talitravels

[talitravels]

the two perfumes I came to Scotland to buy are out of stock 🫠 one permanently 🫠 I am the perfume god’s punching bag 🫠 let me have my Penhaligon’s goddamit 🫠

[talitravels]

Heathrow you are a stupid messy asshole bitch

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British Airways, you stressful bitch.

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Day 8: Edinburgh

This morning we got up and dressed nice to head to this beautiful hotel restaurant called The Spence for breakfast. It reminded me a lot of Cafe Riggs in DC.

After brekkie we went to church at St. Giles’, which is where John Knox used to preach and he helped start Presbyterianism. It’s an old Catholic cathedral, so it’s absolutely beautiful inside. We walked up to the castle after that but we didn’t go inside because we didn’t want to pay for it.

then we walked down to Lovecrumbs, a recommendation from Johanna, and I finally managed to get my hands on some iced tea. I also had a gigantic vegan cinnamon bun.

I wanted to do some capitalism, so we went back up to the Royal Mile to go in the millions of tourist shops that all sell the same things. Mom got a cashmere scarf and I got a cute navy tweed handbag and some souvenirs for my coworkers.

We relaxed a little after that before our tour of the chocolatarium, which ended up being really awesome. We got to try a lot of good (and bad) chocolate. Mom was in heaven. A lot of the chocolate we tried was direct trade, which is similar to single origin, and it more ethical than even fair trade. Mom was totally in heaven. We got to make our own chocolate bars and try tons of different flavors.

Dinner was at The Botanist, which was also very good. I had some Asian salad rice noodle korean fried chicken business and loved it.

Tyler felt the need to visit McDankies after that and did so.

The rest of the night was trying to cram our belongings and new purchases into the suitcases that were full to begin with.

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Day 7: Inverness to Edinburgh

ScotRail had to fail us eventually.

We made it to the train station plenty early, but so many people were trying to get on our train that we ended up standing the whole time. Mom was on the sort-of fold out chair, so at least she was okay, but Tyler and I alternated sitting on our suitcases. It was a very long three hours.

Luckily (not luck, I did it on purpose), our hotel in Edinburgh is really close to the train station. Once we made it here, we rested a little, and then headed to New Town where dinner was. We stopped in Penhaligon’s and Jo Malone on the way. The Highland Collection is no more (boo), so I’ll have to buy it from Sephora. I chose the set I’m going to get from Penhaligon’s if we have enough time at duty free. I really fell in love with Luna.

Dinner was really good, at this super trendy rooftop Thai place, where I had a huge thing of pineapple fried rice and a really tasty rhubarb cocktail. After dinner we meandered back, and then Tyler and I went out to some bars since it’s a Saturday night. Unfortunately, we ended up at a super American bar since we were looking for tennis and French fries. I still had fun though.

[talitravels]

Day 6: Inverness

Today was our last full day in Inverness, and the day of our Rabbie’s tour, which ended up being really fun.

We started the morning kind of rocky, since i think we’ve hit the point of the trip where we’re starting to get annoyed with each other. But we made it onto the tour bus and headed off to Carrbridge. It was cute, nothing really to report.

Then we drove up one of the mountains in the Cairngorms, not really sure which one, but we got some great views. Then we trekked through the woods to Loch Morlich, which looks exactly like the Adirondacks. We headed to Aviemore for lunch, and shopped a little. Then we headed to a quick stop at Roy Castle, which is actually just a stone perimeter, but it is also home to Murdo the Heilan’ Coo.

The other highlight of the tour was the distillery visit at Tomatin (toh-MA-tin). Mom and I didn’t actually want to do the full tour since we just did one at Talisker, so Tyler went and we just sat at the bar. I ordered a tasting of their 12 year and their Madeira aged scotch, and they were both really good. I think Tomatin is Speyside whisky, which means it’s not as peaty as the others, like Talisker. We randomly met some other tour group from Ithaca, so that was funny. And I bought some more tea.

After we got back we lazed around a little (which seems to be the theme of Inverness), and got done fine pizza. I’m ready to head to Edinburgh tomorrow!

