Scotland and England

My summer holiday 2022 happened at the end of May, yes that is a bit early for a summer holiday, but since I normally don't get time off in July/August it’s an early holiday for me.

So I headed out for a British backpacking adventure in late May. I arrived in Dundee, Scotland on a Friday afternoon. I chose Dundee for my first stop simply because I haven’t been before and I wanted to visit a new city. I love Scotland and have been to both Edinburgh and Glasgow several times before.

So after a bit of relaxing in my room at travelodge, which was huge btw, I put on some make-up and went out exploring a little. I tried for a few geocaches, but didn’t find them, and ended up at a lookout point called Dundee Law. I was up there for sunset but unfortunately there was no sunset to speak of. The view was still great though. After getting back down to town I decided to try one of the bars close to my hotel for a couple of interesting cocktails before going to bed. I had an early morning planned for the next day. I headed out before 7am on Saturday morning, it was a beautifully sunny morning and I found loads of beautiful flowers to take photos of. After a while I found this really cool lookout point. And I had some fun taking photos, I didn’t find the geocache that had led me to this hill, but I'm glad I was led to it. And I did find the next one. And several more, as well as some cool photo spots and beautiful views over the next few hours. I eventually ended up at the local shopping centre and had lunch, with a cider because why not, at Frankie and Benny’s. Then I went back to my room and relaxed a little before putting on some make-up for the evening.

I walked around a little as I had an idea of where I wanted to eat dinner, but the first place I tried wasn’t actually open and the second was just too packed so I ended up trying a local pub close to my hotel, but I wasn’t impressed unfortunately. I was told to sit at a high table which felt wrong for me for two reasons, firstly; being alone I felt I was on display at this table, and secondly; I was wearing a short dress, there wasn’t a panel under the table. I’m short so just getting up on chairs like these is a bit awkward, especially in a dress. And then the food arrived and I wasn’t too happy to be honest. It wasn’t quite what I had thought, so if I’m ever in Dundee again I won’t eat at this pub. I ate what I could handle and left the pub for an evening walk.

And it was a lovely walk in great weather. I went back up to Dundee Law and took loads of photos during sunset. When I got back down after sunset I thought maybe I’d have a drink before bed, but with it being a Saturday the places close to the hotel were packed and I really don’t like to walk into packed places on my own, so I decided it was a sign that I should just go to bed. Sunday morning, I was out the door at about 7 am for a morning walk. The weather wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t bad either and I got some cool photos at the harbor and on my way back through town. Also met a pretty cool bird and a friendly cat on my walk. I was back at the hotel around 9 and started packing. I had a long day of travelling ahead of me.

My first bus was for Glasgow, and during this bus ride I got a message from a friend in Glasgow, so I told her I’d have a few minutes there before my next bus. She came to the bus station and we got a few minutes to chat, it was way too brief, but it was really nice to see a friendly face so I greatly appreciated it. Then it was time to board the next bus, a bus I’d take all the way to the last stop; Portree, Isle of Skye.

We had to get off the bus in Fort William though, so I got to stretch my legs a little and took a few photos there. It's a lovely little place, that I've visited before. The bus journey to the isle is beautiful and I was keeping an eye on the scenery while reading my book. I arrived in Portree just before 10pm and just made it to the hostel before the reception was closing. The other girls in my room were asleep when I got in, so I got ready for bed as quickly and quietly as I could. My first day on the isle was to be spent on a guided tour with Real Scottish Journeys. I got new friends as soon as I was by the bus and the guide was lovely too. We spent the day exploring some of the most famous sights on the island and got history lessons and real story telling while on the bus between these beautiful places.

At the fairy pools, which was our first stop, we got lucky. It stopped raining as we were approaching and our guide told us we wouldn’t have been able to do this walk in this wet weather a few days ago, but they’d just built bridges over the slippery crossing points, so we could still do it. It was a pretty cool place with small waterfalls and small pools along the trail, and the fog slowly lifted as we were walking. I also spotted the first eagle on the isle as we were headed back towards our bus, it’s always a cool thing to see a big bird like that soaring in the sky. I do want to try to see this place again someday, in better weather, but typical of Scotland and especially Skye, the weather is a bit unpredictable and there is a big chance it will rain at some point during any day. We did get lucky with the weather though and as we were driving towards a lunch spot the weather was clearing up. There are always clouds to be spotted on Skye, but they were lighter clouds and we didn’t get any more rain on this day. We were driven to a small restaurant where tables had been reserved for us and I got the chance to get to know a few more of the other tourists on this tour. I really had some lovely conversations on this tour, both with the other tourists and with our guide.

