Day Three: York to Edinburgh

We were a bit late getting on the bus this morning, but apologized to Geordie, especially seeing as it’s his birthday today! Off we went on the bus before stopping off at Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman-made division between England and Scotland, which isn’t the actual border. It was freezing as we got off the bus, the wind was going everywhere and the rain was basically horizontal. We pushed ourselves up the hill to the fort, saw it, and then ran back down in to the warmth of the shop. The weather was just too horrendous to stay outside.

It got worse as the day progressed. As we drove into Scotland it started snowing the most we’ve seen it while we’ve been here. Although it was only sleet, it quite hurt to run out of the bus for our photos with the ‘Scotland/England’ rock barrier. By the time we’d reached our lunch break the weather had cleared up and we were able to walk from bus to building without being attacked. We entered the woolen mill and spent half our service stop looking at the different types of tartan specific to each of the clans; it’s just amazing how many different types for each different family name there are!

We hopped back onto the bus and headed towards Edinburgh where we saw wind turbines spinning through the layers of snow on the hills. We drove into Edinburgh and Anna took us on a driven tour of the city, which even included a closed road that Geordie had to do a reverse three-point turn in the bus! Once we checked into our hotel we had about an hour to organize ourselves; I did some washing and we got ready to go out. Justine and I tried to buy internet, which didn’t work, before heading off to our optional Scottish dinner that evening.

First course was some haggis, which I surprisingly ate and enjoyed. This was probably due to the fact that it wasn’t presented as traditional haggis, but rather flooded by mashed potato and parsnip; a good option I thought. Main course was chicken, Justine tried some of the popular soft drink Irn Bru while for dessert we both sampled the traditional Scottish Cranachan. Our after dinner entertainment was Andrew the bagpiper who had us all in fits of laughter with his crude but hilarious jokes.

For our night of clubbing Anna took us to the Walkabout, an Australian bar chain in the UK! I set my way about trying all the shots on the menu and also mixing my Malibu with Irn Bru. The bartenders gave our whole group straw cowboy hats, which we took with us on the long and painful walk to Lu Lu’s, a club. Our supply of hats dwindled as other people in the club suddenly popped up wearing them, before Justine and I thought it was time for bed. Not before trying our paid internet, which still didn’t work. I was too tired to argue it, so we went to bed to try tomorrow.