We’ve just left Scotland, and these are my thoughts after 2 weeks, 5 locations, and 1200 miles of driving. We picked up the car after flying to Edinburgh and drove to Perth, then to Fort William, Portree on the Isle of Skye, Helmsdale, Kirkwall in Orkney, then back to Edinburgh.
Driving
I have driven on the left a couple times before while visiting Ireland, and it has always been a little scary, mostly for the passengers. This time started that way as well, but I did a lot of driving, and after a few days, got used to driving on the left. What took more time to get comfortable with was the single lane roads. We spent a good amount of time in rural areas where many of the roads are only wide enough for a single car, but have 2 way traffic. Periodically, there are wide spots, just big enough for one car to pull over and let the other by. That is fine, except for on the hilly, curvy roads where you can’t see the oncoming traffic around the corner. They also drive incredibly fast on the narrow roads; 60 mph on a road that would be 30 mph in the States.
We only had 1 incident with the car, which Jesslyn alluded to in a previous post. We were on one of the single lane roads and thought that we could sneak by an oncoming car in a place where there was no pull-off. There was a grassy shoulder which looked solid. It wasn't. As soon as I pulled onto the shoulder, the car slid into the previously hidden ditch. It was about a foot wide and a foot deep and invisible because the grass was covering it. The front and back left wheels of the car were no longer in contact with the ground. Some people stopped to help, and we tried pushing with Jesslyn now in the driver’s seat, but it wasn’t working. I thought for sure we would have to get pulled out. Another car stopped, and he must have been a local, and have seen this very thing before. He had Jesslyn point the wheels just barely turned back toward the road, and put it in second gear. Now with all of us pushing from behind, we got out. Amazingly, there was no damage to the car, except for the smell of burnt rubber from spinning the tires on the unsuccessful attempts.
Hostels
We have been staying mostly in hostels with a few nights in B&Bs. The hostels are…. interesting. Each one is unique. They are a great way to stay in expensive places for cheap. They let you store and cook your own food which saves a lot of money. We have had a private room each time, and most of the time had to share a bathroom. In Orkney we had a private bathroom, kitchen and living room. The typical hosteler is in their early twenties, so I do feel a little out of place. But, for the price, I can get over that quickly. The private room in the hostels are typically half the price of nearby hotels.
Edinburgh
When we first got off the bus from the airport in the Old Town section of Edinburgh, we were amazed. We were completely surrounded by buildings that are hundreds of years old. The building our hostel was in was built in the 1500s. It was like stepping back in time. Traditional looking pubs, gothic churches, and statues are everywhere. It was incredible. It didn’t take too long, however, to figure out that you are also surrounded by tourists and tourist traps. I had no idea that Edinburgh was such a tourist destination. We did a free walking tour which was worth the price. Seriously, it was decent (the tour guides get paid from tips). We made the mistake of eating at a couple of the pubs in that area. The food and service were not great. On our last day, we walked over to an area called Leith which was free from tourists and we had a great lunch at a decent price.
Favorite place: Isle of Skye
The Isle of Skye is just beautiful. It has landscapes like I have never seen before. There isn’t a lot to do other than hiking, and that was fine with us.
MVPE
The most valuable piece of equipment so far has been my raincoat. I have probably worn it every day. It has been surprisingly cold and rainy. The one piece of equipment that I didn’t bring, but wish I did are waterproof hiking shoes.
Food
I know Jesslyn already covered this topic, so I will keep it brief. We are traveling on a budget so we have been eating at lower priced places as well as buying groceries, cooking when we can, and eating take out. With the exception of the tourist traps in Edinburgh, the food has been good. The most common fast food here is fish and chips. We’ve had it a number of times and it has always been really good. I love lamb and salmon which has been common and always good. The 2 things I hadn’t had before were smoked haddock and haggis, both are great. We had stag pie which was pretty gamey, but kind of grew on us as we ate it. In Edinburgh, we had one of our best meals in Scotland at Mother Indian’s Cafe, a tapas style Indian restaurant that one of Jesslyn’s colleagues recommended (thanks for the suggestion Mike!). I’m not sure comparing Indian to traditional Scottish food is a fair culinary fight though.
Beer
This trip to Scotland has confirmed what I already thought: the beer situation in the UK is bad. Every pub has a few standard lagers on tap, such as Kronenburg, Carlsberg, Stella. They have their time and place, but they are so similar (not to mention none of them are British). The Brits do make a lot of cask ales. The cask ales are served slightly colder than room temp (think the temp of the basement) and they don’t have much carbonation. They’re OK once you get past the thought that they taste like a typical American beer that has been left out all day. Back in the States, there are so many great beers everywhere, like American style pale ales, IPAs, and porters. The UK just doesn’t compare. I know London has some places with a good beer selection, but that is the rare exception, while you can walk into almost any bar anywhere in the States and find great beers on tap.
Whiskey
What do they call “Scotch” in Scotland? Well, it is just whiskey of course. I thought that perhaps it was all just a big tourist thing, but it’s not. There are a lot of distilleries, each doing something distinctive, and taking pride in it. Many of the Scots that I spoke to, knew and enjoyed their whiskeys. I am still not a huge fan of the peaty smoke flavor, but did enjoy some of the less smokey ones like Scapa.
Overall, we had a great time and everyone we met were super friendly and had a great sense of humor.
Now on to Norway!
- Jake