After lunch we headed towards our next stop, where we’d also get a bit of time to walk and explore. Neist point is a picturesque place, as most of Skye honestly is. We walked down some steep stairs and along a trail to get closer to Neist point and the beautiful lighthouse. I didn’t go all the way down to the lighthouse, I didn’t need to to get the views I wanted. I also didn’t go up the cliff. But I had a great time taking photos in this beautiful landscape, with the sea, the cliffs and beautiful spring flowers. After about an hour of exploring this place we got back on the bus for another long drive. The island is pretty big and the distances between these sights are bigger than people tend to think.

Our last stop for a walk was the fairy glen. I get why people believed in magic around here, it truly is a strange and lovely place with little hilltops all around you. And as with the other stops I easily could have spent hours exploring. After the Fairy glen we only had photo stops left, we got a few minutes at Quiraing lookout, this is definitely a hike I’d like to try some day. And then we got very short stops at Kiltrock and at a lookout spot for Old man of Storr before we headed back to Portree. When we got back I took a few photos of the scenery and got some food from the supermarket before retiring to my room for the night. The next morning I left the hostel at 7 am for a morning walk, and it turns out Portree is full of rabbits. I, however, want to call them bunnies because they’re so small and cute. It was a beautiful morning and I walked around Portree taking photos before heading to a park like area on a hill top. I’m really pleased with the photos I got that morning, it was a lovely walk, even though it was a wet one. I took a trail around the hill top and I guess it had been raining during the night because the narrow path with flowers, grass and straw on both sides resulted in wet shoes. The weather was pretty clear that morning though and the view along the trail was beautiful. There were some clouds, which is to be expected in this part of the world, but the sunlight kept poking through and some low clouds in the horizon added a bit of a mood.

After my morning walk I went back to my room to get ready for a boat trip I had booked. I booked a wildlife boat tour that I wasn’t too happy with unfortunately, I will explain why, though first I should mention that I am quite spoiled in this regard as I have been on several boat trips booked specifically for whales. My family also owns several boats and only a week before this holiday I went out on one of these boats with my dad to find seals in the Oslo fjord. Obviously they can’t control the weather or the wild animals and where they are, but a few simple things would have made this better, in my opinion. First we went out to a cliff where there were some birds, and we did see an eagle in the distance. However, I had no way of seeing the closer birds that were pointed out because throughout this tour the driver of the boat kept putting the front of the boat towards the thing he was talking about, if you’re at the back of the rib boat, and not really tall, you’ll have no way of seeing what is right in front of the boat.

Then we went to find seals, unfortunately it started raining, but if it hadn’t been then this would have been cool. (I believe he could have tried the loop in reverse though, as there wasn’t rain where we were going next.) Throughout the tour we got a lot of history lessons, this was marked as a wildlife tour, if I wanted a story while looking at a cave, with no wildlife to mention, I would have booked another tour. On our way from this cave we also spotted a couple of seals, these were in the sun and I would have loved a photo of them, but he didn't stop the boat by those seals. Shouldn’t a wildlife boat tour be dictated by the wildlife one actually finds? On the way back the tour was concluded with a lap around a cruise ship. Apparently the locals were very excited about their first cruise ship in years, but this lap seemed very unnecessary to me. Now, the landscape was beautiful, of course and we did see seals and some cool birds, but I felt this tour focused on all the wrong things and they should definitely not call it a wildlife tour.

My plan after this boat tour was to go for a walk a bit south of Portree, but the buses don’t run nearly often enough for me in this area. So I got some food at the supermarket and relaxed in my room for a few hours, then went for a walk around Portree before getting the bus to Sligachan. I had a lovely walk in the area, hiked to some waterfalls. The weather was interesting and the light gave some pretty cool photos. At one point I had military style airplanes above my head though, that caught me by surprise. I had a lovely peaceful walk though, even if it was “interrupted” by the airplanes a couple of times. I took loads of photos of the scenery and took quite a few tripod selfies as well. If it hadn’t started raining I would have wished I could walk for hours along the trail I was on, I just loved it. But I figured I should get back into town, especially since it was looking like I’d start a hike before sunrise the next morning (middle of the night really), and there weren’t too many buses going back to Portree.

