London town

Sam and I made the most of our last few days in London by filling it up with touristy things, cultural things, and of course, shoppingy things.

Neither of us had been to Buckingham Palace before, so we decided to pop by and see if the monarch had any scones with jam and cream to share. We were quite shocked to arrive to a massive crowd of people (some running to get to the front gates), police on horseback and cameras going off all over the place. We thought the queenie had had a heart attack or something. However, upon enquiry, we were told that it was the changing of the guards. How's that for timing? To be honest there wasn't a lot to see and the band was pretty terrible (Star Wars theme tune?) so we left.

La Clique was an obvious highlight (if you don't know what I'm talking about, or who Mario Queen of the Circus is, go here http://www.lacliquelondon.com/). Mario was hilarious, especially when he crowdsurfed around the theatre audience. The other acts were amazing too - rock and roll trapeze to 'Welcome to the Jungle', a magic disappearing hanky/striptease act (can you guess where it disappeared to?), and my favourite - the hula girl who could continue hula-ing when hanging from a rope with glitter falling down all around her. Cool.

Whilst out shopping I also discovered some pretty inspiring shops, all within close proximity to each other (Regent St/Carnaby St area).

Anthropologie is my new favourite store. Its shopfit and displays are amazing. The shop is three floors high and one whole wall is a vertical garden. It also sells clothes, homewares, books and other assorted goodies that crafty types like me drool over.


The vertical garden inside the Anthropologie shop on Regent Street.

Do is another interesting one when it comes to design. Really inventive designs, better than Ikea any day! Check out their Sun Jar - neat.

And a bit of a wildcard - Desigual, which sells eccentric looking clothes that have a sort of clash in colours, textures and fabrics. While everything was a bit too loud for me to wear, I really like that this store is very unique, obviously doesn't follow fashion trends and encourages people to be a bit zany in the way they dress.

Goodbye Edinburgh!

We said our farewells to Edinburgh this morning, our home for the last week. And what a great home it was. We stayed at Glenhouse Apartments which, for only a few more pounds per night more than what you would pay for a cramped hostel room, had twin beds, a living area with TV, kitchen, bathroom and small dining table. The location was great - at one end of the street was Brauhaus, a small warm bar with a huge variety of beers, and at the other a church, which you could walk through the grounds of to get to another great pub, Cloisters, which serves top quality pub meals. Not only this but we were walking distance to everything - Tesco, Grassmarket, Victoria Rd shopping, Royal Mile, Princes St etc. And, of course, whenever we got a bit lost we could just look up to the castle and position ourselves from there. Easy!



Sam enjoying a beer brewed by monks at Brauhaus.



Brauhaus, on the corner of our street.



Our apartment in Edinburgh.



Cloisters, at the other end of our street : )

We seem to have brought what I call 'traveller's mojo' with us, that is, a certain kind of luck that wouldn't usually follow us around at home. We could walk into a very busy pub or bar, and within minutes, a table for two would become available. The weather was mostly well behaved as well, with the sun coming out on the days when we wanted to do more sight-seeing, reserving the rain for days when we were going shopping or would be indoors.

We did encounter a small amount of insane weather yesterday though. We dragged our sorry hungover butts out of our apartment at about midday (pub crawl the night before, read: cheap whiskey shots) and stumbled out on to the street for last minute shopping. As we trudged up the Royal Mile the rain started to pour and and the sky turned a menacing colour. In Edinburgh, no one really bothers with umbrellas because they all get turned inside out from the wind and discarded on the streets. So you just pull your hood up and trudge on. We were standing outside one shop when Sam let out a sound of pain - he had been hit on the nose by a hailstone, and they were suddenly coming down quick and hard around us. We dashed inside a shop, braved it on down to the Victoria Rd shops and happily found refuge inside the Cheesemonger and the Liquid Delicatessen next door (beautiful olive oils, whiskeys and infused alcohols). By the time we left (blue cheese and whiskey bought) we were amazed to walk outside and see the sun shining!



Demi-john, the Liquid Delicatessen.

Now back to London town - seeing La Clique tonight - very excited! Especially for Mario! Yay!

Last days of the tour

Sadly, our tour of the Scottish Highlands had to come to an end. But before it did, Sam and I made some friends with the locals, as pictured below.






We also visited monuments to some of Scotland’s freedom fighters. Below is the Bruce Chapel where one of Robert the Bruce’s bones is held in the chamber below his sleeping figure.





And the William Wallace monument atop the hill where he fought against the British and won.



The whole tour was really good value – over five days we saw so much of the Highlands, of the history, and of the absolutely gorgeous landscape. We had a great tour group too, and on the last night of the tour we decided to do a big cook up in the hostel in Oban for all 14 of us. Sam and I decided to treat the group to the Aussie delicacy ‘Beer Chicken’ which is basically chicken roasted with an open can of beer up its rear end. The beer evaporates and keeps the chicken moist while it is roasting, and leaving it very tasty at the end.



Slainte!

