This is gonna be brief as my first blog entry on my travel blog “Highway to the Eurozone”. Hilariously punny and at the same time, awful.
Some of you who know me personally will know of my love for the idea of travelling. I say the idea, because I haven’t had the opportunity to travel over a long period of time so this is all new to me.
My interest came from hearing friends on Facebook updating us all on their travels a few years ago. My envy was strong, my budget was non-existent, so I left it. After second of year of university I was desperate to travel and found myself with enough of my student loan left that I could’ve went, but I had no one to go with. Then last year, my plans to travel with friends was scuppered by my friend having a child with his girlfriend, with their son due in July 2016. If it wasn’t for that incident and another friend applying for Camp America, I may have already went and had a different experience to the one I will soon experience. In many ways, my two friends’ decisions which I was gutted about at the time, have made things better for me.
To quote the greatest lyricist of our time, Jason Derulo, “Solo, I’m riding solo, I’m riding solo, I’m riding solo solo”.
After years of co-dependency on my friends, I bit the bullet. I was inspired to make this decision from when I worked with Sahara Force India Formula 1 team in Monza last year. With prices for hotels sky-high during the Grand Prix weekend, I opted for a hostel in nearby Milan. It was the first flight that I had taken by myself without meeting someone on the other side. It was originally an absolute nightmare: I had a delayed flight after getting all the way to Edinburgh from my hometown of Greenock (that is a train and a walk and a bus away or approximately two hours drive). Then, due to my late flight and a mix-up with what train I was supposed to get, I didn’t get into Milan city centre until 10.30pm. Then the fun really started as I dragged about a suitcase in 28 degrees heat with humidity through the roof, trying to find my hostel. It should have taken me 20 minutes, but it ended up taking 45 minutes.
But once I was there, my roommates at the hostel were really cool and I still keep in touch with a few of them today. I was leaving at the same time as one of my friends, Serge, who drove from his home in Harlem, Netherlands. He spoke about where he was planning to visit on his trip home. I was really tempted to join him and cancel my flight, but due to other commitments I didn’t ask. The envy came back in that moment and I knew I had to do something then.
That leads us to here. I’m using this as an opportunity to meet new people, to allow myself to do what I want to do without compromise. I will update daily on my experience and maybe add a few extra bits if necessary. I’m furiously typing out this post just before my flight gets called, so I’m a little rushed.
If you’re wondering where I am going first, it’s Berlin.
My aim is to visit all these countries by the end of 2020, or at least before I turn 26.
Most of my travelling has been in Europe so far and I would at least like to visit every country in Europe before I see the flaming pits of hell. But here are the five European countries I want to visit the most that are currently not on my travel plans.
1. Poland
As of yet, I have not planned a trip to Poland, although it’s high on my list.
First rule when you don’t have a lot of money to travel on, it’s a relatively cheap place. Secondly, there are so many places of interest in Poland when you start to delve into the country. Warsaw is the capital and a place to visit for a lot of World War 2 history, but surprisingly, it is not the most-visited city in Poland. Krakow takes that title despite being the second biggest city. It’s helped by a number of tourists flocking there to visit the nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.
Speaking of which, Auschwitz is probably the most famous concentration camp in the world and has many visitors for good reason. Unapologetic in its description and appearance, if you teared up at some of the Holocaust memorial and Nazi history museums in Berlin, this is apparently another level.
You also have nearby Katowice that serves as a nice stop on the way to Germany if you fancy it and on the other side of Krakow, you can fly into Rzeszow which is relatively smaller, but close enough to a few countries including Ukraine if you so fancy a trip over a border. There are too many Polish cities to go through here but if we’re talking about more northern places, Gdansk and Sopot are northern port cities and near beaches – which I didn’t imagine would exist, but they do so there. Stop stereotyping Poland as a cold country when you live in a country that resorts to topless men as soon as the temperature hits double figures. You also have Bialystok on the eastern side, close to the border with Belarus if that’s your thing.
As a UEFA member, I’m counting it as Europe. Screw it, Kazakhstan can be Europe too. But seriously, in the Eurasian Caucasus lies Georgia – the least controversial of the three (or four/five if you’re counting Russia and Turkey) nations there. While Armenia and Azerbaijan are generally safe but a little contentious, Georgia is a nation of friendly people with a lot of ancient ruins to be seen and in the safer parts of the country, it can be argued its the safest place in Eurasia.
First of all, it’s still worth mentioning that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are both tearaway regions that you are advised to stay away from due to safety (it can’t all be safe amirite guys) but the rest is fine. The capital of Tbilisi has moved on a lot over the past twenty years, while Batumi is known as the region’s version of Las Vegas, albeit it is hit with mixed reviews. But the most interesting thing about this nation is the mountains. Vardzia and Gergeti are a couple of highlights.
3. Iceland
Hveradalir (Photo: Alexander Milo: @lexmilo)
There are two types of people: people who have been to Iceland and those who want to go. Frankly, it doesn’t matter what time of year you go, there’s something to do. Reykjavik is very pretty and holds most of the population, but elsewhere around the famous Ring Road you can find many natural spots to check out. The thermal baths are something to check out too, with the most famous one being The Blue Lagoon. Albeit, there are plenty around the country and the most famous one doesn’t always equate to being the best one.
Icelandic lagoon (Chris Lawton @chrislawton)
Then there is the geysers (not the geeeeezers) and the waterfalls and the ice caves. There’s a lot going on especially when it comes to nature. Probably the best country to see the Northern Lights too. And there’s whales too. As long as they stay in the sea and not on my plate, I’m fine.
4. Bulgaria
Plovdiv (Deniz Fuchidzhiev @dfuchidzhiev)
I just love the Bulgarian people. One of my best friends comes from Burgas and my interactions with Bulgarians give me an impression that many would be openly welcoming. One thing that is apparently not so great is transport. At least the train system according to my good friend.
But what you get is worth it. A skiing country, a beach country, a mountainous country. There are some cultural riches in places like Sofia too. Just don’t mention Macedonia (as in the soon-to-be North Macedonia) to Bulgarians. They find them annoying Bulgarians who don’t like being Bulgarian. Opinion of some Bulgarians, not fact. The Balkans are crazy.
Seaside at Varna (Petya Hristova @petyahristova)
I particularly want to visit the Black Sea in the country and best of all, it is affordable. Give me a poor train system all day if it means I can save a lot in spending money.
5. Switzerland
Train in snowy Switzerland (Johannes Hofmann @quicksand)
You could put a number of countries in this last entry. Portugal and Ukraine nearly made the cut, but have you ever seen a picture someone has taken on a trip to Switzerland? My God.
