SCOTLAND Day 5-18 July 2019

Today I woke up sorta early and went and had breakfast in the kitchen. Here its 3p for a bowl of cereal or porrige, one fruit, one juice, two slices of toast, and a scone. However there were no scones which I was sad about. I had chocolate fruit loops and apple juice and grabbed a banana and a nutella sandwhich for the road. Then I headed to the grocery store next to the station to buy headphones cause my headphones broke last night and I want to be able to listen to Harry Potter music on the train.

I'm so exciteddddd. I got there an hour early expecting it to be empty but there was a line already! The train got there soon also and then everyone went and lined up. I went to the front of the train and took pictures and then was able to get straight on and skip the line because I had a compartment seat. I was compartment F seat 6 which was the seat on the right right next to the door. I wanted the one right next to the window where Harry sits (but also cause its a window) but that's okay. It was literally such a cool trip.

My compartment was full and it was a family of 5 from Normandy. The only person who spoke english was the mom but not really. The dad sat across from me then the mom next to him then the young son (named Tom) at the window but he moved around a lot. Then next to me was the daughter who had braces and must've been about 12 and then the boy who I think was the eldest and probably 16 maybe and I think his name was Theo. I tried talking with them in bits through the trip but they mostly talked amongst themselves. They were super nice though. They bought Harry Potter candies early in the trip from the little store. The little store was in our train car. They shared the beans and jelly slugs with me and showed me the chocolate frog cards. I shared my harry potter chocolate bar with them. They were all gryffindors except the two boys were slytherin. We got complimentary tea and a biscuit which was cute. The compartment was super cool but not exactly like the films either which was a bit of a bummer but honestly it was super fun and cool. The seats were a different pattern fabric and shape and had arm rests and the walls were all wood instead of white.

There were 2 stops. First we go over the viaduct which is famous from the movies from the scene where Harry and Ron fly the Ford Anglia over and around it. That was super cool and the family was nice and let me switch seats to take some photos. Then right after that was a stop for 20 minutes so I went to the bathroom. There was one single stall for men and one for women so we made one line and used both cause there were so many women. The one guy cut in line which was annoying because the only thing that made the bathrooms men or women was the sign and it was just sorta annoying and dumb. Back on the train it had another stop but it was only 5 minutes long. We joked around a lot and they bought wands. The girl got Hermione, the young boy bought Harry, and the older boy got Dumbledore/Elder Wand. They recreated the dementor scene which was funny. They watched all the train scenes on their phone when they got on which was cute. They also randomly played Hedwig's theme every once and awhile which was nice. It was a really pretty trip but honestly I was just really overwhelmed the whole time. The trolley lady came and asked if we wanted anything from the trolley and I giggled for awhile.

We got to Mallaig around 12:30 and I took some more photos on the train and then went to lunch at the Tea Garden which was fine. I got a salad which had a lot of little sprouts in it which was good and then a scone and a pot of tea. The scone came with the cream and jam on it already which was weird. Also they did jam first and then cream which was weird. It was good. I charged my phone and read Harry Potter and then went to the bathroom. Then I wandered around the town and went down the different piers. There was a pirate ship ish ship at the end of one.

The ride on the way back was lots of fun cause we were mostly messing around rather than looking at the scenery since it was the same. We got complimentary tea and a biscuit again. I brought out my Bertie bots every flavored beans and put them on a dish and we all shared them and it was a lot of fun. The kids all tried the vomit one and then I gave them the rest of the chocolate after. We did this for about an hour and a half trying all the different flavors. Then I ate my chocolate frog. The little boy Tom asked me name and the mom asked me about my trip. I attempted my best french this whole trip but honestly I don't know french. We talked about the different harry potter names in french vs english. Then the trolley lady came and I ordered both the butterbeer drinks. One was butterbeer hot chocolate and one was alcoholic with rum, caramel liqueur, and cream soda. Both were good. The hot chocolate had little crackly things on top like pop rocks which was interesting. The alcoholic drink was really good but sweet and too big. I didn't end up finishing either but I'm glad I got them. They also tried both. It rained a bit on the way back and rain came in our open top window which was funny.

Then we finally got back and I had to pee so bad. I said goodbye to my french family and went to the hostel.

I sat in the cool living room and chatted with the one guy named Frank in there for awhile. The room honestly feels like the Gryffindor common room and has such a beautiful view of the mountains. It has a fire that makes the whole room super warm and cozy and theres a guitar but no ones played yet.

Frank's from London but currently lives in Hanoi, Vietnam and teaches english. He taught english in Korea for a year too! We chatted about Korea and english teaching (he didn't do it through Fulbright and he said you make a lotttt of money from teaching english in another country cause they usually pay for your flight and housing and then give you 2,000 a month and you can easily live off 1,000 a month even with going out). (I feel like thats a lot of money and maybe he was talking in Korean Won which means 2,000=200) (either way he said he made around 15,000 from it which would be 1,500 which is a good amount). We also chatted about accents and he had me do my British one and told me its Australian and now my whole life is a lie and I'm bummed. He made me a cup of tea and we he made his which was nice. We also chatted about traveling in general and traveling in America. He's here for a couple days for the cool weather to hike and relax a bit.

Then I worked on my blog and ate my Nutella sandwhich for dinner. It was super hot in the lounge so I moved into my room and facetimed mom. Then I chatted with Frank some more. A bunch of people from the hostel went out for drinks at 10:30 and they invited me but I was tired so I decided not to and just went to bed.