So I’d tried to get a taxi to drive me out to Old man Storr before sunrise, and the few that I could even get ahold of weren’t too surprised by the request for a taxi at 3:30 am, but they couldn’t do it. That’s the issue with a small place like this where all the taxi companies are individuals or so small they’re only a couple of drivers. So, although I managed for the most part, this is definitely an area where you’d want to have a car, if you can manage do drive on the left side that is. Anyways, I wanted to be out before sunrise so I did, I started walking from the hostel about an hour before sunrise. And it was looking like it would be a nice day, I do not, however, recommend anyone do what I did. I didn’t end up finding the trail I was supposed to be on so I was basically just trying to find my way along in the right direction. My shoes got wet pretty fast, and I’m also pretty sure I was not supposed to be where I was. I encountered fences and some places they were easy to get across, other places not so much. I have realised after this that a lot of Scotland seems to be fenced in, what is the deal with that?! I hadn’t walked for more than an hour before I heard the first deer of the morning, but I couldn’t see it at first. The second time I heard one, I looked back and noticed a deer disappearing over a hilltop behind me. And a few minutes after that I saw what I believe was a young female deer in front of me. She wasn’t entirely sure she was scared of me, she was definitely a little curious, so I got a few descent photos before she left. I walked up the hilltop she had left over and saw that there was another deer waiting for her at the bottom of the valley. I had already started regretting my choice to hike this far before seeing the deer, and for a little while I felt like it was worth it because of the deer, but that did change. The view really was amazing though.

I had initially thought this would be a 3-4 hour hike, I was very wrong. Maybe it’s not that bad if you find the trail, if there really is a proper trail up there somewhere. But I didn’t find it and ended up taking sheep trails when I found them, and just got wet feet whenever I didn’t. There is still something magical about the early mornings though, I kept hearing cuckoos in the early hours, but I never got a good photo of any. And at some point I scared a grouse, who I heard laughing at me as it flew away. As the sun was coming over the edge of the mountain range on the other side of the road (which seemed scary far away to be honest), the ground became magical. The first light in the morning truly is something special, I ended up having some fun taking close-ups in the grass and of the tiny flowers with water droplets on them. I also got some tripod selfies in the morning light, with the vast landscape behind me.

After about 5 hours (I think) of walking, I was really regretting the hike and really starting to get worried about how I was going to get down from the mountain. Although it seemed I had to get up a level first. I had the mantra of “one step in front of the other” in my head, I was trying to focus on my next few steps rather than the big picture to keep myself going. Which meant I’d go up slight hills, and around bends constantly just trying to find a “path” forward. Eventually I found a sheep trail going up a level and I was at least not walking along a steep hill/cliff anymore but rather on the flat-ish top above it. I debated for a while whether I should not worry my mum or if someone should know where I was. Yes, that’s how worried I was for a moment. I also really needed some moral support. So I did eventually talk to my mum, and it did help a little. I also found the trail while I was talking to her and I saw a person far ahead of me at the next steep mountain. I hung up with my mum and checked the map, I did have a trail map, it just hadn’t helped me much until this point. As I was looking ahead I had two choices, one trail went straight up the mountain the other went around the side it seemed. I was very unsure what to do, but ended up going straight up. Which was the right choice, even though I was extremely tired at this point.

As I got over the top and could look down I had a wave of relief washing over me. The view was breathtaking and it was worth it! I had finally made it to my goal after hiking, mostly off trail in "wild" nature, with wet feet, climbing over stupid fences, for about 7,5 hours. I was exhausted! I sat down for a few minutes, I got photos, tripod selfies and a mobile video. And the photos really can't do it justice. It's so dramatic, so big, and it felt amazing to just be there, above it. I've found I really like dramatic nature formations. I still had to get down from the mountain though, so the question was: “Walk around the top or walk back down the trail I’d come up?”

