Stranded in Glasgow

Bright and early, Alejo went to school and I stayed in to pack and check email until my time of departure. I would be traveling to Glasgow by bus and Alejo by plane. I had been arranging my arrival with a "friend" I met in Bogota a few months before. He had planned everything we should see, offering to take us and to host us in his home. We had weeks of planning, but oh surprise. That same day Scot (yes, Scot from Scotland) disappeared from FB. He had never given me his phone number and he had no profile to speak of anymore. Of course I realized this once in the coach station in Glasgow, I contacted Mike and Chris (my buddies I had met at the same time as Scot in Bogota) and they couldn't find him either. I had arrived 2 hours later than expected, making it a trip of 11 hours instead of 9.

Fortunately, Alejo's flight arrived late too so he didn't have to wait around expecting me and Scot to pick him up at the airport as it had been planned (by Scot). I called Alejo as soon as he told me he had landed and gave him the bad news.
He came to the station and there we pondered for a while what to do. We ended up searching for a hostel on Hostel World, and after looking at a couple of places as we left the station, we just went for the first thing we had seen on the website. It turned out to be a cozy bed and breakfast that charged £40 for that first night. Frustrated and tired, we started to plan our own expedition, since Scot had disappeared and it didn't look like he would be showing up. By then, we were in such a mood that we didn't even want him to anymore.

Early in the morning we had a nice filling breakfast and headed off to Edinburgh. Back to the station, that was only a few blocks a way, we took a coach (bus) and in about 45 minutes arrived in lovely downtown Edinburgh. Not being sure of what to do first, we went for the most prominent thing in sight, Edinburgh Castle. The tickets were a bit expensive (like £14 but I can't quite recall any more), but hell, we were there and had to do it and it was totally worth it. We did a couple guided tours and saw St Margaret's Chapel (12th Century, oldest building in Edinburgh), the Honors of Scotland, the Royal Palace and the early-16th-century Great Hall. We also saw a presentation of old musical instruments and listened to some very interesting melodies. Just to let you know, as it was my luck on this trip, and as you can see in the pictures, we had a bright and shiny day.

Downtown Edinburgh

To reward ouselves for all of our walking, we headed to a nice pub to have our dinner.We ordered Haggis (not as bad as everyone thinks, actually quite good) and lentil soup (which was superb) with each of our favorite beers, Stella for him and Guinness for me. We walked around  a bit more through this magical looking city and before we left, we took some pictures of Edinburgh Castle illuminated at night (picture bellow). Quite nice, right? A few bumps at the start, but which would lead to a great stay in beautiful Scotland.

For all the pictures, click here!