It’s difficult as to where to start in Switzerland. There are three different languages spoke: French, German and Italian. They all bring their own unique flavour to the country. Then there is the cities. Geneva snuggles into France on its Western front and near the Italian border too, not far from Lausanne which sits right on a lake; then the capital city although it’s probably the least appealing of these listed; as well as footballing powerhouse Zurich and quietly beautiful St Gallen too.
St. Gallen by the lake (Christian Regg @chris_regg)
I thought about this post thanks to a substitute teacher I had in high school. He told us that he had been to every European country with the exception of Albania, due to fear and at the time of the story (circa 2009/2010) he had still not been. His reason?
He was in Greece when Celtic won the European Cup in 1967. He said that he was on a boat celebrating the win when the boat he was on came close to Albanian waters in which his boat was shot at by the then-dictatorship. It seems a bit mental and I wonder if it were true due to the coup d’etat in Greece just five weeks before Celtic won the cup, but I chose to believe it happened. Regardless he was one of my first inspirations for exploring the world and I hope that this continues for the rest of my life. Here’s to you, Mr McLaughlin, wherever you may be.
In a time where money is tighter than ever in the UK as wages stagnate and cost of living rises, as well as the potential of what Brexit could (who knows really) bring around the corner, there is a lot of uncertainty about budgets and financing. The sad reality is, not everyone can go on holiday. Working class families with children may struggle.
This post isn’t to say anyone in the UK can go on holiday using these tips, but instead that more people can go on holiday than they think. While families may go to resorts and travel agents, there are cheaper ways of doing a holiday, meaning those less fortunate can travel more often than they think they can. It’s not easy, but there’s always a way. This advice also applies to budget backpackers of course who I’d hope are already utilising this effectively!
1. Don’t be fussy
This follows one of the best ways of finding a deal. If you are able to (bearing in mind kids are in school etc.) go in the off-season, you should. There are a tonne of destinations that go through a quiet period in their winter months. And as long as you’re not determined to go to one place and more open to go where the wind takes you, you can get flights to and from your airport for less than £50.
2. Grind flight searches
This can be a bit of hassle, but always worth it when you can boast that you visited four countries in two weeks for £100 for all your travel. My idea for booking my most recent flight was to see where the journey took me. Look at my out date, look at my in date. Look for cheap flights to places that I want to see and then see where I could fly from there.
They will be coming up in January (spoilers!) so more will come of that soon.
3. Think logically
If you go on a holiday and all you do is have a drink and try the local food and see some local tourist sites does it matter what time of year you go?
If you tend to spend approximately eight hours sleeping in a hotel and that’s all you use it for, does it have to be lavish?
If the place you are staying is very safe, do you have to take taxis?
If you are in a country that is warm and you can drink in the streets, do you always need to go to bars? Why not a beer in the park or on the move?
These are just some of many questions worth thinking about when booking. I have friends who book a hotel in an expensive part of the city specifically for tourists and spend no time in it. If you have the money, fine. But there’s always room for more activities with less money being spent on accommodation.
4. DIY.
Not just in reference to booking your holiday, but also where you stay. Again, I love a hotel from time to time, but it can often feel like you’re trapped. Fancy cooking something? Unlucky mate. Hotels tend to be a bit more luxurious, but you tend to find a lot of them without character too. Villas, apartments or even hostels (if applicable) are a great way of being able to map out your day and do it on your time.
Although not always cheaper, Air BnB is useful for booking accommodation because it usually is cheaper than a hotel and the host puts in an effort to make the place a bit different from your usual hotel room. You get a kitchen, a balcony sometimes, a garden if you’re lucky. It means that if you want, you can cook food once a day to save money on eating out. Basically, it’s an essential for long-term cost cutting.
5. Find countries with cheap cost of living.
Ever heard someone go to South East Asia and they boast about how they lived like a king? Well, it’s not far off. Finding a place that’s cheap when you’re there can really make your holiday. Amsterdam flights might cost £20 each way, but do you fancy paying for a meal and it being the same price? I do like Amsterdam, but I’m just using it as an example.
People generally have this perception that you need to raise over £1000 for holiday funds for a week in somewhere cheaper than their own country. Not the case if you are going somewhere that is a lot cheaper. For example, a popular place that is relatively cheap is Poland. In Poland you could go and buy a litre of milk, some bread and something to put on the bread for your breakfast for two and it would cost around £2. You could then splurge out on a McDonald’s for lunch and a fancy three-course-meal for two for your dinner and the two fast foods and the late dining would cost you under £30 for two people. That’s eating out twice in a day and one being somewhere a bit more upmarket. And you can get a pint of beer for around £1.50.
The point being, if you go to France instead, a modest meal will cost you around £15. For one. Sometimes it’s about looking at your options and deciding to go somewhere where you will be able to do more on your budget, providing you want to go there.
6. Don’t Listen to the Media
Watch any traveller’s videos and they will say the same. Your national media will create a discourse among the people that certain countries are dangerous. I have been to Tunisia, Slovenia and Hungary. All three of these countries were given a bad reputation before I went for different reasons. Slovenia especially gets lobbed in as Eastern European and therefore gets lumped with the unfair stereotype of Eastern Europe. I’m guilty of prejudging a country before going there. I think with maybe the exception of one country in Europe (hint, it’s not Russia I’m speaking about) I could go to any European country and feel very safe.
I’ve watched some great vlogs by Indigo Traveller who has been all over the world. Currently he’s in Peru as of writing, but he’s just came back from Ethiopia and Kenya and has been to Egypt before and even bloody North Korea. He’s been to a lot of countries that are perceived as dangerous by the UK government when it’s not anywhere near as bad as made out to be. Here’s a video of him in Lebanon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhlk2A9bmw0
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t do your research, but often what you think of a country is most certainly not what it is like. I think this point specifically is important to Brits. Our country is full of worriers when it comes to going on holiday somewhere a little different.
7. Go Continental
This is a very simple point that is worth mentioning if you enjoy travelling but not sure where to go. Whatever continent you live on, there is likely to be cheap flights there. Europe obviously has a great advantage, but so too does parts of Asia, Africa and the Americas. Sometimes the closest places to home are the cheapest to go to – and it’s an easy way to tick them off your visited countries.
Any more tips on budgeting correctly? Drop me a comment. You can catch me on Twitter at: @mick_demarco or Instagram at: @mickiac
Quite simply, Belfast is an underrated city that Brits tend to forget, yet foreigners do not. One of the reasons is the modern history of the city of which a lot is marked by controversy. So what should you do in Belfast and what should you avoid?
Do: Visit St George’s Market.
St George’s Market is over 100 years old and is very popular over the weekend for tourists and locals. Markets might seem like a checklist on every city list, but St George’s is small enough to not take up half your day, while having a variety of interesting stalls.
Although Camden Markets are massive, you can sometimes find a lot of duplicate stalls. If you’re wanting a condensed starter version of Camden, St George’s is great. Best of all, there is so much food to chose from.