I chose to go back down, I got down to the trail I’d seen going around the side and that took me down along a stream in what seemed to be a sort of crack in the mountain. When I was almost down I lost the trail again though, and there were these stupid fences again. As I was debating where to try to get down a guy who was also hiking alone was a little lost too and noticed me. So we talked and decided to walk together. He was a pretty nice older man and I was glad for both the company and the help getting across streams and such. When we got down to the road I’d missed the first two buses I’d thought I could get back to Portree and the next one was nearly 2 hours away. The man was kind enough to offer to give me a lift back to Portree, even though he was going in the opposite direction. I tried to say that was nice but if he was going the other way. But he insisted it wasn’t a problem and it would only take him 30 minutes to drive me into town and then be back where we were. So I accepted. I was honestly debating hitchhiking (which I’ve never done before) if he hadn’t offered. He dropped me off by the coop in Portree and I thanked him for being so kind and going out of his way for me. At this point it was about 10 hours since I left Portree, that’s right; I hiked for over 9 hours. So I was tired, thirsty and hungry. I went straight to the coop and got a sandwich, a fanta, a chocolate milkshake and a snack, or maybe it was two snacks. Getting back to my room I ate and then showered and just relaxed for a bit.

I had decided to try to find food at a restaurant and then find a drink, I think I’d earned it. That turned out to be pretty difficult though, as all the restaurants that were open were also full, or only open to hotel guests. So I ended up getting a snack from the coop, so I at least got something into my system before a drink, and then found a pub for a cider. After the cider I went back to my room and chatted with roommates before bed. During my stay in Portree I had quite a few roommates and some of them were just as chatty as I am. It’s been years since I stayed at a hostel last, and although I do sometimes like having a room to myself it did remind me of the benefits of staying in a small hostel room. (Sharing a room with 3 others is normally fine, more than 5 others is definitely too much.) On my last morning in Portree I went for a 7 am walk to see the rabbits again and to get some nice photos of Portree in the morning light. And it was a beautiful sunny morning. I met several cute rabbits in the park, one seemed to not mind me too much and I got some lovely photos of it relaxing in the sun. I also got some great shots of flowers in the early light, and the colourful houses reflected in the water at the harbor. Then I got breakfast from the coop and headed back to my room. The light was still off and a late arrival from the night before was still sleeping so I put my stuff down and brought my breakfast to the common room. Another couple of my roommates were eating breakfast there too, so I sat with them and had company with my meal. And then it was time to start packing and getting ready for my journey onwards.

I spent the bus ride to Inverness reading and looking at the scenery. After about 3 hours I arrived in Inverness and found a locker for my backpack at the train station.

I had quite a few hours to kill and the weather was alright so I decided to go for a little walk and see if I could find a couple of geocaches and take some photos in the nice weather. Arriving at the first cache I saw a couple of people looking for something so I asked if they were geocaching. We looked for the cache together and chatted away. They were really nice, and I don’t think I would have found the geocache without them, it was pretty clever. I struggled a little with finding the second geocache too, but I did eventually find it. The third one I had to give up on. I believe these are all geocaches I tried to find last time I was in Inverness, in 2018, so to find some at least was a win. After my little walk I went shopping, I wanted to get something comfortable I could use on the train for England, something that I would also feel ok wearing when I needed to walk a bit with my backpack. So I got a few practical things, but it’s me we’re talking about here, so I did get a few things I just wanted too. Especially the dress I just couldn’t leave behind even though it cost a little more than I like. It was just so nice, and comfortable too.

After the shopping I decided to sit down for my first warm meal in days. I went to a wetherspoons type bar and got lasagna and a cider. And since I still had time to kill I decided to get a hot cocoa with baileys for dessert while I read my book. And, something only Supernatural fans (family really) will understand, a great moment for me; Carry on my wayword son came on while I was enjoying my meal. That really put me in a good mood. When I left for the train station I still had plenty of time, I had to reorganise my things a little though, and also got some food to take with me on the train. I had booked a single seat on the Caledonian sleeper, a train going from Scotland to London overnight. The train left Inverness a little before 9 pm and arrived in London a little before 8 am. We got a beautiful sunset and I saw a rainbow as well, the best part of the sunset wasn’t on my side of the train though and neither was the sunrise, they must have turned the train around at some point in the night. I did sleep a little on the train, but not a lot, it was way too cold and I struggled to find an ok position to sleep in. When I arrived in London I had to get the tube (underground) to Victoria station, then I needed to find the right bus stop for the “Oxford tube”, a bus going to Oxford. This bus departs fairly often and takes a little under 2 hours. I was going to a friends’ house for the weekend, I hadn’t seen Melissa in about 4 years, so it was about time. I arrived in Oxford around 10 and had about a 15-minute walk to her house. And I’ll admit my backpack did feel a bit heavy at this point. Arriving at Melissa’s house I was in desperate need of a shower. After showering we headed into Oxford city centre so she could show me around town.

