Some How I Ended Up in Scotland?

[Canadian Dude]

Well here i am, in Scotland...Edinburgh to be exact...how I ended up here i realy don't know, i just kinda did. I left Nijemgen yesturday morning and jump ona train at the central train stn, I thought I was going to Luxembourg, but when I got to the train stn I thought the ticket was just a bit pricey at 46E, so i got a ticket to Antwerp Belgium, where I thought i would spend the night and check out the city, and leave the next day...well I for somereason just did not get off the train and i just kept on going, and next thing i knew i was in Bruges, at that point i started to look at my map of Europe and had to make a final call on which way I was going to go, To Belfast Via Dover, through England another ferry to Dublin then through Ireland to Belfast...or Take a tram to Zeebruge jump on the ferry and spend 16 1/2 hours on the trip to Scotland, spend a couple of days here and make my way to Belfast from Edinburgh. I picked the ferry to Edinburgh, for a couple of reasons, To go through England and Ireland would have costed alot more to do, with trains and ferries and prob buses, not to mention prob having to go through London which I did not want to do. This way I spend 16 hours on the ferry for 78E I did not have to pay for a place to stay that night because the trip started at 6pm nd we go in at 10:30am the next day (today), i slept on the floor in one of the conference rooms, slept quite well in fact.

I met a great couple on board (Ian and Faye, i hope your reading this) when the boat first left port, and spent the night chatting with them over drinks in the lounge, we crashed at about 11:30 or 12:00 and woke up about 730am just in time for a 12E buffet breakfast, now i know this does not sound like budget travel but i still had those airplane bottles in my bag from the trip over and i went to a store before the boat left and paid 80 cents for a few beers, so :P :P ... I will admit some drinks were paid for though. As for the breakfast, to you it may seem like CD is a pimp daddy big spender, well what you see as big spending i see as 4 meals for the cost of one...my breakfast was great bacon eggs, hash browns, fruit, the works....and i also was able to smuggle enough food out of the resturant to make 4 sandwichs, which i just finished the last one about 10 minutes ago...so again..pure budget styles...

I was sad to say good-bye to my new friends, but after there trek through Belgium I am sure the were eager to get home, so iwe said our fair wells and i told them to check TravelPunk.com to see if i made it home ok :D

So thats how i ended up in Edinburgh...

[travelpunk]

Man, you are a backpacker´s backpacker :D !
Good reasoning on the 78euros for travel(at night) and geurilla accommodations! That´s totally the way to go and save. Knock out two birds with one stone

Scotland sounds like a great choice(for me, anyways)! I think my fascination with Scotland came from, yep you guessed it- Braveheart(and a love for castles)!

I hope you come back with some serious pictures, bro! Nice going on the buffet and thanks for spreading the word to your new friends :D

[Sijuki]

CD, I just have to say, from what I have read on this board you seem like a hell of a traveler. I wouldn't mind bumping into you on one of my travels someday, might help me out of a bind. That's all for now, just had to give props to CD

-- Rob (Sijuki)

[voyd]

Great story, CD...but next time fly - far cheaper and faster! And I LOVE Edinburgh! :D

[worldwidemike]

Well, as long as you're in Scotland, noo, laddie, I say you head northwest towards the Hebrides. My personal favorite part of a 5-week trip was up there. Mull was my favorite isle, followed closely by the more popular Skye. On, Mull, I rented a moped for a few days and buzzed around the island to my heart's content. I bought a little guide to Mull in the Tourist Info center and had a great time checking out castles, Pictish brochs, glens, churches, you name it...

worldwidemike