SCOTLAND Day 4-17 July 2019

I decided to sleep in today. I was going to go over to Craigmillar castle and see it but its an hour away by walking and has no good transportation to it. So I slept in and then worked on repacking my bags and had a leisurely breakfast downstairs while again resizing my blog for Bill. This time worked! I had drop boxed it to him the other day but he doesn't know how to do drop boxes so that didn't work so instead I resized all the images this morning which sacrifices quality but at least it sent. It was too big to email so I had to google drive it and then send him the link. (he later emailed me and said this was good so I'm doneeee).

After breakfast I locked up my luggage in the long term room and then put checked out. I was able to fit all my unwanted stuff in the other luggage to leave. I also decided to leave my outlander dress and my adidas. Now my green one is thoroughly stuffed but has just a little bit of room that it's comfortable enough that I'm not panicking about packing everyday I move.

I took the bus from Waverly bus station Edinburgh to Stirling. It was a 2 hour trip and was pretty but most of the same of what I saw yesterday. The buses here are soooo cheap. It was spitting out this morning and as we drove it rained more.

When I got to Stirling I dragged my luggage all the way up the hill to the visitors center. I don't understand why they'd put a visitor center so far away from the town center and transport it makes no sense. When I got up there they pretty much told me to go all the way back down cause the only place in the city that'll store luggage is the Willie Wallace Hostel. i should've emailed and asked.

Willie Wallace was right across from the bus station and had a MASSIVE set of stairs which sucked. It as 5p a day just like the Castle Rock Hostel which is sorta annoying since I only needed to leave it there for 2 hours. They took it and then I went all the way back up the hill to the castle.

Stirling is just as hilly and stair filled as Edinburgh. I got all the way up there and enjoyed the views. Stirling was apparently the last castle that was defended in Scotland which was during the Jacobite rebellion with Bonnie Prince Charlie. They tried to attack from the side but they failed obviously. The castle is on this huge hill with a huge wall and its surrounded by a river with one bridge on it and the bridge. This area was also famous for being successfully guarded during the William Wallace Brave Heart battle. The British troops came through the valley and could only go over a bridge and so William Wallace murdered them all and successfully guarded the area.

The castle has been rebuilt and changed many times over the years. It was originally a yellow color and all the rocks were covered with plaster but now only one of the buildings is restored that way. They're also interestingly are mainly focusing on restoring stuff so the one castle building and the great hall are fully restored to what they think they would've looked like. This was interesting but felt sort of fake and weird. The cielings and fireplaces were all brightly painted but the rooms had no furniture except the one bedroom and throne room. The floors were also a super weird material. They apparently just redid these huge unicorn tapestries in the throne room which was a huge 14 year long project they just completed and it was really pretty. It had that one unicorn one of the unicorn in a fence.

I did a guided tour for a bit but the guy wasn't really giving good information so I left it early and did the audio tour. The castle was breeched a few times. The front used to have a 4 tower entry gate that was 5 stories high but now all that remains is the two front towers only 1 story high and the base of one other tower.

The view from the castle was really pretty in all directions. The one direction is rolling hills and a weird earth formations of where the King's gardens and hunting grounds used to be and then the other direction is more hills and rivers and the hill with the William Wallace monument on it. Mary Queen of scots also lived there at some point I think. The castle is a really important strategic location because it is the edge of the highlands and you have to go through it's area to get to the "south".

I did Stirling Castle in just the right amount of time and then went back in to the town got my luggage and went to the station. I went to the upstairs which was a shopping mall and got a tea for the ride.

The next bus ride to Glasgow was only an hour and also went fine. Scotland is so pretty. I charged my phone on the bus.

I got there on time and had a full hour and half before my train. I went and got my ticket from the station. The station was all under construction which was a mess but everything went fine. I then went to Martha's which had korean food. I got a korean bbq wrap. It was fine but I think it's more of a burrito than a wrap. I feel like a wrap is tighter and has lettuce in it and if you open it up it could be considered a salad. I ate it on the train.

The train ride also went well. The train was mostly empty and it had an outlet! The train ride was beautifullllll. It was around 4 hours long but it was gorgeous. Most of the trip was in no cell zone and there was nothing around for miles. We went through Loch Lohmand National Park which was gorgeous. There was one part that was really so beautiful that I cried. It was just so gorgeous. I read a little Outlander on it which was fun and listened to Scottish music cause that was the scenery. The sad part was it was pretty rainy the whole ride so I couldn't photograph what I was seeing since I could barely see through the rain covered window. I saw two stags facing each other which was crazy. And a lot of the stations we'd pull up to and there would just be the station house and nothing else visible in any other direction not even sheep. The stations would just seem to materialize out of the fog too and it felt like Spirited Away. I think I want to move to Scotland. It's so magical.

When I got in at 10pm the sun was just setting and there were mountains everywhere. It was beautiful. My hostel was just a quick walk from the train station and I checked in and took a shower. My bed's name is Rob Roy McGregor which is cute cause it's a Scottish famous person. Bedroom is very hot and muggy which sucks and also it has no lockers and no chargers next to the bed. It's a good thing I charged my phone on the train it was almost fully charged from that also I have my charging bank so I'm not too worried. There's about 10 people in my room and it's all girls and I have a top bunk looking out the window.

After I got all settled and showered I went to the dining room and sat and had tea and blogged but there was this other guy there and we ended up chatting. He's from Germany and he's taking a gap year before University. He's from Hanover but he's currently living in Edinburgh and for his gap year he's taking care of disabled people with Autism and other learning disabilities. He lives in a house with 4 disabled and 3 other care takers. He's here for his off day and wanted to hike but it rained. We chatted about American's having guns, the autoban, drinking culture, and Scotland. It was really fun and I forgot to ask his name or get social media so I will probably never see him again which is sad. I went to bed around 1.