She truly loves this city and all its old buildings and their history. It’s a pretty scenic place too and some of those old buildings are pretty cool, which is what I like. I’ve realised recently that I almost see things in photos, like my eyes register what has the potential to be a good photo everywhere I go. Which also means I tend to stop a lot to take photos if there aren’t many people crowding my photo (because that sort of ruins it). We had milkshakes from a market, they had just about every flavour you could think of. Then we walked around a bit while enjoying our milkshakes. Ended up walking along the river for a bit, saw some cows. It was a beautiful and sunny early summer day. We went into the mall for a little bit, I was on the hunt for a loose simple top and Melissa ended up getting a dress. Then we went up into a tower and got the view of Oxford from up top before we headed back to her place to relax a little before getting ready for dinner.

I booked us a table at a restaurant in town and her boyfriend joined us for dinner. We had a lovely dinner at Bella Italia, I also liked the music they played and the staff were very friendly. After the meal we had a drink at a bar across the street from the restaurant. We really liked the place, and the music, but there weren't that many people there. After one drink Melissa’s boyfriend left and we stayed to have one more drink. We quickly found out why there weren’t a lot of people at this bar though as we felt we’d barely tasted our second drinks when we were told they were closing. I hate leaving alcohol, but there was no way I was downing my whole drink, which was basically a pint. I didn’t set an alarm for the morning, just woke up on my own, got ready for a walk and had a little breakfast before I left the house around 10 am. Melissa had given me a key, because we know each other, after a few drinks she’ll sleep in while I’ll normally wake up early. It didn’t take long before I spotted a bird of prey, I’d seen a couple since I arrived in Oxford (and also briefly saw one in Inverness), but hadn’t really gotten any photos of it. I spent some time trying to get photos, I was struggling with my camera though. I had simply taken too many photos on this trip and there was no more room. So I had to go back to the photos from the trip to the Netherlands and start deleting videos (as that would be the quickest way of freeing up space). I’m not entirely happy with the photos I got, but it was enough for me to identify the type of bird later on. So what I was seeing and saw again later that day, was a red kite. That bird alone would be a good enough reason for me to come back to Oxford, knowing the chances of seeing them are pretty big if you’re there for more than a day. I continued my walk towards a river and some forest like area. I didn’t see any more red kites in this area, but I saw ducks, swans, geese and a heron. I spent quite some time in this area, and looked for a couple of geocaches with no luck, before I decided to go shopping.

It was raining when I decided to get into town and get a bus towards a mall in another part of Oxford, one I’m told isn’t too nice. But I wanted a certain shop that often doesn’t exist in the city centres. By the time I got to this small shopping centre it had stopped raining, the sun was coming out and Melissa had headed into Oxford. This made me try to hurry a bit, but I found that there was another shop I’d missed a lot there too, so it did take a while. It was definitely worth it though, I left feeling really good about my new outfits, some of which were things I’d been looking for for years. Before heading back to the city centre I went to tk maxx and got a suitcase, I was going to need it both for the new stuff I was buying and for the 2 bottles of limited edition Baileys Melissa had gotten ahold of for me just before the pandemic hit. (I was a little worried, and they are technically expired, but I opened one when I got home and it is fine. So relieved.)

When I got back to town Melissa and I had a bit of a miscommunication and I ended up waiting for her for a bit, but we found each other after a while and she showed me some more of the things she likes about Oxford and then we found a place to eat a little lunch. That is; I had lunch with a drink and Melissa had a starter while she kept me company. I really do prefer to eat in a pub/restaurant with someone whenever I can while travelling. After the meal we went back to her place where her boyfriend had started dinner. They had invited a couple of friends and he was making us dinner. So after stopping by the corner shop for some forgotten things, I changed into jeans and a nice top. And then kept him company in the living room/kitchen, he was cooking, I was chatting and having a drink. Dinner was ready pretty soon after his friends arrived, and it was a lovely, and pretty sweet, coconut chicken dish. I’m really picky, but I really liked this meal. And then he made desserts; chocolate fondant. They were huge and perfect. I honestly struggled to finish it, but it was so good it would be a crime to leave it. Stuffed, but pretty happy, we headed to the down stairs neighbours who’d had a bbq. We spent the rest of the evening and well into the night chatting away. Once again I was visiting Melissa and ended up surrounded with people from several different countries. She tends to surround herself with intelligent people from all over the world, although this night it was limited to Europe. This means there are always interesting conversations going on about culture, languages and the world in general. So we didn’t get to bed until late. I decided I didn’t need to stress about leaving Oxford early on the Sunday, but I couldn’t leave too late either as I did need to get ready for a bar crawl in London that night. So I didn't sleep too long, but did still get enough sleep for me after a night of drinking. When I woke up I started packing and getting ready to leave. I woke Melissa up to say goodbye before leaving and then I went on my way.