Don’t: Miss the high-rated pubs.
I’m a self-proclaimed tight traveller. I spend when I need/want to. When it comes to alcohol, I’m happy enough grabbing bottles from the shop.
However, Belfast is one of those places where you begrudgingly pay four pounds for a pint and sit with a scowl on your face complaining about how the prices are at least a pound cheaper in Glasgow. Scottish pubs are fun, but Irish ones are on another level. The Crown Saloon Bar is the most famous and worth jumping in for a couple for its unique decor.
My personal favourite is The (Five) Points, also situated in the city centre. Irish folk music is fantastic and even better live. This pub specialises in live music and is worth bringing someone to to give them a flavour of Irish music.
That’s not to say that other pubs aren’t worth checking out. Local pubs outside the city centre are worth checking out for a real local flavour, but you have to be smart about those ones, which I’ll mention later.
Do: Visit Falls Road.
I don’t know if it’s because my family have strong ties to Ireland and Catholicism, but Falls Road is a must. In short, parts of Belfast during the Troubles, were republican (mainly Catholic) and parts were loyalist (mainly protestant) which led to a lot of segregation and generally an oppression of the republican communities.
These days the traditions still stand on both sides: some outdated, but it makes for some interesting viewing. Walking from the city centre to Falls Road is interesting too. You can start from Donegall Road, where you will walk through loyalists communities draped in flags and then you reach a roundabout which separates them from Falls Road.
Falls Road and the surrounding area sees a lot of history from the Easter Rising right back to the 1700s as well as the more recent republican movements. Perhaps the most interesting thing in the area (with the exception of the brilliant murals) is the Irish Republican History Museum which documents some of the atrocities that (at least from a British view) you don’t hear about. A good way of seeing Irish history from a new perspective.
Don’t: Ask what side they’re on.
NO NO NO NO NO.
Because of the recent history, you have to be very sensitive speaking about this. Generally asking someone about the Troubles can be an awkward conversation. Speaking about such, should be done carefully. Make sure you know when to ask. Some people are nice about it, some might be hostile.
I went into a Sinn Fein gift shop to ask because I gauged the situation. Don’t ask random people on a night out, like someone I know who nearly got his lights punched out. Asking about the Troubles is bad enough, but for the love of god unless they bring it up themselves, don’t guess or ask if someone is loyalist or republican.
Again some people are really nice and will tell you what they think. Some don’t like it. Partly because there are some nasty people out there. It’s not too dissimilar to the Celtic/Rangers support in Scotland. Most people don’t care, but proclaiming it in a room full of strangers could land you in hot water. Best thing to do is be as neutral as you can be. Some people on the other side are just looking for an excuse for a fight. Just keep it to yourself unless the time is right. Even then, be smart about it.
Do: Visit the university area.
I was lucky enough to book a hostel right in the middle of the university area. Five minutes walk away from the Botanic Gardens, surrounded by pubs and a tonne of restaurants from loads of different countries too. I saw a Nepalese restaurant. I didn’t know they existed!
There is Ormeau Park just across the river too so it’s a welcome getaway from the buzz of the city. To put it briefly, the area around Queen’s University is cheaper and can be a lot more fun. It’s not too busy and there’s a number of top restaurants and cafes.
Don’t: Spend all your time in the city centre.
The Waterfront is great, the university areas and the city centre itself all have a lot on, but Belfast is also lucky to have decent transport links to the outskirts of the city and the towns nearby.
One thing that is at least worth checking out is the Stormont Estate and nearby Belmont Park is peaceful. Or go to Divis. Or nearby Lisburn. Up to the Giant’s Causeway. Tonnes to do.
Do: A Black Cab Taxi Tour
This one is one that should also be taken with a pinch of salt. The taxi tour guides are local people and have their own opinions. Therefore, you will hear an opinion from either side of the divide. Do not take this as fact. A republican taxi driver will tell a different story from a loyalist taxi driver. Don’t take what they’re saying as gospel, just remember that’s one source.
That being said, it’s an easy way of getting a tour around the city without doing those open top buses with that little personal story to it too. It’s popular among tourists and for good reason.
Belfast really did surprise me as a city. It’s often forgotten to the Brits along with the rest of Northern Ireland, but the diversity is surprising, the architecture is very Northern England and the history makes it a controversial but exciting place to visit.
The finale. The big trip home. Bittersweet day, but one that I was looking forward to too. We left the hotel and headed towards Inverness to complete the route before heading down towards Glasgow.
The first half hour was a nightmarish clunk of traffic and stressed me out too much. Another reason why the east side of the route is not as fun. I saw a hitchhiker at the side of the road just past Tain and had a “f*** it” moment and picked him up. He was a former geography teacher who now worked in business who always spent one week away from family to travel somewhere alone by walking everywhere, but had to catch a lift back down to Inverness for the next day to catch a flight.
He was a lot of fun and really chatty. What I would recommend when picking up a hitchhiker is to apply five rules: 1. Get a name and rough location from the hitchhiker – this is a security precaution. Although as a hitchhiker I’d be more inclined to know this information, you still need to know you’re not possibly picking someone up who’s dodgy. A little small talk can usually give you a rough idea. 2. Check appearance – It sounds very judgemental and it is. If you are picking up someone who looks unsafe, you may be best driving past. 3. Find out where they are going – This lets you know where to drive. That might sound simplistic, but it gives you a window if you need to get out of anything. If you’re uneasy about someone, make up an excuse that you might be popping into Stirling for a bit if you need to offload them anywhere while leaving the window up for going to Glasgow if you’re fine with them. 4. Daylight Savings – My rule is don’t pick someone up in the dark and do not be picked up or hitchhike when it gets dark. It becomes more difficult to get out of situations this way. In the daylight, people can see you easily. If you drop a hitchhiker off somewhere, you do so in a place in public where if needed, you can get help if someone becomes aggressive or non-compliant. 5. Build up a good reputation from the off – The more time you spend chatting to someone in a nice manner, the easier it is to empathise. If you do pick someone up and they have harmful intentions, they are less likely to rob/kidnap/murder someone who has been very nice to them. You could argue being picked up in the first place is enough to cover that, but building up a good face for yourself always helps with that trust on both sides. They will feel more comfortable (after all they are being picked up by randomers) and will make you feel comfortable with your passenger.
Bonus tip: Age/sex matters – Picking up a younger physically fit man has more risk involved than a slender woman. An older man with the correct appearance (see point 2) is safer than picking up a younger character too. But always go with your instinct.
This was the first time I picked up a hitchhiker and probably won’t be the last. Just always be safe either way. We dropped him off in Inverness and he was really grateful and nice. We felt like we had done our good deed for the day too. Before we dropped him off, we all went to Chanonry Point to see if we could spot any dolphins and Peter (I think that was his name) pointed one out for us. Successful wee day out for the gang.
