Last weekend was a long weekend and i did not want to waste the rarity of having long time off.
Myself and a friend of mine decided to have an open mind to travel around.We sat down to choose which place we wanted to visit. We toyed around with Wales or Scotland.
Impulsively we selected Scotland.
We booked the tickets for Thursday last weekend , believe me that on the same day there were 900 people of all ages leaving and traveling to Edinburgh. The bus/coach operators were surprised at the bookings, as against a normality of one bus, there were 14 buses that ran on the same day starting at the same time, 13 coaches were rented out coaches to accommodate the rush in bookings.
If that wasn't a surprise , the biggest surprise of all was the mixture of the crowd; 97% of the crowd was from Asia predominantly from China and India . Yes India & China are emerging tigers was well demonstrated here.
In Edinburgh all hotels and hostels were absolutely packed to capacity.
My friend had suggested that instead of time tested methodology of checking into hotels, he wanted me to be open minded. Our first difference was we booked ourselves into Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel. I would absolutely recommend this place for anyone wishing to travel without any specifics in mind. Being a first timer to a hostel, i was surprised by its cleanliness. Breakfast was continental and was ok but you get what you pay for.
Once we had checked in, we washed ourselves and we were off to roam around the city.
Our mantra was to explore as much as possible.
So our first point of call was a walk on the famous Princess Street, immediately i was struck by the beauty of the various monuments and the street in itself was a normal shopping street but what made it special was that on one side were very old monuments and buildings while on the other side were swanky shops , it was an eclectic mix of old and new.
In the afternoon we visited the Edinburgh Castle. The Castle and the history in itself didn't amaze me but the city of edinburgh built around it and the Castle standing slap bang in the middle was a sight that i would never forget.
After close to two hours in the castle , i was exhausted and needed some fuel. So we hit Jimmy Chang a Chinese restaurant near Waverly station. Me being a Vegetarian had little option for food here but the temptation was that it was a buffet menu and it was a non-veg paradise, my friend hogged as if there was no tomorrow.
Post a filling lunch , we headed back to our hostel. After an hour of rest we refreshed ourselves, feeling fresh, we hit the streets.
We visited Rose Street , which is famous for its bars. After a few round of beers for my friend and diet coke for me , it was time for us to have dinner and we were spoilt for choices but we settled for Italian at Massimo.
The Risotto was nice but was touch expensive. After an eventful and an exhausting day , it was time to hit the bed , just then we realized that we hadn't planned what to do the next day.
Lonely planet guide came in handy , even here we chose not to follow tried and tested routes. So we zeroed in on Inverness , north most part of scotland. We agreed we take the journey by train and were off to bed.
The following morning was misty and overcast which didn't dampen our spirits as we hit our schedule train and we weren't let down. As the journey took us through some spectacular sights that i have ever seen. It was a photographers delight and a treat to the eyes.
We reached Inverness at around 11:30 on day 2 of our visit. Again here we decided not to try the tried and tested Loch Ness trip from Inverness, instead we visited the local tourist information centre , where we got briefed about the history of the place and also about a walk way called the Great Glen Walk.
We decided to try the Great Glen Walk Way. We were right , it was one of the most serene walks that i have ever encountered. The walk route , takes one through the Ness Islands on river Ness and crossing the Caledonia Canal and onto various villages in and around Inverness. of-course this walk was too long for us to complete in the time we had.
We rounded off our visit to Inverness by having our lunch at one of the bars, never have i tried eating lunch at a bar but the rice and beans wasn't a bad offering .
From there we hit the rail again , this time on our way to a town called Pitlochry known for its Hydroelectric power station and also River Tummel.
We reached Pitlochry at around 18:30 and walked past the River Tummel walkway and on top of the dam over the river which incidentally also serves as Fish Ladder to assist Salmon fish migration. After immersed ourselves in the beauty that nature was able to throw at us, given a town near the river , not having fish & chips was a sin to any non-vegetarian but my friend was too full and me being a vegetarian , we settled just for salted chips to while away our time and walk around the town before we headed off to the station to take our train back to the city of Edinburgh.
We were so late that we did not have much option but to go for a simple indian meal at the Shezan Tandoori restaurant . The food was neat and easy , not much fuss. Exhausted , i hit the bed and off to sleep in a jiffy.
Day 3 saw us explore local places including the famous Rosslyn Chapel , now made famous by the Da Vinci Code, the Chapel in itself did not inspire me one bit.
After that visit , we had a solid Mediterranean meal at Hanam's restaurant slap bang on Johnston's terrace street. I by far had the best ever Naan bread, it was lovely and i was in love with the food, we summed up our lunch with Bhaklaba a traditional Mediterranean desert.
Day 3 afternoon had the least activity as i was exhausted and so was my friend , so we did roamed around locally before packing up and leaving the lovely city of Edinburgh.
It was one of the best ever trip i had ever had . The learnings were enormous . I loved every bit of my time.
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