The walk to the bus stop took longer than it had when I arrived, but concidering I was now walking uphill for a bit and had a suitcase in addition to my big backpack that wasn't really a surprise. Luckily the Oxford tube runs quite often, so even though I didn't make the bus I was thinking I'd make before leaving Melissa's house, I didn't have to wait too long. The journey into London took a while, I guess the fact that there had been celebrations all over London and some roads were still closed meant more traffic, and possibly a slightly different route for the bus. I arrived in London and made my way to the tube (underground) to take me to my hotel. I'd booked a travelodge again, and I was staying extremely central. I've been to London quite a few times now, but I've never stayed this central before, just about everything I needed was within walking distance. You can't really get more central than Covent garden. I still had some time to kill before I needed to get ready for my night out in London and I hadn't eaten anything real all day. I hadn't bothered with breakfast for two reasons; I wasn't very hungry and I take madication in the morning and then have to wait an hour to eat. I tend to have cereal bars with me, but at this point I needed food. So I walked towards the nearest boots where I could look for make-up and food. I looked for a geocache on the way too, but didn't find it. When I got back to my hotel and sat down to eat my food I noticed I was struggling with the internet. This continued throughout my stay, it was only in my room though and I’m pretty sure this was not a hotel wide thing but only a few rooms. The only window in my room was a small one high up on the wall so I’m guessing something was blocking the signal in my room, not completely, but enough that it was difficult to use. I ate my food and rested for a little bit before I started getting ready for a night out. I would still need dinner before drinking too. Trying to look up places to eat was impossible though. So when I was ready to leave I ended up just walking in the general direction I was going, I had tried to find some options for food but it wasn’t easy and I quickly found that the places I had thought of were not the right fit for me. I tried googling a bit as I walked, ended up walking in circles a bit. Then I walked passed a place that looked fine, and I was tired of trying to find the perfect place. It was a small Italian restaurant, the place wasn’t full but several tables were taken. Which is how I like it honestly. However, I did get a sinking feeling when I ordered and the guy seemed to not want to give me my meal without sauce. He said “but then it’s just the chicken”. I do not like sauce and the meal was chicken breast with ham and cheese, so that’s hardly “just the chicken”. He finally backed down, otherwise I would have had to leave the restaurant, I really don’t like sauce and to put a red wine sauce on my meal would have ruined it for me. I got my white wine and instantly regretted things a bit; it was horrible. I had a sprite type thing as well and used that to blend with, it helped a little. I started worrying that there really were no sides, no potatoes or anything, with my meal. But I had ordered it, so just hope for the best at this point. And I’m actually glad I stayed, despite the bad tasting wine. The meal was certainly not just the chicken, it was exactly what I needed; oven roasted potatoes, a big piece of broccoli, some carrots. I really did need some vegetables after over a week of travelling and eating mostly shop sandwiches, so it was perfect.

After eating I went to find the bar for the bar crawl, I was early though so the guide wasn’t there yet, and I hadn’t realized how small this crawl was. There was a single booth table reserved for the crawl. I haven’t used this company before and I will go into detail when I add this to my bar crawl post. But I will say that although the people were nice, the crawl was seriously small for being London. And when we were at the last bar and they were closing at like 1:30 am, the guide said it was because it was a Sunday, but I’m guessing there are bars and clubs open later on a Sunday too, they just didn’t have a deal with any of those. I went back to my hotel, even though I didn’t feel like I was done with the night. And walking into the hotel I realised they were serving at the hotel bar. I’m not used to a Travelodge having a bar, but the Covent Garden one does. I’m not saying it’s a great bar, but it meant I didn’t have to end my night just yet. I went up to my room to switch out my jacket and scarf for a cardigan and went back to the bar. Not only did they serve alcohol, they had food too. So I ordered a pizza and a dark fruit cider, which was sort of perfect. I spent the next few hours chatting with some Irish guys while having a few ciders with my pizza.