Streams of whiskey

There is a Pogues song, Streams of Whiskey, which goes:

I am going, I am going
any which way the wind will be blowing
I am going, I am going
where streams of whiskey are flowing

I have been singing this song constantly in the lead up to the trip and then all along the way. At first it was difficult to convince Sam that whiskey actually flowed down the streams in Scotland, but once he took a look at the dark peaty colours of the streams he was a believer. Yes! Whiskey really does flow freely down the streams in this part of the world.

I've sampled a couple of whiskies so far on this trip, some notable, others not.

Talkiser is one of the more notable ones, made by the Sea on the Isle of Skye.

Dalwhinnie was another that I had not heard of but took a chance on in a little Edinburgh bar, and was pleasantly surprised. It is also made in the Highlands, known for coming from the 'highest distillery in Scotland'. Dalwhinnie means meeting place, because it was where ancient cattle drovers used to meet on their route through the mountains.

There have been others, but in all honesty, I've forgotten their names. Will be sure to take better notes next time I am having a few drams.

Sick

So I have a cold. A really snotty, shivery, snuffly, bad one. I partly blame myself, for hiking around small towns and up mountains in wet shoes, and I partly blame the UK weather. Scotland is particularly damp. Who would have thunk it, huh?

Nevertheless I am blattling on, adamant about traipsing through every glen and climbing every ben (mountain). And the view, once at the top, is especially amazing.



The scenery around here is beautiful (here being the west coast of the Scottish Highlands). We were told to dip our faces in the stream for seven seconds for eternal beauty. So I did. Sick yes, beautiful maybe not.




This place is called the Faerie Glen. It is absolutely amazing. A bit like Hanging Rock, where there are so many different formations and if you go around a corner you can suddenly feel very separated from your group and not be able to hear them at all. But beautiful at the same time - spectacular views from the top of each mound. The above photo is Sam standing on one of the highest points. If I was a faerie I would definitely live here.

Then we climbed up the Bodach an Stoir (Old Man of Storr). It was getting dark, the path was extremely muddy and we were taking a bit of a gamble. But our tour guide, Graeme, seemed to think that it was ok, so we trudged on. Once at a height the view was, again, brilliant. We were pretty high up. The photo below shows Sam with the main rock that is jutting out, and then some people climbing up to it to give you some perspective. On the way back down it was dark, raining and extremely slippery. But we finally made it back to the bus ok, and I lived (albeit with a cold) to tell the tale.








To aid my health I have been downing a few hot toddies for their medicinal properties. This was supposed to be a whiskey blog, afterall, wasn't it?

What goes on tour...

Right, so, since I last posted we successfully arrived in Edinburgh, checked into our tiny hostel room, spent a day wandering around Edinburgh Castle, and then embarked on our adventure around Scotland with Macbackpackers tours. Unlike Haggis tours and other similar companies, Macbackpackers is Scottish owned, so it’s nice to know that we’re supporting a local company.




The spectacular views of Edinburgh Castle. We even saw the original crown jewels that Mary Queen of Scots wore! (they don't let you take photos of those)

Day one saw us travelling up the east side of the island, learning a bit about the history of the Highlanders and stopping in at Loch Ness (no sign of our amphibious friend) before arriving in Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, for the evening.


Loch Ness

In Inverness we trundled down to the pub for some drinks where a group of locals were playing piano accordions and fiddles two tables away from us, a nice welcome for us weary travellers. We crawled back to our hostel with sleepy heads (probably a little to early, but I am still on jetlag induced 4:30am wakeups at the moment – its driving me nuts!), put our heads on the pillow, then were rudely awakened by the fire alarm – a real one – which meant that we were evacuated and out on the cold, wet Inverness street in our pyjamas at midnight. Awesome.

Today we got a bit outdoorsy, visiting the Balnuaran of Clava (a prehistoric cemetery), the Culloden Battlefield (where the Highlanders fought the British in 1746 and were devastatingly beaten), and a forest walk that included a visit to a Clootie Well and some amazing falls which we viewed from a suspension bridge. The Clootie Well is an interesting place, the superstition behind it is that the water in the well is magical, and if you have a friend or family member who is in need of a blessing you take something fabric from their house (e.g. a sock, an old shirt), wash it in the well, wring it out and tie it to the tree. This will send that person good luck.


Balnuaran of Clava




Culloden Battlefield


Sam at the falls


Tonight we are at the Isle of Skye and I am will be having fresh fish and chips for dinner at the pub two doors down. Sweet.

Train kept a rollin'

Howdy! Right now I am on the National Express from London to Edinburgh, and am so delighted to find out that they have free wireless on board. Yeah!

Had a great few days in London, and here are the photos to prove it...



Jett and I having a drink in the pub down the street from our hotel.



Met up with Daniel and went for a walk to Shoreditch to explore. Bar/cafe in Shoreditch.



Sam and Daniel having a beer on Brick Lane.



Leaves! I like leaves! It's autumn in London and the temperature is pretty good - has been hovering mainly between 8 and 15 degrees.



Sam tried this beer in the cafe of the Tate Modern. Note its abilities to "lift your spirits and gird your loins".



Sam having his spirits lifted and his loins girded (?!?)



Looking forward to arriving in Edinburgh, we had a bit of a big night out in Soho last night and are feeling a bit worse for wear right now (which is also part of the reason that this post is mostly photos, rather than eloquent prose).

More updates soon...