We headed down through Aviemore on the way down on the A9 road which is among the worst main roads in the UK. We attempted to go to Loch an Eilein to stop and eat lunch beside the Loch for ten minutes, but were automatically put off by the parking prices. If we planned to spend the day here, then yes, we would’ve paid the £3 it was to park. The whole situation is ridiculous as you need either a car and park there for the money or the luxury of time to walk the three miles to the next parking spot. Why not have a donation box? I’d have happily put something in there. With all due respect, surely having someone man the car park is itself costing a bit of money?
We left without seeing it because of the principle of arriving and seeing you basically held to ransom or leave. No other spots nearby to park in. It’s £1.50 per person which is just a stupid fee to have to pay. for a ten minute sit down before going away again. Sorry, rant over.
The next 80 miles were tedious. I felt sick driving, it was that bad. We pulled into a rest stop (The House of Braur) where they had an outlet mall for toffs, essentially. Most shops had hunting gear, the tins of shortbread were double the price you’d find the same brand in a supermarket and the toilets were hidden. The only reason I found the toilets was due to Megan’s slightly posh background coming into play, theorising that when they said “cloakroom” (bear in mind this was right beside the restaurant) it might mean toilets. I’ve never been so proud that she was brought up near Newton Mearns.
We then stopped at the Hermitage, a nature trail in Perth, to see my Nan, who I hadn’t seen for a while. Not much to comment on except they have great waterfalls and seeing my Nan again was great. It was her first time properly meeting Megan (having met her very briefly at Christmas) so it was enjoyable to see them get on.
We kept driving down until we got to Eaglesham, down at Megan’s place. I was just glad to stop driving after the grim road that is the A9. Tip, always go down past Loch Lomond – it’s a lot better drive.
So that was my trip to Inverness and around the North Coast 500. If you’d like to know anything about my trip, drop a comment. Leave some feedback if you please and most of all, visit the North Coast! It’s well worth the visit.
Waking up on Day Five feeling better, I was looking forward to the day. It was, after all, the day that we would live like kings getting a hotel room for the first time on the trip!!
But before that, a few things to see today. It was weird being in a town like Thurso. Despite being about a quarter of the population of my hometown, it felt the same size. There was a Lidl! After gathering goods again, we went to the close-by Dunnet Head which is the most-northerly point in the mainland UK. Some might be thinking it was John O’Groats, but that is a LIE. It’s a big tourism scam. Dunnet Head had some great views though and you could see Orkney on the clear day that it was.
Then we went to the scam itself, John O’Groats. I’m probably being a bit too harsh, but John O’Groats is easily the most overrated place I’ve been to in the UK. You have to pay to use the toilets in the service station area. The shops are overpriced as is the food for what you’re getting. The signpost with the directions to major cities is cool, but that’s it.
Now we were heading south for the first time since I had left Greenock. It’s a bit bittersweet because you know your trip is slowly coming to an end. Before reaching big town number two in the north east (Wick) we went to Castle Sinclair Girnigoe.
More castle ruins but again, it’s completely free and right on the water and in the water. It’s now a protected building and you can see why. I have never seen a building like this anywhere else in Scotland. It doesn’t take long to see it, but it’s still worth a visit.
Then down by the castle is a small bay which is 100% the place I would’ve came as a teenager drinking with my pals if I lived up here. Could relax there for hours, but both of us were hungry and food is priority number one.
So that’s when we went to Wick to get petrol and some final food. Again, we had friends here too, but they weren’t back home yet. We got a recommendation to go to Morag’s Cafe for lunch and it was well worth the money. From the outside, it looks like any other cafe but inside it’s paired with an arcade on one side? If I walked in here on a limb, I’d be worried, but being told to go I was just excited for food.
This was Megan’s burger (you can see she’s excited for it) and we both got a smoothie too. From what I remember we got two burgers (tortilla chips on the side) and two smoothies for under £15.
Wick is a cool town. It’s not that much different from a central belt town, but it’s a nice change of scenery with people everywhere – or so it seems. It was a great place to walk about for an hour and just look at the shops and the high street. One thing that is disappointing and really not worth the hype is the “smallest street in the world”. It’s kinda cool to see a street the small, but we genuinely walked past it about five times before realising.
Apart from that, we enjoyed Wick and it would prove to be a nice stop before we headed further down the east coast.
Our final stop of the day was Dunrobin Castle. We were planning to stop at Whaligoe Steps, but we somehow missed the turn-off for it. We got stuck in so much traffic on the way down this road towards Inverness. On the west coast, there were many passing places and signs telling slow drivers to move to the side to allow others to pass. No such thing along here so a massive tailback ensued, then we were stuck behind traffic at roadworks. Shame we couldn’t go to Whaligoe Steps, but I think it ended up working out with the time anyway.
Dunrobin Castle is great by the way. A free place to wander around. The gardens are massive and they have bird shows too as well as a look inside the castle itself – although we turned up at four and they were just closing.
The best thing about the castle though is the flowers. Megan is a flower fanatic so planning this on the trip was a must. It made perfect sense and she was loved all the flowerbeds there.
The most surprising thing for us however, was meeting the golden eagles by mistake. We noticed an owl sitting on a perch outside before meeting one of the handlers who showed us the golden eagles who were going back inside. Not ashamed to say that we jumped out our skin when they were jumping around for the first time because they are massive birds. Even thinking of birds of prey, I never expected them to be that big.
The handler, who I did not get the name of, was very happy to tell us all about the birds and chat a bit about their features. Here’s a clip of one of the birds with its hood on to calm it down.
He even let us feel his talons and feathers. Although I have been quite mean-spirited to the east side of this trip, this moment at Dunrobin Castle was great.
One last pic
After our visit there, we stayed at Dornoch at the Dornoch Hotel as a treat to ourselves on the last day. Dornoch was one of my favourite places because there were enough people for it to not be too quiet, but quiet enough to relax. Having not went a run yet in the week, I decided to go out for 8 miles in the sweltering heat and topped up on my tan too. Megan also went one and hated me for it as she came back looking like a beetroot.
After that we went for dinner downstairs. The service was questionable at times, but the food was pretty good. We had a few drinks in the room and then watched a documentary on the massacres occurring in Myanmar currently. You know, some light viewing before bed.
I will leave you with the moment that Megan realised her food her arrived in Wick.
And then we woke up to rain as Megan’s prediction ringed true. What was a beautiful sunset turned into a moody looking day. It still looked pretty cool, but we were adamant to just get the tent in the car and leave – after we had charged our electronics one more time.
Then started the long stormy road to Durness.
