Edinburgh.. Sort Of

Unfortunately it's quite a far journey to Edinburgh from the Isle of Skye, especially as trains dont run to the island. We had to bus and it was the standard three hours from Portree to Inverness and then another 3 hours and a bit to Edinburgh. We got off on the wrong start in Inverness because the bus driver was M.I.A. at our 1:15pm departure time. About 20 minutes later he suddenly emerged from the bathroom at the back of the bus so we could begin boarding. I did not want to sit near that bathroom that's for sure. Gabel, KGabes, and I had stood near the doors to the bus because it seemed like there had just been a giant mob in front. Well, when it came time to boarding, this super old lady came from inside the bus shelter and nearly had a heart attack informing us that we had "cutted the queue." OOhkay then. Anyways once we finally got going, the bus driver pulled over TWICE to go to the bathroom again. He definitely had some weird problem and the last time he went to the bathroom someone on the bus shouted, "GET HIM A NAPPY (diaper)!!"

Edinburgh is awesome. I would love to have more time in that city. There's so many old buildings and parks and The Royal Mile has tons going on. Unfortunately when we got there we only had time to get to our hotel and then it was dark. Our hotel was HILARIOUS. It was a wild west theme and there were terrifying lifesize cowboy and indian mannequins. After hanging out in the hotel for a bit, the three of us went out for chinese food and had the most fun having drinks and good food. All of a sudden we noticed it was 11:00pm!

The thing was that we forgot that we had intended to buy alcohol and go out to centre town Edinburgh to a Halloween party. I had sacrificed precious space in my one small piece of luggage for my Halloween costume and was determined to get it on. But after 11 we could not find a place open selling alcohol and we were also a bit worried about what time we would even be able to get to centre town by. There didn't seem much point. So instead we dressed up in our costumes and just ran around the hotel posing by the scary statues while KGabes took our picture haha. We were the cutest Minnie and Mickey ever. 

The next morning we were in a bit of a pickle because we each only had until noon before we all had to part ways. We really wanted to go into Edinburgh Castle but we had to deal with our luggage. So instead we took a couple pictures on the royal mile and ate breakfast in a beautiful park. The thing that really sucked was that it was a beautiful day outside. It would have been perfect for sightseeing. But again, it's just giving me more reason to go back to Scotland next year! 

It was obviously tough saying bye to KGabes too. She hopped on an airport bus and we had to say a quick goodbye. She's been with us for 3 weeks and been like a surrogate momma bear to me. I'll miss her! 

Gabel and I then hopped on our train which was five hours long and got to London. From there we were taking a coach bus back to Southampton. We had purchased tickets for the 630 bus but we managed to get there in time for the 530 bus. We did our very best to sneak onto that bus but none of our scams or complaining were working so we had to sit and wait for the 630 bus. That turned out to be the bus ride from hell. I think we were the only two non smelly people on the bus. I almost suffocated from B.O. Then we got stuck in an hour long traffic jam in London. So it took us just over 3 hours to get home from London which is obscene. So we left Edinburgh at 12:20 and got home at 9:40. CRAZY! 

It was the busiest half term ever. We needed a week off to recover from our week off! That definitely didn't happen because we both found ourselves working full time at Ryde this past week, getting up at 5:30 every day. But more on that later…