[talitravels]

Day 5: Inverness

Inverness definitely grew on me today. We started off late (I really needed to sleep) and walked through the Victorian Market first. I got kind of sick, but not unbearably so, so I was able to keep going. We walked down the River Ness to the Ness Islands, which was just the sort of refreshing nature walk I really needed. It reminded me of Cornell.

Then we walked over to the Botanic Gardens, which I am always an absolute slut for. They were nice, not amazing, but their cafe was really good. We walked back up on the west side of the river to get to Lesley’s Bookshop, which is this huge two story secondhand store, and I might have been more impressed if the one in Owego didn’t give me similar vibes. We got some gelato (I got Passionfruit cheesecake) and went back to the Airbnb. K stopped in TKMaxx really quick, but alas, I cannot fit Beauty of Joseon ginseng water into my liquids bag.

We got dinner at the mustard seed (another early dinner for £20!) which was really good. I had spicy parsnip soup which was literally just yellow curry sauce in a bowl, but I wasn’t complaining. We walked down the river again.

Tyler wanted to go out (shocker) so we left mom at home and went to the Malt Room, which is this tiny little whiskey bar that was actually really cool. I had a whiskey sour. Then we went to The Imperial to watch some tennis.

Tomorrow is our Cairngorms and Whisky tour!

[talitravels]

Day 4: Skye to Inverness

We were able to sleep a little later today, thankfully, which I think helped my jet lag. We got more delicious breakfast from the bed and breakfast, and then we had to head out. We dropped off the car and picked up our taxi to Kyle of Lochalsh. We wandered around there for a while but there wasn’t much to do.

The train to Inverness wasn’t quite as smooth, but it was still very beautiful. After making it to Inverness, we walked to our Airbnb and just relaxed a little. We have a whole apartment this time, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms! So that’s a nice change from one room and one bath.

Inverness is nice, but I didn’t immediately fall in love with it the way I expected to. Maybe in the light of day things will be different.

We rested a little before grabbing an early dinner at La Le, a Turkish restaurant, which is kind of the move in Inverness. For £20 you get a starter and a main.

We stopped at a Polish supermarket after that to get breakfast foods and snacks, but pretty much everything else in the city was closed, so we didn’t do anything else that night. That was fine by us, we are all pretty tired after our Skye day yesterday, and we needed a break. I think today and tomorrow will be that.

[talitravels]

Day 3: Skye

This morning started out with me being so incredibly tired. The man who owns our bed and breakfast kept asking me if I was all right.

We got an early-ish start to haul ourselves and our little rented Skoda to the Old Man of Storr, which is a rock that fell from a big cliff of rocks and it’s all very cool. The hike to get to it is my favorite kind of hike: short, steep, and with a huge payoff. The views of the rock were good, but the views of whatever body of water is near it are gorgeous.

We headed into Portree after that, and picked up some much needed caffeine and some souvenirs. I didn’t much like Portree; there were so many people and not nearly enough space.

After that was our tour of Talisker! (We stopped in sligachan for a sec on the way). It’s a beautiful distillery- nautical without being too much, with cool sea motifs everywhere even though it’s not strictly on the sea. We did a nice tour and then got to try the 10 year, the port-aged, and the wilder seas. I’m still not a scotch girl, but I did pick up a tote bag and some sea salt chocolate.

We went to the fairy pools after that, which were the most disappointing part of the day. The walk was much longer than you’d think, it’s overrun with people, and the midges were out. We didn’t make it far before we turned around.

We went to dinner after that, at a place called Claymore that doesn’t accept reservations. It was also slightly disappointing, because we waited for a long time but the food wasn’t nearly as good as the food at the little inn near our bnb.

Can’t win them all I suppose. Still a good day on the whole!

[talitravels]

Everyone told us to make reservations and we did, but not one for every single day, and that was a mistake. I’m hungry.

[talitravels]

Day 2: Glasgow to Skye

We left Glasgow early in the morning, on the most beautiful train ride I’ve ever been on. The views were just incredible. We were taking the West Highland Line to Mallaig (MAL-leg, not ma-LEG, like Tyler likes to say), and we got to see Loch Lomond, Ben Nevis, and the Glenfinean Viaduct, which is the cool bridge that the train goes over in the Harry Potter movies.

