Loch Ness Monsters: Erin and Jean (Day 4)

Up at 4:55 am – busy day ahead. Thankfully, we’d packed up most of our goods last night as this morning, we were leaving Glasgow for the big (actually, smaller population-wise) city of Edinburgh and then sending our carcasses yet further onto the highlands of Scotland, Glencoe, Inverness, and the mysterious Loch Ness.

As we groaned and attempted to make ourselves somewhat presentable, the hooligans were outside in full force. You see, the pubs close at 4 AM, and all the miscreants were now staggering home and congregating on the sidewalks and street corners. Seeing a small gang outside from our window, we asked the dood at the front desk if we should worry about getting molested…to which he this kind of smirked (which seemed equally, if not more creepy) and didn’t answer. Okay. Our thriftiness trumped our “safety first” policy and we headed out onto the street. I was thinking if I wore my hood and stomped along like a guy, this would fend off potential molesters. I don’t know if I was necessarily successful, but we made it to the train station unharmed and heckle-less. Being most confused about how to proceed in the deserted station, we asked nearly every human in sight and then busted our way on the train we thought was headed to Edinburgh. Thankfully, it was, and by 6:15 am, we were whisking our way further into the unknown.





After whizzing through the black countryside for almost an hour, the train arrived at Edinburgh Waverly station. The tour we had booked for the day was leaving in front of Edinburgh Castle at 8:00, so we had an hour to find our hostel, check in, dump our shit and find our tour point at the castle. But first, we had to find our way out of the train station. Being disoriented to where to find things in Edinburgh, we did manage to finally get lost…but only briefly. Unfortunately for us, we got lost heading downhill and had to head all the way back up with our heavy backpacks. Along the way, we got our first sights of Edinburgh and were kind of blown away since it is nothing like Glasgow and far more medieval.




My first sight of Ediburgh castle in the darkness



Knowing our hostel was right beside the castle certainly helped us find it…(the sign on the far left in the next picture)





After checking in with this insanely hectic, hyperactive guy, we headed up to the castle to sit and wait for our bus to pull in.





Once our bus arrived and we boarded, we ended up sitting behind some very vocally idiotic young Americans, whom Jean couldn’t listen to without rolling her eyes (and rightfully so), and sitting in front of this semi-young-ish East Indian couple who chomped on their gum so noisily that I thought that either Jean or I would kill them before our 12-hour journey was complete. The bus driver was an older Scottish gentleman who drove the bus at top speed, controlling the steering wheel as though he was weaving in and out of traffic pylons. Eeech. We were both so nauseous by our first stop that the only fathomable thing was to eat. Sandwich stop number one was a farmhouse/gift shop/café that 10 other buses were also currently stopping at. I hate those places. The prices are so high because they have a deal with the bus companies for them to stop there and they are out of the way so you can’t go anywhere else either. Boo. At least we go to meet Hamish, a highland cow.





After more sickness, narratives and miles behind us, our next stop was at the side of the road to see the “Three Sisters” – real Scottish highlands!







More driving…and the rest. Second sandwich stop was in Fort William at the foot of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles. It was at a cafeteria/gift shop place again so far removed from the rest that we had no choice but to pay. More driving…more sickness…and then we arrived at the war monument facing Ben Nevis.





More driving…and then we hit the area, when translated into English, is called Lakey-Lake! My favorite! Okay okay…the place is called Loch Lochy, but really…you know what I mean. I now refer to it as Lakey-Lake, much to Jean’s chagrin.



After more driving and nausea, we finally arrived at the headline destination for the day…





Loch Ness! We were psyched – I’ve waited years for this. I did a project on Nessie and the ‘Ness in grade nine for Neil Block’s class and I think I got a decent mark. But none of that matters now. Heading out onto the Loch for our boat ride, Jean and I were determined to see the monster in person.



We actually did see lots of monsters…on Loch Ness, too. Although they even appeared ancient and scaly to me, they were not Nessie. Just some old B’s who said we were hogging the railing taking pictures.







The next few pictures are of the Urquhart castle ruins on Loch Ness. After a checkered history, the castle was blown up in 1692 to prevent it becoming an enemy stronghold.









At one point on the boat tour, they announced that we reached the part of the Loch where most of the reported sightings were said to have been seen:


Do you see anything? Besides the wake of our boat of course…To be honest, I did see some strange waves in the water out in the distance. No joke. It wasn’t the wake of the boat either, since it wasn’t on both sides and there were no other water crafts on the Loch.





After we arrived back on dry land, we made another sandwich run. Stupid sandwiches kept getting more and more expensive at each stop. Converted into Canadian dollars, the sandwich I bought at Loch Ness was a ridiculous $7.00. Yeesh. We also did lots of shopping at the gift shop and then headed back on the bus to make our way back down to civilization in Edinburgh.

Arriving back in Edinburgh, we drove past our hostel to find some sort of major street mayhem occurring. Most bewildered, we joined the herds to learn more about it.





The pictures aren’t very clear what is happening, so I’ll explain. It would seem as though some sort of street bike course was set up and so the bikes come shooting down the stairs shown in the last picture, jam on the breaks and hard turn right up onto the ramp shown in the first picture. Up, across and then back down the left hand side and then another hard right down the next set of stairs running beside the hostel down into the Grassmarket area. So every time someone would come down, everyone would scream and cheer until they were out of sight. We don’t get to see the end, nor the beginning, just the middle. And it was lame. We left after a few extended moments and headed up to our room to unwind after a long day and hit the sack at a reasonable hour. More on the hostel later…I’m too tired now. It was a very nice hostel though – far nicer than that craphole we stayed at in Glasgow and half the price. Anyways…goodnight.

Tomorrow is our first day exploring the grand old city of Edinburgh and maybe some mountain-climbing will be involved. Yes, I think that sounds lovely. Until then.