All I can remember about this part of the trip was listening to the new Arctic Monkeys album because it had just been released and as much as I didn’t mind it, it wasn’t perhaps the best driving music in such conditions. Before reaching Durness, we went to Balnakeil Beach which is a small diversion from the main village. Again, not the best conditions to be walking around a beach, but what makes Balnakeil cool is the sand dunes.
What is particularly interesting about this area is its a chill out place for the local cows! It’s also worth the visit, regardless of the weather for bird spotters. You can find all sorts of uncommon animals up here including puffins and some that I have unfortunately forgotten the names of. Right beside the beach is the remnants of an old church with a cemetery inside it. Again, if you like your ruins, it’s cool. And there are frequently dog walkers on this beach too, so you’re surrounded by history, nature and the public. It’s really worth the trip.
Megan and I spent a good part of our morning looking in rock pools and finding these colourful formations on the right hand picture. I still don’t know what that is on the left.
From there we went to one of the main parts of Durness – their enterprise village. Technically it’s Balnakeil Craft Village, but it’s often synonymous with Durness. I saw some poor reviews online about this place, but I thought we might as well go. It’s an old World War 2 MOD base which was refurbished into some houses (personally wouldn’t want to live in these houses) as well as a number of businesses, mainly arts and crafts companies. However, the biggest success story is Cocoa Mountain. As the name suggests, it’s chocolate everything here. They even have a resident cat that just sits on random chairs not bothering anyone.
What I must warn you about is the prices of the chocolate. I’m not sure if you can see it in the picture above, but it’s not cheap. I mean, get a bar of chocolate for your gran or your mum as a nice little treat because it is a well-known place and the chocolate is good, it just begs the question, is it that good? Paying four pounds for a slab of chocolate is a bit ridiculous.
Then again I paid £4.50 for a large hot chocolate. However, it was easily the best cup of hot chocolate I have ever had.
If you’re wondering what that is that is dripping down the mug, that is melted chocolate. It was very tasty, but I think next time I’ll be getting a small as I’ll explain later.
From there we took a quick look at Sangobeg Bay. Again, due to the weather we didn’t want to go right down onto the bay. For what it’s worth, it is impressive in itself from above.
This is as close as we got to it.
Now to my favourite part of the Durness area (what do you mean it took us ages to leave?), a place that pulls in the majority of Durness’ tourism – Smoo Cave. To put it simply, it is still the most underappreciated part of the north of Scotland with maybe the exception of Rogie Falls. There is this long staircase down to the caves from the road above and when we turned up, there were tens of people walking down with us. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were over 100 people while we were down there.
From above. You can see the secondary path (not the main one) that takes you up towards the cliff edges too.
When I say this place is underappreciated, I mean people expect something amazing that you can walk around a cave for an hour freely etc. That’s not the case. Smoo Cave is fascinating geologically, but it also rewards people who give it a try. When we first turned up, we were a little underwhelmed as we expected it to be bigger. But it was still like nothing else I’d seen before.
That second picture was taken from the viewpoint that sits 100m or so inside the cave entrance. Just that reflection for me was worth seeing. But then, we paid to see more. If you look closely in the first picture, you’ll be able to see a man in a white hard hat. That would be our tour guide Colin who for £6 a person (that’s cheaper than both of those castles from day 1 and 2!) would take us further inside the cave in the boat. This is what I meant by underappreciated. I saw a few shrugs from some who came in and left pretty quickly. Go into the cave itself, it’s totally worth it. It does only run over what I’d call the “nicer” months of the year (I think April to October) and for the rest of the year they are excavating, trying to find out more about the caves themselves. Also, going on a dry day means that you might not get to see the waterfall that trickles into the cave.
Colin is very knowledgeable about the caves themselves – he joked that he’s as old as these rocks. He is also looks a lot like Jeremy Corbyn but kookier. That’s slightly comforting.
Colin showing us about the rock formations and how they figured out what type of rock was down here.
Then we got to see some limestone. I’m absolutely gutted because Megan had a picture of me sitting on the limestones (they looked slippery, but happened to be so grippy). Instead here’s a picture of the weird interior of the back of the cave.
Then we headed out of the tour after 20 minutes or so and climbed that other staircase that you can see a few photos back. Now, we went trekking over these hills to get to what is one of the most northerly points on mainland UK.
Right over the other side were more coooooool rocks.
Our final part of the Durness trip was Ceanneabeinne Beach, but not for the beach itself – but for a zipline. For ten pounds a person, you can go on the zipline over the beach.
Also a little video of Megan on the zipline:
That would be the last time we would be in the Durness area, as we would briefly stop at Loch Eriboll to get some pictures as we were running a little behind time.
Our final stop before stopping for the day was at Strathy Bay for a few minutes again. You’ve probably noticed that the last couple of hours have been a lot of little stops and moving on quick. Partly because there wasn’t much to see, secondly because I was starting to feel queasy and as soon as we got to our accommodation I had to run to the bathroom and was to say the least, a little unwell.
Our accommodation was in Scrabster, about two miles away from Thurso. We have friends in Thurso, but they weren’t up when we were. Our plans of going around Thurso checking some of the sights went up in smokes because of little old sick me. So we asked for recommendations on Chinese takeaways (Only one was open on a Sunday) and chilled for the night.
Speaking of our accommodation, we had an Air B’n’B in Scrabster, owned by a lovely woman called Angie. I cannot state enough how hospitable she was. Had so many suggestions of things to do and was happy to sit and chat to us and even offered late check out for us. The place was called “The Wee Hoosie” and that’s the small problem. It was a little smaller than I expected it to be, but apart from that, that was it. Sat in with a few beers and a Chinese. Another chilled night before heading into our final full day on the North Coast 500 itself.
Then we woke up from the rain that hit our tent all night. There’s something terrible about camping when there has been moisture in the air. You can’t even open that little zip at the front without soaking the whole tent in rainwater.
Yet, that’s where we were in Gairloch. Luckily, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining when we woke up. We planned a relatively quick getaway to get a jump start on our day after a shower and some food. While Megan had her shower, I was greeted by a man who had a motorhome beside our tent. Our outdoors next door neighbour. He told me that he had some extra hot water if we wanted to use any for a cup of tea to which I politely declined, explaining that we hadn’t even brought cups!
He then asked me if I wanted a cup of tea since I didn’t bring anything to have one in to which I said no as I didn’t want to make a fuss, but he insisted and him and his wife were very hospitable. They had a wire-haired dog called Boris too: he was named after public enemy number one, Boris Johnson, who was Mayor of London at the time and just like the mayor, was a little mad hence the name.
