with him anymore, I deleted his phone number after that. We continued with our puzzle for a little while before heading to sleep.

My friend and I both agreed that our fourth day was the best and a day I don’t think I’ll ever forget or ever take for granted..since it was almost our last day there, that may have contributed to the feelings had when touring and hanging out on the fourth day. Whatever it was, it was a day to remember and an experience of wordless thought ( like my tattoo says hehe.) I didn’t think I’d have another experience that left me with wordless thought after my time in Korea but life is unpredictable.

It was our second to last day and we were headed to the Isle of sky, We visited a wine tavern but didn't drink any (I' m not a fan of alcohol and neither is my friend), visited a coffee shop nearby, saw the two most beautiful waterfalls i'd ever seen in my life and the greenest hills with cute houses and sheep seen in every direction, even saw cows too which our tour guide pronounced as 'cews' which was cute. We did quite a lot this day but, I want to skip ahead to one of my favorite moments. As we were heading up, we were all pleased that the rain had settled down, the clouds were clearer and that it wasn’t dark outside yet. Driving up the road, the sun had come out and tinted the sky with an orange / yellow haze, I tapped my friend on the shoulder to look outside the window and we were both in awe of the view. All we could keep saying was wow and started smiling and squealing as if we were little kids. As soon as I got out of the coach, I looked around us, the wind started to pick up and it was intense but it still didn’t take away from the most beautiful orange sky and the white misty fog that had blended into it at the top of the mountains, it was like a painting. We excitingly offered to take photos of each other but, the wind was so intense I really couldn’t look at the camera to pose. My hat also flew off which was funny because, it had happened to my friend on our second day during this tour too. He asked if I was okay and I said yes and just quickly grabbed my hat from the ground, luckily it wasn’t very muddy or wet. It was so hard to walk because of how strong the wind was but, we walked towards the cliff of the mountain on the other side and just looked around. Moments like these never feel real and as much as I take it in, I always have to pinch myself. Due to the wind, we didn’t stay out there for too long and went back to the coach, i realised i didn't take many photos during the time and i'm glad i didn't. One, because it was too windy and two because I really wanted to enjoy looking at everything there and then...it was still one of my best days there. Although it was dark on our way back, we could still see the sun setting from the window view. It was a red sunset, setting above the ocean and all the lights reflecting off the boats onto the ripples made in the water made it look even prettier. It made my heart feel so warm but also so sad that tomorrow would be the last day of this trip.

As we got back, it was still quite early although it looked dark and my friend and I didn’t want to go to sleep. I had my iPad and suggested to watch a movie in the lounge area of our accommodation, he agreed and suggested we get some snacks to eat. I quickly got changed into a jacket and we headed out, we took money out from the ATM as we needed it for our tour guide the next day. We were both so surprised at how pretty the bank notes were, my friend asked ‘why do the coins still have queen Elizabeth on them but the bank noted don’t’? And to be honest, I had no clue. Considering Scottish and British history, I would say the bank notes are more distinctive form of cash so, seeing a change on the notes instead of the coins visual signify more independence but, it’s something I want to research into more. Anyway, we walked around talking and laughing before entering co-op, we bought two pizzas, Doritos, Diet Coke and a bottle of water. He bought it all which I was thankful for, I think It was because I bought our last meal, either way that was a nice gesture. After changing into our PJs and sorting ourselves out, we sat down to see what we could watch, we wanted to watch Harry Potter at first bur surprisingly it wasn’t on UK Netflix. How insane is that? We decided to watch Mr bean because it’s really funny and I used to watch it during my childhood days. I’m not sure how but, we ended up watching the hunger games after a while instead. I forgot how amazing this film was and my friend became obsessed with it too, he loved it now and said we HAD to watch the second one on our last day. The film was about 2 hours long so we were awake till at least 1:30 am before going to sleep and heading back to Edinburgh the next day.