In Mallaig, we got some weird cold sandwiches from an instagrammable pink truck, and did a little shopping. I found a cute tea shop (obviously), and am starting my quest to find as much highland cow things as I can.

We caught a ferry to Skye from there, which was beautiful in and of itself.

Once we landed in Skye, we picked up our rental car and got some groceries. Our bed and breakfast is super cute, with some cute cats that make me miss Marge. They also have access to the water, so we did a little mini hike and ate some blackberries from a bush on the way.

We went to a local inn for some dinner, and met some people from a few hours away from us! I had some good pizza and beer, which is an embarrassingly American meal but the stomach wants what it wants.

Our (self-guided) tour of Skye is tomorrow!

[talitravels]

I’ve only been on the train for 40 minutes, but I am deeply convinced this is the best way to see Scotland. And also the best way to see anywhere.

You can totally tell we’re American based on how excited we are about this.

[talitravels]

Day 0.5-1: Heathrow and Glasgow

It’s really unfortunate that Heathrow was such a big part of my day that it’s warranted to be in the title.

Anyways, 24 hours after we planned to leave, we managed to get on an overseas flight and find our asses at Heathrow for a 5 hour layover.

I will say this: as a person who loves perfume, terminal 5 was a great time. Anyone else was probably miserable. Even so, we were there for way too long. But we finally made it to Glasgow!

We stayed at the Kelvingrove Hotel, which was quaint and cute and fine for one night. The bathroom made weird noises, but we survived.

We went to the Hidden Lane Tea Room for some takeaway tea and a chocolate dessert situation that Tyler said “tasted healthy.” We wandered around Kelvingrove Park and the up to the University of Glasgow, which is beautiful and founded before America was even “discovered.”

We went to dinner (unfashionably early because we were dead on our feet) at Ka Pao, which was very good and reminiscent of Doi Moi. The fried chicken and the cauliflower curry were especially good.

After that we wandered back and passed out at promptly 9pm. And we’re all still tired.

[talitravels]

We’re already a day late because British Airways is terrible 🫶🏻

If Loch Lomond is amazing no one tell me because I had to cancel my tour !!!

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New adventure loading…🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

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Day 8: airport and flight

This isn’t going to be very interesting. I will say that the Shannon airport is now up there with my favorite airports ever. The duty free shop is huge. I got a Guinness bottle opener, shortbread for chiara, and some tea for me. J also got a sampler of Beara gin for Tyler.

I’m excited to be going home. Mom and I know we want to come back to Ireland some day, and now we know what we want to do.

The flight from Shannon was good. I watched fantastic beasts, isn’t it romantic, and aqua man. The lady sitting next to me reminded me a lot of gramma. She kept telling me to put my gray table down whenever the drink cart was coming around. The flight to Newark was quick, and before I knew it we were in dc.

I’m happy to be back, and I’m looking forward to the next trip!

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Day 7: Cliffs of Moher

Today was the day of the private driver! He took us to Limerick by way of the cliffs of moher. The car ride through the Irish countryside was very beautiful, but I fall asleep in cars, and this one was no exception. Once we got to the cliffs, I was amazed at the (relative) lack of commercialism. The cliffs themselves were incredible, obviously. There’s a huge bird colony in the middle, so you could head them all screeching at each other the whole time.

We walked up both sides of the cliffs. J enjoyed it, but I think because they are hyped up so much, I was expecting more. (Haha. Moher. Get it?)

I liked going through the explainers, and the history of the skiffs. I also liked the pictures of all the puffins. We got hungry once we were there, so we got some (normal-looking) potato chips that were actually not normal and we’re Guinness-flavored. There was cocoa powder on them. It was so weird, but I was hungry enough that I ate them anyway.

The ride to Limerick was otherwise uneventful, but by the time we got there, we were so tired that we didn’t want to do anything. We ate a late lunch at the hotel grill, I had an Irish ciabatta chicken sandwich. Then we went upstairs and watched Wimbledon. We skipped dinner (again) and just went down for dessert. I had vanilla creme brûlée and a strawberry basil g+t, while mom had chocolate fondant. We went back upstairs to try the pool, but you had to buy a swim cap. So we called it a day.