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Paris – Day 1

Had a nice relaxing morning, sipping coffee on the balcony and waiting for the clouds to clear up before I showered and headed out for the day. First stop was a nearby bakery for a yummy chocolate croissant. Then I was off to the Louvre, which was CRAZY busy because a new Da Vinci exhibit opened up today and I guess the Mona Lisa was off exhibit for a while and just came back last week. Still, despite how busy it was the place was plenty big to accommodate everyone. I only waited maybe 20 minutes for a Mona Lisa selfie, although the security guards were screaming at everyone “ONLY ONE PHOTO!” and practically dragging you off once they saw you got one (1). Whatever, I came to see Liberty Leading the People and Venus de Milo anyway, amongst other things. I wandered around all the wings and most of the floors before heading out. I picked up a Batobus boat ferry 2 day ticket and rode along the Seine to Notre Dame which you can’t get close to at all due to the recent fire. There I had a delicious Nutella and banana crepe from a street vendor. Then I got off at the Botanical Gardens and wandered admiring the humongous vegetables and beautiful Morning Glory pathways before jumping back on the boat.

I walked down to the Japan District and stopped at one place with the most disgusting yakisoba I ever tasted, the place was filthy too but I didn’t realize exactly how bad it was until I had started eating and people started moving around and just…ugh, the place was filthy and gross overall. I ate maybe half of it and then left (no idea why the place was so highly rated on Google; I would have fought about having to pay if I spoke French but the $12 wasn’t worth getting in trouble over). I went down the street to a different restaurant, this time run by actual Japanese people, and since I didn’t speak French and they didn’t speak English we communicated in Japanese instead. It was pretty funny, I think they got a kick out of it. Their food and cleanliness was MUCH better than the other place. I’m still debating if I should leave the first place a bad review, it was an overall terrible experience; however it was made better by the great experience at the second place. Ah, well. After eating I went up to Hard Rock Café to get my traditional pin from a very funny cashier who wanted to practice his English, then walked back south past a kid’s skateboarding park, then past the Church of St Eustache, then Les Halles. I swung by the hotel to drop stuff off, then headed over to the Highlander Pub for a cider…what can I say? I already miss Scotland!

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Edinburgh Day 2

Edinburgh is amazing, I loooove it. The place smells like baked goods and sweets, it’s fairly easy to navigate since there are so many big landmarks, there is so much to do, people seem happy and active. Sure it has its problems, it has homeless folks and petty crime and is expensive like any other major city…but I really, really like it! Today I stopped by an old church called St. John’s near my hotel and the huge old graveyard attached to it with Edinburgh Castle behind, then to Ross Fountain, and walked down to Holyrood Palace. The actual palace is pretty typical, it felt like walking into Windsor Castle all over again, but the destroyed abbey remnants were pretty cool and spooky, both from inside and out.  Despite no rain in the forecast, it started pouring fast and hard in between peaks of brilliant sunshine leading to a series of beautiful, big rainbows while I was at Holyrood. I jumped into a ramen shop and ate while one bad rain patch passed through, it was pretty good ramen…mid-level, a little bland, but good on the stomach.  It’s funny, the British really don’t use salt all that much considering how many people they’ve historically killed for it.  Anyway, once the rain cleared I hiked up Calton Hill to watch the sunset, then decided to call it quits early because it was super windy and cold! I needed to get my hotel and rental car scheduled for tomorrow (pray for me driving in the UK for the first time) and buy some new shoes because the walking shoes I got are apparently not waterproof like I thought they were.  Good thing they have normal shoe stores here, like Skechers, so I got some waterproof boots.  Then I went back to the hotel to pack up for the big trip up to the Highlands!

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London to Edinburgh

I once again was up and at the coach station at 7:45am, but Expedia had the time wrong and it didn’t leave until 8:20am, which sucks because I could have stayed at the B&B and enjoyed a nice breakfast there.  Anywho, I grabbed a coffee and boarded a really neat vintage double decker bus for a tour around town.  Due to the climate protests all over central London our tour was altered and traffic was heavy, but we stopped at Buckingham Palace for a while then drove past the Eye of London, down Fleet Street, past St. Paul’s Cathedral, over the London and Tower Bridges amongst others, and then stopped at the Millbank Millennium Pier to catch a boat.  The boat tour was pretty quick, basically over to Tower Bridge and back, but offered wonderful views of Parliament, the Eye, Tower Bridge, Big Ben (covered and under construction until 2022 though I think) and everything else along the water.  Honestly, if I did it again I’d do it at sunset or at night, I bet that view is gorgeous.  Once we got back to the coach station I picked up my bags from the B&B and took the Victoria line to Kings Cross station.  Of course I needed a cheesy photo taken at Platform 9 ¾ and I sat and waited for my train.  Unfortunately, someone was hit by another train along our route and there were trespassers along another major route, so almost all of the trains were delayed or cancelled.  My original 3:30 train to Edinburg was delayed, then they loaded us in, then they kicked us off and cancelled it.  There was about an hour of confusion before I got confirmation that I could jump on any of the other trains that were running, so I jumped on the 4:30 train and crossed my fingers that I’d eventually get to Edinburg.  Fortunately I was sat next to two lovely people and we chatted and exchanged stories for a couple hours (mainly me talking, travelling solo I don’t get my daily words out!). A Dr. Eeyan Pepper stayed with me until Darlington and was a super nice guy, travelled lots himself and owns a place in Florida.  The second leg I was pretty much by myself so I plugged the headphones in and zoned out for the rest of the trip.  It was after 10pm when we finally arrived, so I scurried through the cold to my hotel about a mile away.  Yotel is in an old building but they completely modernized it, so everything is new and neon and very eclectic.  I was starving, so I went around the corner to KFC and got an interesting combo bucket including a chicken sandwich one (1) thigh piece, a weird salad, and fries. Then went back to the hotel and crashed.