I didn’t get up too early in the morning, but didn’t really sleep in either. I ate some of my pizza for breakfast and left the hotel around 10:30. I didn’t have any set plans for the day, just wander and shop a little, so I started the day by heading towards Trafalgar square and a couple of geocaches. When the photo for one was taken and the log for the other was signed I headed for St. James’s park, where I knew I’d find loads of birds and squirrels to take photos of. The road up to Buckingham palace was still closed for cars after the festivities of the weekend and there were union jacks hanging all along the road, as there were many places in London this time. I’m guessing it was all because of the Queens jubilee. It was pretty cool. Entering the park it didn’t take me long to find ducks I would normally struggle to get close to in Norway. I had a lovely walk and took loads of photos. The squirrels were particularly fun as they’re very curious and will climb on you if they think you have food for them. I flipped the screen on my camera for some of them so they could see themselves as I took photos. These photos didn’t turn out too good as I didn’t see and couldn’t make sure the photos were focused, but it was fun seeing the confusion of them seeing themselves.

After a while in the park I figured it was time to eat, and seeing as I’d started getting more comfortable with restaurants on my own and I had never managed to make it to Hard Rock café in London, this was the perfect time. London now has three Hard Rock café’s, last time I tried to go to one I was with someone and we didn’t have a reservation, which was needed at the time. But with this being a Monday, mid-day and there being three in town I thought maybe I’d be fin, and I was correct. I went to the most central one, at Piccadilly circus, and was placed at the bar. I’m not sure why as there were small high tables just a couple of meters from me and they were not full, but it was ok. I have to admit; I knew I needed food at this point, but since I’d been drinking until late I was a little unsure if it was a good idea. It was. I started feeling better and more awake pretty soon after I got my food. And the unlimited soft drinks at hard rock café is a great thing after a night of drinking. After my meal I went to the rock shop to find a glass for my collection, I had a bit of a tough time deciding actually, but ended up with the London themed shot glass. Then I headed towards the nearest Primark, I needed a birthday present and some things for myself. After a quick stop by Boots for a meal I went back to my room for a nap.

After my nap I went for an evening walk, I went to a couple of nearby shops and then I went down to the river. I was honestly hoping for a sunset, but no such luck. I still got a bit creative on my way back though and got some cool photos with a lensball. I had considered going for a morning walk as well, but since I’d heard of chaos at Heathrow and had promised my mum I’d be there early there wasn’t really enough time. I met a bit of chaos in the morning, but not at the airport. The chaos started when I checked what tube station I was getting the tube from and found out the line I needed wasn’t operating; a strike I think. So I had to find an alternate route, the alternate route wasn’t supposed to take longer, but it involved a bus that was late and got PACKED! And an express train that cost a lot more than the tube would have. I did eventually, and with a lot more walking than planned, make it to the airport. After checking in I had to reorganise my luggage a little and switch to a thicker jacket. (I’m always cold on the plane.) Then I dropped off my luggage and went for the security check, which I expected to be chaotic after everything I had heard. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered less of a line at an airport security check. I had checked in, dropped off my luggage and gotten through security and still had more than 2 hours before take-off, and I didn’t have a gate yet. And with that my “summer holiday” was over. I have to say, with everything that happened in the next few weeks, maybe not being able to take a later summer holiday like “everyone else” wasn’t such a bad thing. From what I understand the airports were complete chaos and there were many cancellations in the summer months. Conclusion: I need to get better at looking for my trails on maps and realising when I need to not attempt a specific hike. Also; have enough clothes for night trains. I do like that I went to Dundee and got to see another Scottish city, but it's becoming very clear that I do prefer nature to cities. Isle of Skye was without a doubt the best thing about this trip, even though seeing Melissa was a highlight as well. I will absolutely have to visit Isle of Skye again some day, and maybe do a better marked hike than I did this time. I alsohave to say; London doesn't get boring. I've been many times, and honestly wasn't a fan at first, but after I started exploring the city on my own it grew on me and I still quite like it. Edit: After writing this I actually booked a late summer holiday (technically in the autumn though), turnes out I did need some real summer heat. That blogpost will also be posted at some point.