Instead of leaving an hour before we planned to, we sat and chatted to them as they explained they were also doing the route and had done it in reverse to us, going east first before hitting west and telling us about living on the English Riviera. It’s little moments of kindness like that that made the trip so wholesome. I’m just a little sad that I can’t remember their names as they were very nice. Even when I asked Megan she said she had no idea, she “just remembers the doggos”. We hung out near the beach for a bit (would’ve stayed and sunbathed if the weather had picked up enough) and got on our way, hitting a scenic route straight away.
You can see my wee red car beside the motorhome. There was a German dog too, called Max (front left)
The best thing about the west coast, is it’s all hills and scenery around every corner. Because there are so many islands, you’re always looking at something.
We planned to stop at Ardessie Falls, but somehow managed to drive past it and by the time we realised, it was about ten miles back the way. Instead we kept going and landed at Corrieshalloch Gorge. It used to be a massive piece of rock until the last Ice Age where it started to erode and made the gorge that sits today. There are foot bridges to see it face on – something that I’d recommend you have something attached to your phone/camera so that it doesn’t go over the edge because I was shaking at the thought of losing my new phone down a 60m drop. There’s also a nice nature trail to walk around which we did for a bit before heading back to a stuffy car. By this point it was midday and the temperature was rising. We were both a bucket of sweat walking around the gorge. Unfortunately, my pictures weren’t exactly professional.
I can’t do it justice.
From there, we had our big return to relative civilisation – visiting Ullapool for supplies and fuel. A village of 1,500 people, it has its perks. There’s a Tesco, but it’s very peculiar hearing staff speak to each other in Gaelic. It really is a different world up north. Yet, I feel bad for the locals. There is just a constant flow of people with no space for them. We accidentally took a local’s parking spot and he wasn’t too happy, but it clearly happens to him every day. It would have been nice to stay here because the views are gorgeous, but it just wasn’t practical to do so. I forgot to get any proper pictures here so I just have one while I was waiting on a fleet of sports cars to leave the tiny petrol station.
We went back to the emptiness with a hike up Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve which is what I imagine geologists watch instead of pornography. It’s just lots of old rocks which formed into this mountainous cliff and one of the oldest geologist arguments and, if it’s your thing, one of the more interesting ones. We just went because there is apparently a lot of deer in the reserve. Didn’t see any deer, all we got were these stupid amazing views.
Then one of my favourite spots on the trip came in the form of Ardvreck Castle. Unlike all those other castles that you need to pay money for (in fairness, there is a lot more at those castles than Ardvreck) this is a completely free-just-off-the-main-road-attraction. It’s a castle ruins surrounded by water with the exception of a small strip of land to get you there. You can climb right up it and pose in its window – like I did.
Oh and we managed to see two deer right beside the main road. Of all places. So cool.
We then just stopped off at a couple of beaches before reaching our destination for the night. It’s a shame it wasn’t warm enough to chill on them, but it was still worth the trip.
First up was Achmelvich Bay, I think. I say I think because the map sent us everywhere so we could’ve been at another beach for all I know. Wherever we were, it was the first example of those “Carribbean” beaches that you see in all the online travel guides.
It doesn’t look 14 degrees, but it was.
That was followed up by going to Clachtoll which was just as impressive.
So you know…if you’re ever in the middle of the highlands in a heatwave, you know where to go. But it’s not just the beaches on this part of the coast that is cool. Even after two days of driving past constant scenery, Drumbeg was an example of a place that still stands out.
Then there was a village called Nedd. One for the Scottish readers.
Then we drove over the Kylesku Bridge just before arriving in Scourie where we were camping again. Megan joked that it would be a reverse of the day before and it would be sunny at night and raining in the morning. They don’t call her Mystic Meg for nothing.
Kylesku Bridge
Compared to Gairloch, I probably preferred Scourie because the weather was better. I had to charge my electronics in the one plug in the campsite. Always find it strange that they don’t have any of those kind of facilities at some camp sites. Finding a socket in a campsite is like a needle in a haystack.
We got to Scourie in decent time and spent our evening walking around the village. Our camp spot looked right over the water, while staying tucked into the mound, safe from the wind. We walked along the bay and over to the cemetery nearby where there are just sheep and lambs everywhere. We walked around the coast for about an hour looking at all the animals, before coming back to see the sun set with everyone else at the camp. It was like nothing else I’d seen before.
Just a simple end to the day, but it’s not always about cramming stuff in.
This is the first day of the actual North Coast 500 and to do those who are foreign to the route, it’s just over 500 miles of Scottish landscape in a big loop. It looks like this:
The advised time to do it in is at least five days and regularly seven and up to two weeks. I was doing it in just four and a bit days because work and other adult pains.
So continuing on from yesterday, we left our hostel in Inverness (with a butterknife too) and headed west towards a number of exciting places on the longest day of the journey – with maybe the exception of the day we came back.
We left relatively early and headed to a spot that we weren’t expecting to enjoy as much as we did and that was Rogie Falls. If you haven’t guessed already, we love waterfalls, but this is just such a fun thing to do. It was pretty remote and the people who were there kept themselves to themselves. We were able to go and sunbathe on the rocks for 15 minutes or so right beside the thrashing waters. It was the epitome of peace.
Probably the best thing about this place was how un-Scottish it looked. It was as if we had just wandered into the back of a Canadian forest. Even in Scotland they can spring up surprises like this to make you feel like you’re in another world.
Then we hit a piece of fast road for a while which is liberating after having our first taste of single track roads and a bit of traffic. It led us to Strathcarron which felt like the smallest place I had ever been to. It was one of the bigger places on the map and had a train station, yet so tiny. We chilled there for a bit, walking around the village (how many people constitutes a village?) and saw a bunch of lambs. The best thing about doing this trip in the spring is seeing all the baby animals.
And then the first detour of the route – a quick half hour away from Strathcarron took us to Eilean Donan Castle, famous for basically being a castle on an island attached to the mainland by a bridge. We ended up going into it seeing how it was pretty famous. And guess what? The toilets were free unlike Urquhart Castle from yesterday and also cheaper than the place too.
For foreigners who enjoy castles, go see this because it is unique. Scots who know lots of history on castles, don’t feel like you must see it. It’s OK. The problem is, this castle was private and isolated. It wasn’t pivotal in wars like Stirling or Edinburgh, it was just there and has been owned by the same family for centuries. Some of it feels like lip service to the family who own it (there are pictures everywhere of them) and some of the rooms feel cheap. If you like old maps of Scotland, it has that. So that’s something I enjoyed, but overall, I wouldn’t be dying to go back to it.
It looks better at night.Me being a measurement of how windy it was.
