Scotch - Land...

And I thought travel in India was painful... well for those who have not been to a place outside India, there is something to feel good about... the buses that drive you around long distances in India... and the trains that take you places... are much more comfortable than the ones in the UK... atleast london...

The Virgin trains have seats that do not recline at all, so you sit at an angle of about 100 degrees throughout your journey... you cannot even feel comfortable after 45 odd minutes, forget about sleeping on the train... the only good point being that they are much much faster than any of the other trains I have been in, and that means that the discomfort does not really last for long...

It did long for about 2.5 hours each way from London to Manchester for me though... and the fares... phew!!! Sky rocketing!!! A return trip to Manchester could be anything between 150 pounds to 200 pounds... and that is expensive by any standards...

Anyway... for Edinburgh... trains usually take about 4.5 hours so me and Abhishek initially thought of taking the train, but it was about 112GBP one way, and we were almost on the verge of dropping the idea to travel because of this high train fare... and then the national express came to our rescue... this is a bus service that operates out of London to various places around Europe including Paris etc.... I was hoping something closer to the Indian Volvos, if I can use that term here, to take me to Edinburgh... the ticket was cheap about 50GBP return... and i had my fingers crossed only to realise that the seat moves back only about 2 inches... and there was just the amount of legroom that would fit a 5'8" person comfortably... and I just cannot write how much I was missing the Volvos that I have travelled in, in India... they are sheer luxury...

The place is full of ppl who can paint you in minutes... amazing...

We left London on 10th around 2300 hrs and reached Edinburgh around 0730 hrs... the City Centre where there is the coach station... Took a cab to our hotel Park View on the Hermitage Street, about 10 minutes away from the main hub of the city... the Royal Mile... and this is where most of the action around the Fringe Festival was happening !!!

Posters and pamphlets of activities for the festival...

Posters and pamphlets of activities for the festival...

We realized that the reception was closed and we could not check-in until 1300 hrs... and it was only 0830 hrs when we reached the hotel... this meant that we would have to head back to the city... and roam around and come back in the evening to check in... Which we did... the chef at the hotel was kind enough to get us two large mugs of coffee that really helped us wake up... i had a stiff neck thanks to the all night journey, but there was li'il that we could do... so we bought a day ticket for 2.5 GBP and headed back to the city... and it actually turned out to be a great day!!!

One of the best street performances I ever saw... was by these guys above...

He is balanced on the pole using his leg muscles only...

Managed to check out a few venues of the annual Fringe Festival, went to the gates of the Castle and decided not to go in. went to a visual gallary called Camera Abscura instead and enjoy roaming around the entire 5 floors for about 2 hours... Camera Abscura had a room on the 5^th floor with mirrors on the top and they reflecting onto a oval screen on the bottom… went through a small 20 minute presentation there to see the entire town through those lenses and thought of how different it would have been for people to see that screen back in the 18^th century where there was nothing called a TV around, forget about a live telecast, which were looking at there on that screen…

No this is not a real woman... this is a picture of her.. which looks 3-D because of some light techniques...

And me :)

View from a bridge on the Princess Street... The castle in the background on the right is Edinburgh Castle...

more or less that day belonged to the streets and a nice Italian lunch at a restaurant on the Royal Mile...We did not do much the rest of the day but just walked around the centre of the town enjoying the hustle bustle, and the festival activities... there were about 300 Fringe Festival Venues and it is practically impossible for someone to check out everything even in the entire festival duration... and we did not even try that... I was keener on being on the streets and get a feel of the place instead of being inside a theater and spend time there...

A Red-Indian band playing... nice it was...

One of the best street performances I ever saw... was by these guys above...

We went back to our hotel around 1400 hrs and slept for 3 hours before we headed back to the Princess Street... the agenda this time was to eat, and then check out some local clubs... I had one of the best Indian dinners of my life @ 9Cellers and then we walked around the place before we club-hopped ;) two clubs... cannot remember the name of the first one, but the second one was Subway... and it had some nice music playing with I guess teenagers dancing their asses out on the floor... and I have to say that people in India dance much much better in clubs as compared to whatever I have seen in England so far... no offences meant here though!!! I even managed to witness something that I had only heard of so far here... a girl (not sure about her age) smooching two guys and a girl within about 30 minutes on the dance floor... it was kind of strange to see... anyway... we were back at the hotel around 0100 hrs to wake up early for our day tour of Scotland which we booked during our walk in the city...

On a cycle with one wheel.. two knives, one torch, and blindfolded juggling...phew...

Day 2: Sunday 12th August...

Highland tours had arranged for this day tour... and the bus was a Mercedes which helped :) the seats were much more comfortable and they reclined back… which made the entire day very very comfortable… we were to spend the entire day in the bus traveling around the country visiting various places…

another night view...

Starting at 0830 hrs and back by 1930… this trip was something that we could do best to check out the country... especially when it had been raining like crazy, there was not much that I would have managed to see in the city itself…

It kept raining most of the time when I was there... :(

So the route we followed was: Edinburgh -> Pitlochry -> Dalwhinne -> Fort William -> Loch Ness -> Glencoe -> Sterling -> Edinburgh…

The bus that took us around the country...

We stopped @ Pitlochry first and had breakfast… me and Abhishek kind of wandered towards a river there... and almost got late... but managed to be just on time for the bus to leave…

Most of the time our guide, Michael, kept telling us stories about the kings and the events and made sure that the rain outside does not dampen the spirit inside… the weather Gods like always were kind to me this time as well.. And after a few hours of rains the blue skies opened up and the nice bright sunshine filtered through the scattered clouds…

A cruise on “arguably the most famous water body in the world” Loch Ness, the home of the famous Nesse the Monster was amazing… it was kind of scary to see that black water… and to experience that too windy winds was great as well… it got really cold because of the water and winds.. But I guess I managed it just right...

Loch Ness from the Cruise Boat...

A live 3-D view from the monitoring systems in the boat... what you see here is the bottom of the Loch Ness... Can you see Nesse somewhere? :)

We drove for most of the day stopping at a few places… and our last stop was @ Glencoe where the entire bus managed to taste the famous Scottish Whiskey... and did some shopping too... I too bought some liquor J and in the smallest possible bottles… so that I have something to display from Scotland when I head back home…

Darooooooooooooo... loads and loads of it...

Managed to reach back by 1930 hours… roam around a li’il more… buy a muffler for myself… the typical Scottish Red checks… and take the bus back to London @ 2200 hrs… the bus had more Indians than others.. And it really looked like a Delhi-Jaipur bus instead of an Edinburgh-London one …

All tired and happy… I managed another short but made long weekend trip... and this time in a different country than India… Happy to have done that…

Oh.. this is nothing special... just one Matiz that I saw in Edinburgh.. picture for my good friend Deepak :)