We found a park next to the castle and piled out of the wicked vans.
When I say next to the castle I'm technically correct, it was indeed next to the castle. It was also about 50 meters below the entrance to the castle, which made for a breathtaking walk (not scenic breath taking, just 9 unfit campers).
We reached the front gates amongst a heap of tourists and took in the great castle before us. We also took in the £11 entry fee and had a quick team meeting about what we were going to do. Actually, change that. We had a lengthy team meeting which resulted in a lot of "I'm not really keen, but I'll go if your keen" for every possible idea that was put forward.
Eventually we decided that the £11 would be better served sampling the fine scotch in Edinburgh as opposed to rushing through a tour of a bunch of old rooms in the castle. We will be back one day, by train, and that's when we'll do the castle tour.
We headed off down the main street and found the best pub serving the best Scotch in Edinburgh. Actually, we just walked until we found the first pub down the road and each ordered a drink.
We sat outside and, although I'd like to say enjoyed our Scotch, reluctantly downed our drinks. Fortunately we had some beer chases to go with the straight scotch, and had we stayed there I'm pretty sure you know the direction we would have been heading.
Everyone split up and checked out some cheesey tourist shops and got our blankets and bagpipes and hats and key rings and whatever else reminded us of Scotland.
After an hour and a half, and well past our car tickets, we headed back to the cars and went in search of a place to spend the night.
Unfortunately Edinburgh, while not as big as London, doesn't have readily available fields for us to pitch our tents and make our own. Instead we headed out of town in search of a caravan park or a nice patch of grass in the woods.
When we came across the only available caravan park in Edinburgh two of the girls went inside to organise prices and exactly where we were going to park up. Unfortunately one of our crew had forgotten to hit the bathroom prior to leaving the pub and decided that the caravan grounds was the only option.
So not to incriminate anyone I'll change the name. There was Rob Tobinson behind one of the hedges reliving himself in what he thought was a great spot, while one of the elderly gentlemen around the place walked past and stopping to say "That's not on mate, that's not on".
A minute later, and while the girls were organising a place inside the office, the guy walked in yelling about not letting the two vans stay at the campground overnight because of the vulgar display of Mr Google.
Well that was one decision made on our behalf.
It was a good thing though, because we ended up down the road a few minutes staying in a warm bed in the Globe Trotters Hostel, complete with bar and pool table.
Most of the crew began to play some drinking games while I excused myself to the bar to watch the Rugby Union World Cup final with the Essex boys.
At half time we made a made dash into the city and found the first pub that was playing the game, and fortunately it was right next door to the kickingest (yes, it is a word) bar in Edinburgh, the Whistle Binkies. They had on a cover band that played all the rock hits of the 80's, the cure, acdc etc and had an awesome female lead singer with a sparkling gun belt buckle.
We rocked out there for an hour or so before heading off to find a better pub. Unfortunately, and as we soon learned, that was the best pub in Edinburgh and everything else just paled in comparison.
Two by two we headed back to the hostel and into the bar for a few more drinks and a couple of games of pool, and then slowly but surely we all ended up crashing out in the rooms after what was a fairly long and exciting day.
We had to be at breakfast in the morning before 9am and had to check out at 10am, and one of us was going to set the alarm. At 9.50 I got out of bed and checked my phone....... and the excitement started again for the third day on the road.
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