Before heading back to Edinburgh, we stopped at a few locations:

That castle was so pretty, it reminded me of what I could imagine a castle would look like in Harry Potter. A lot of things reminded me of a Harry Potter in Scotland, probably because most of the scenes were filmed there too. We also went to a gift shop, I bought a cute tub of toffee sweets for my parents ( even though I mainly bought it because i instantly fell in love with the jar its in lol) and I bought a fridge magnet. We have quite a few at home and I wanted to add to the collection. We also went to visit the sea and cute little town in Loch Ness. We spent an hour there and ate delicious food at a cute little cafe, I saw on their menu they had haggis…something my other friend had told me I should try. I wanted to at first, but after searching about it online…I’d rather not get sick, especially after we tried jellied eel together in London and the next day I felt like I almost died! Lol, an exaggeration I know but still, I didn’t feel the best. Our last stop was a visit at a cute town, I kinda fell asleep on the coach so I honestly cannot remember what the town was called but it was full of different stores, one of my favourites was the one that had tons. of christmas decorations... I told my friend I NEED to go inside lol. We then bought snacks before getting back on the coach again. After we got back on the coach, we would make our way back to our accommodations in Edinburgh with a few photo stops. After my friend and I got changed and settled down, we wanted to get dinner, he ordered a taxi to pick us up and we walked around looking for a spot to eat for a while. We came across this seafood restaurant, I don’t like seafood but, I also didn’t want to be picky so we ate there. I had really nice vegetable soup with bread and he had a seafood platter. He was kind enough to want to share it with me but, I really couldn’t eat it hahaha. Firstly, I don’t even know how you eat oyster but, I’m glad we ate there. We talked about guys I’m into and relationships and places we want to travel to, all sorts of things. I told him one time when I decided to be brave and tell a guy I thought he was cute at liverpool street station years ago and he thought I was too, we got each others number and messaged each other saying ‘it was nice to meet you, I hope we can hang out soon’ but we never did and, I still have his number in my phone. He laughed so much and it mad me laugh even more, he said what if you call him now and say ‘hey remember me from years ago at the train station?’ It was a funny moment. After that, we walked around for a while because we wanted to look for a spot that had great hot chocolate, we finally found one. At first it tasted really salty, my friend also thought they might have mixed up the salt with the sugar but after mixing it….of course it tasted better lol. We walked around again for a while and my friend asked if we should take the tram or the bus, we don’t have trams in London so I wanted to take one, it was my first time. I bought us tickets and whilst we waited, we talked about ph1, he’s one of my favorite Korean singers / rappers. We started singing and dancing whilst waiting and he said, he is ph-2 and that I have to visit Korea to see ph-2, then he started performing and I burst out laughing so loud. We both probably looked crazy but it didn’t matter, it was so much fun. After we got back, we watched the second hunger games for a few hours before heading to sleep. He decided we should watch the third one whenever we meet again, since he’s traveling a lot, I said we will probably meet when we’re both 50 years old. He was going to the airport earlier than me so, we said our goodbyes the night before.

I woke up at 5:00am, took a shower before heading out to the nearest airline bus that would take me directly to Edinburgh airport. My flight was at 10:15 and of course, I had arrived early, arriving early makes me comfortable. I had a sandwich and orange juice before putting my bags through security and waiting for my flight. Whilst waiting, I messaged my mum and my friend who had almost arrived back in Switzerland already. After boarding my flight, there were a few issues with luggage space again but, luckily I didn’t have much so I could place mine into the overhead space without any issues. The plane took of at least an hour after, at 11:15…I’m not sure why that was but, I was too sleepy to care. After arriving back in London, I couldn’t wait to talk to my family and then sleep. Even when I got back home, there were still problems with the train…London trains are awful. After arriving home and taking a nap, my throat hurt and I had a cold so, I had lots of green tea, hot drinks and took medication. I felt much better after. It was inevitable that I would catch a cold, Scotland was quite windy so I didn’t feel bad about but just wish it would go away. I’m still in awe that I actually traveled with someone, not just anyone but one of my close friends. Traveling with someone is something I’ve always said is not what I would like to do ever because I always thought I wouldn’t feel comfortable, not even around close friends so, this has challenged my perspective on a lot of things I say no to. This doesn’t mean I want o travel with more people in the future but, I’m glad I’ve experienced this and created beautiful memories.

P.S I have a feeling I’ll post more about this trip whenever it I feel remember something I wanted to share or when it starts to become a happy nostalgic memory or just..whenever I feel like it :-)