The road to and from Eilean Donan from Strathcarron makes that journey so much easier. It’s a brilliant windy journey with plenty of viewpoints very close to the Isle of Skye. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to see it, but there’s always next time. Next up was the road that according to the NC 500 tips, “only experienced drivers should attempt” which led me to the question, what is an experienced driver? Does my near four years cover it? Do you have to be Michael Schumacher? I’d love to say that I done it because it was quicker, but it’s not the case. It adds about an hour on going over this road into Applecross. The road is called Bealach na Ba (which in Scottish Gaelic means “The Pass of the Cattle”) and it’s not for the faint-hearted. I have vertigo (or to put it simply, a fear of dying from being high up, not so much being high itself) and parts of this road are unprotected. Having just watched videos of some of the most dangerous roads in the world I wonder if I am being melodramatic, but at the time it was uneasy. That being said, it is an epic scenic route and reaching the top before traversing downhill towards Applecross is rewarding in itself.
Then came some driving through small places like Fearnmore (where we saw Highland Cows everywhere on the roads) before Shieldaig (which was beautiful) and Torridon. Although we heard a lot of great things about the latter, we couldn’t find anything to do. We don’t know if we went the wrong way or what, but there wasn’t much to see. Any suggestions for Torridon, leave in the comments.
That led us to our final stop and our place for the night. A campsite in Gairloch, a village of a relatively larger stature compared to what we had seen that day. We got there relatively late and the rain started pouring when we did too. To anyone wondering, it is very difficult to get an actual roof over your head at short notice. Our planning was a little slow so we had to camp instead. That being said, it saved us a lot of money compared to getting a hostel or a hotel. Thank you to my good friend Bob for supplying all the camping equipment. We had food in the small restaurant at the campsite, but it was a rip to be honest. Eating on the move is ten times cheaper when up north. We stayed right beside the water which was nice, but it meant having to deal with the issues of rain on our first night sleeping outdoors and the first night without any chargers or wifi – which is something to remember when you are camping and travelling, always have paper copies of needed info and try and pre-plan anything where you will need your phone as well as use your electronic devices sparingly when possible.
That was Day 2, so here’s some bonus footage of her trip up Bealach na Ba:
For those aware of my solo excursion around Europe last summer, they’ll know that I made a lot of friends out on my travels. When speaking to all these different people from all over the world, they would often talk about having been to Scotland and enjoyed the highlands to which they had asked me if I had ever been.
Well…
If it wasn’t for athletics, I’d have not went any further north than Oban in Scotland. Every time I have been to Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness before my trip was for a race. Before 2014, Oban was the furthest north I had been. That’s a little embarrassing for someone who was out travelling parts of Europe. I realised how easy it was when I was speaking to an Australian guy and he said (I’m at least paraphrasing) that “everyone sees everywhere except their own countries.” Some deep philosophy right there.
When a foreigner thinks of Scotland they think of all the stereotypes that come with the country. Bagpipes, kilts, nature, mountains, seclusion. For the most part, we are not like that, but it happens to be some of our best features. People who live in the central belt are unlike me. Many will see Loch Lomond, under an hour away from Glasgow, as some grand day out in the wilderness despite it being on their doorstep. Us city slickers, or basically anyone who lives in a place of more than 5,000 people in the lowlands, have the fear of God in them thinking of driving single track roads and not having a Tesco within 100 miles of them. Understandably.
But it’s an important way of appreciating Scotland in my opinion. Both of appreciating the Highlands and where you live. Therefore, I got a few days off work while my mum was on holiday (currently car share) so that I could take us on a road trip.
And this was day one’s trip.
It all started on the Wednesday night when Megan came down to mine after finishing work in Newton Mearns at 9pm. We spent a couple of hours making sure we had everything and subsequently, had a late night’s sleep. We were up very early (by our standards) at 6.30am to just make sure everything was completely sorted. I dropped my mum off at work near Glasgow Airport for half past eight, where she would then be picked up from before heading to Corfu for a week. Not a bad shift. From there, we refuelled as we were taking no chances with getting lost and running out of petrol in the middle of nowhere. I almost passed out at how much a full tank was as I’m used to throwing in a tenner a time.
There are a few routes up from the West coast to Inverness, where we would finish for the day. You can go the quickest route through Perth (will get to that in a later post), you can go through the Trossachs and then up past Aviemore; or you can go past Glencoe and Loch Ness. As you can see from the map, we chose the latter.
The first hour or so is familiar territory. Anything up to the top of Loch Lomond is something I’m used to. Still stunning, but seen before. Before we even left the Loch however, we stopped as we saw something that looked interesting. Inveruglas Pyramid was our first “wee stop”. Often if we seen something that looked cool that wasn’t on our plan, we would give it ten minutes max to look around, unless we absolutely loved the place. The pyramid is a viewpoint of Loch Lomond, even with a set of binoculars at the top. It’s a very simple, free thing to do if you’re up there. There’s not much to it, but it is sweet.
Some peeking
It was the first of many sights. Next up was summer special, Falls of Falloch. I had never been there before, but many of my friends’ Instagrams were full of pictures there. Is it worth the hype? Yes.
It’d be good to go in the summer time instead of the murky day on which this picture was taken. You can walk right up to the waterfall, but it’s a long walk, so we left it there. One of the best things about this trip is the people you meet. They are mostly few and far between. You will find a lot of people on the same route as you and won’t chat to them just like you wouldn’t chat to people if you’re being a tourist in a city. However, we had our first real interaction back at Inveruglas Pyramid, where an English couple just saw the tunnelled part of the viewpoint, thinking there was nothing else worth seeing and we showed them the other side. Less than an hour later, we bumped into them again at Falls of Falloch and started chatting. They similarly have lived relatively close to here their entire life (about six hours away) yet never came up until now, in their fifties. We bumped into them one more time somewhere – it became a bit of an awkward “ha ha, imagine seeing you here” kinda gag.
Then came that familiar, sight on the Visit Scotland pamphlets. Glencoe and the surrounding area is genuinely a great drive, especially if there aren’t many cars around, because the single lane (as seen above) makes it difficult to overtake – albeit there are more straights up here than down at Loch Lomond where it can be tiring sitting behind a car for 30 miles doing 40 miles per hour in a 60. The courteous thing to do is to move over if you are causing a train of traffic, but people are unfortunately idiots at times. The scenery doesn’t end there as we stopped at The Meeting of the Three Waters, a popular pit stop to see another waterfall. Well technically three.
I had to go up on top of it to get a better picture.
Then to Fort William. I understand why people call Fort William the “gateway to Ben Nevis” as there really isn’t anything else that significant there. My friend from Oban often calls Fort William many names that I cannot write here, but I was equally underwhelmed. We stopped here to grab some food since we would likely be in relative isolation until Inverness. We jumped into a Morrisons, picked up butter, bread, sandwich fillings and some snacks. We forgot a knife and apparently Morrisons weren’t selling any so we used a plastic spoon to butter our bread. SPOILER: wasn’t very successful.
