One day in Edinburgh

After spending 4 long days by the countryside, it was time to head back to the city. While it was nice idling, trail-walking, having yummy fruit scones for tea and not doing anything of utmost importance, being a city-girl at heart, I was glad to be back in the city hustle and bustle.

I liked Edinburgh the moment we set foot on its streets. The architecture was charming (not to mention spooky too), the people were friendly and the food... was pretty good! Sad to say, we only had a day to explore the city; heading back to London the next. And we didn't manage to visit the lochs that Scotland's famed for too; better luck next time.

No time for lochs, so we headed to Camera Obscura and the Scotch Whisky Museum instead. Looked at more mind-boggling optical illusions, learnt what the term 'camera obscura' means, and we tried to 'pick up' random people who were walking on the streets. 

this is how I'd look like in the anime world

and F. 

somewhere along the Royal Mile

whiskey-tasting

they all belong to the same collector

The weather was awesome during our time in Edinburgh; it was warm, but we had the occasional breeze to cool things down a little. Most of the skies in my pictures are overexposed though :( 

Scottish bagpipe players; F dared me to ask one of these men in traditional costumes if they were wearing any underwear beneath. I was too chicken so I said "wait until we come across a handsome one la"

sauces, finally!

haggis, neeps and tatties. doesn't taste as bad as it looks; quite yummy in fact.

steak and ale pie

abandoned

The days got longer towards the end of the UK leg; it was probably around 10p.m. when the sun set everyday so we always seemed to be out for only a short while when in actual fact, we've been out for nearly an entire day. Super tiring please. 

Anyway, Edinburgh was our last stop for our UK travels. We boarded one of those Megabuses back to London for the cheapest price F could find, and took a train back to Portsmouth when we were finally back in London. That's been almost 2 weeks of non-stop travelling, and while we didn't get to spend enough time at each stop, I guess we both saw enough to decide which are the places we wouldn't mind visiting again.

Keswick, Lake District.

Windermere was nice (especially our quaint little room), but after spending two nights there and realizing it is actually a rather busy place, we were glad to leave for our next destination. Keswick (say keh-zik, not kes-wick), is also another little town (within Lake District) that is a 7 GBP and an hour's bus ride from Windermere.

Using Googlemap to guide us and after some serious walking, we finally found The Cartwheel, our sleeping place for the next two nights. We didn't manage to see our room immediately as it wasn't ready when we arrived at 11 a.m. Bernie, being a great host, offered to carry our heavy backpacks up to the room once it was ready and told us we could come back in the afternoon.

the noses are actually pieces of chocolate

We were pleasantly surprised when Tina (the female owner) showed us to our rooms after we got back; granted, it's very different from the Windermere room, but it's still nice nonetheless! I think both Tina and Bernie put a lot of effort into working the tiny details around the house, and they deserve a great round of applause. From the cute towel animals resting on our beds to the breakfast 'personalized order forms', they seem to have everything covered. It was really helpful of them to put up a file with a list of (almost) all the food that could be found in this little town, and they even stuck a cute little smiley-faced sticker on the toilet roll to indicate it's just been cleaned; these things instantly bring a smile to your face. Whatever "countryside charm" the room lacked, Tina and Bernie made it up with their hospitality. 

Emo Teeny.

And while waiting for our rooms to be ready, we visited The Puzzling Place, a little museum filled with many different optical illusion exhibits, and laughed at ourselves in the distortion mirrors while going dizzy looking at the different mind-boggling exhibits.

The next day, we went for a lake cruise on Derwentwater (another big lake in Lake District) and did some trekking. To be really honest though, it was mostly just walking slowly. For me at least. I confirmed that I would definitely become a liability if you were to invite me on a hiking/trekking session of sorts during this trip.  

We made a few stops as our cruise tickets allowed us to hop on and off; and once we got off at the respective stops, we'd head upwards. Not that it might be of particular significance to you unless you're F or me or you've been there too, some of the stops made were Ashness, Nichol End and probably Hawes End.

One thing that I really liked about trekking over here (as compared to say, Malaysia?) is the weather. Temperatures were mostly between 15-20 degrees Celcius so you wouldn't perspire as much as you would trekking in SE Asia. But really, you gotta wear the right gear too la. I was wearing my 2-pounds-a-pair Primark canvas shoes, a thick double-layered long jacket, a fleece jumper under the jacket, and I think I actually swore at my own inexperience, or stupidity in other words if you think I deserve it. Blah.

Lovely F.

And you might have guessed right from the pictures, it was drizzling as we were walking upwards. That made the steps slippery and the place look really gloomy. Oh well, better luck next time!

while waiting for the boat to arrive

The next few pictures were taken at our final trekking stop where we climbed over fences to see some sheep, tried to avoid stepping on black and slimy slugs (and also sheep poo) on the ground, washed our shoes in a little stream and I fell on my bum. 

look at the catching up I had to do.

sheep that we climbed over fences to see. bahhhh

a view of Derwentwater from way up high

Ashness Bridge, people were lunching here.

after my fall on the grassy slopes...

the black patches on the grass are the sheep's poo; & I think I actually fell on some poo patties when I fell :(

We spent our last idyllic afternoon in Lake District at a nice little cafe called The Wild Strawberry where I ordered a fruit scone and strawbree jam and tea. I love scones and jam! 

The next day, after bidding the wonderful Tina and Bernie goodbye, we lugged our bags back to the bus terminal, waited for and then boarded the bus to Penrith's train terminal. Our next stop? Edinburgh.

backpacking - mistake #1: Overpacking