Possibly the oddest thing I found was no toilet roll in the toilets. Of a supermarket. Which gets regularly checked. I ran about for ten minutes trying to find someone to give me some. It was the strangest place. Because Fort William is the biggest town for miles (Inverness and Dumbarton are the closest either side I’m sure) the town is packed and constantly sells out it’s B&B’s. Also, Morrisons and McDonald’s are about the only places you can really park for free in the town. Somehow, I only took one picture there and I feel the only reason I did, was that I was trying to take a picture of a doppelganger of one of my friends, tactically hidden behind the baguettes.
Then the weather improved and we took a small detour to Glenfinnan Viaduct that we did not find first time as the parking is a little hidden. It can get quite busy, so best to try and go off peak. Why is it so popular? Because it’s the famous train line where a few shots of the Hogwarts Express have been shot in the Harry Potter films. The best thing is, you don’t have to be a HP fan to appreciate it, it’s an amazing structure. Not only that, but the attraction hasn’t been commercialised. No cheap stalls of Harry Potter merchandise, just fans going to see an iconic structure.
Can you tell that Megan is a big nerd?
Then, what I can only describe as a slight disappointment on our day, was Urquhart Castle. Not the castle itself, it looks great, but the attitude that sits with this attraction. After a long time without a toilet break, we pulled in and the first thing I looked for was a public toilet as there was no chance beforehand without peeing in public. I found one, but it was only open to customers of the castle. Not even allowing someone to pay a measly 50p to use it. I looked at the price of the castle. Nine pounds per person.
On a day where we had more time to get to Inverness, I may have paid, but we were only looking to stay for half an hour. I also had to run into some bushes teetering over an edge to pee, because rules. I can’t comment on the castle itself, but it did look nice. It sits right on Loch Ness.
Before going to our hostel in Inverness, we quickly stopped at Culloden Battlefield. I wouldn’t say this is an absolute must, but it’s a cool place to see how the war went down between the Jacobites (the Catholic guys with a sweet style) and the British government. Looking at my family history, my Gran’s ancestors were Jacobites. They still have the blue (Brits) and red (Jacobites) flags signalling the starting positions for the battle.
One of the blue flags in the background.
Then to Inverness. Our hostel was very ideal. It was right across from the “official” start of the North Coast 500. The Inverness Student Hostel was very nice. It had a homey feel to it and was the first time that Megan had stayed in a hostel to the best of my knowledge and she enjoyed it. Would go back again! For dinner, we arrived late-ish and instead of trying to land on the perfect place to eat, we went for a chippy at MacLeods, often regarded as the best in Inverness. It was 9 pounds for a large fish and chips, but this was LARGE. And more satisfying than any castle could ever be. I don’t think i finished it, which I am now regretting two months later. We walked around the city beside the river and it reminded me that I love Inverness when I come up here.
WUFT
Then the real journey started tomorrow, but it was a fantastic first day.
For those who were kind enough to read my blog during the summer, you will already know that I have experienced Berlin before, and enjoyed it a lot. For those who didn’t know, you can read my experiences of my first trip here and here and here and here.
So why am I back? After returning from my travelling last year, I asked out a girl that I had been dating for a bit and from there we’ve been going out since. For her birthday, I decided to do something that is better than buying a pair of earrings or a fancy pair of shoes – a surprise few days away for her birthday. It was my first holiday with a partner and I wanted to make it something to at least remember.
So where to? Well, it’s obvious where, but why? My girlfriend, Megan, works Wednesdays and didn’t get the Wednesday before her birthday off work. I sneakily asked her what days she was off for her birthday and worked with that: Thursday to Sunday and her birthday on Monday. Thursday to Sunday worked, but did the flights?
It turns out Thursday is not a great day to fly and it would be a lot better going on a Wednesday if possible. The Wednesday was full of flights to all stretches of Europe at reasonable prices. To the best of my recollection, the Thursday had flights for under £150 (which I think is about as reasonable a price to pay unless you are desperate to go somewhere in particular) were Berlin, Lanzarote and Dublin. I have been to two of them (Dublin in 2014) and from my mantra of “do something new” it had to be Lanzarote. However, I knew Berlin. I had a lot of unfinished business there and knew that Megan would enjoy it regardless, so I landed on there.
I told her about the trip (without revealing the location) just three weeks before. Unfortunately, my Papa (grandfather) would pass away just over a week later and would throw complications into the mix. I soon found out that his service would be on the same day that I leave. Luckily, I had an afternoon flight and was able to attend the funeral, before heading straight to the airport. Not your usual Thursday, but in many ways, a holiday is the best thing to do after grief. I was able to forget the sadness at home for the majority of my trip. What didn’t help was my wee brother trying to throw a curveball by saying at the wake to Megan, “enjoy the tower”, heavily implying that I was taking her to the most romantic city in the world, Paris.
The one problem I had with this trip was a lack of preparation. It was fine in the summer when I could walk around for hours in the summer and wing it. In the winter, there’s no reward for walking around in sub zero temperatures while trying to find something to do. Telling Megan where we were going in the airport didn’t help either. Asking her what she wanted to do while here was responded with “I only found out where I was going, two hours ago”. Fair point.
We managed to get into the city from Schonefeld airport easily. However, it surprised me how long it took to get to the west side of the city. Staying a couple of minutes away from the famous Zoologischer Garten station, it took an hour to get to by train. We arrived at the Aletto Hotel in Charlottenburg/Tiergarten area. The pictures on the site were underwhelming to say the least. It’s a nice enough hotel, but nothing too fancy. I was thinking that I was getting a bargain, when my money ended up justifying the quality. Quick point – would I stay there again? For the location, no. Most of our meanderings were in the east side of the city and you are much better in Mitte, Alexanderplatz or Friedrichshain. They are generally more practical. Closer to the airport, a little closer to the fun parts of town. After all, you can get anywhere in Berlin easy, but tourist sites shouldn’t influence your location too much.
Unlike last time, I actually got to see Brandenburg Gate in its entirety.
On the note, I will say it again – Berlin’s train system is top notch. Reasonable prices, a fair system of fines, efficient trains running on time – that doesn’t sound like the Germans at all does it? Some risk not getting a ticket, but I would advise getting one. The four days I spent in the summer, I didn’t come across an inspector. On my first train this time around, we saw an inspector. Getting the ticket eliminates the paranoia of wondering if you’ll get caught – and it will likely save you money and time.
But onto our days. We arrived a little late on the Thursday (partially due to a small delay) and instead had to stay local for some late food. After a half hour of scouring the internet for recommendations, we found Marjellchen, a restaurant in Charlottenburg, hidden behind a door that is closed. We initially thought that it was closed, but we found ourselves trying it anyway and we were successful! I guess it’s one of those places that reward people for their perseverance. I ordered the Schnitzel (breaded pork, but it tastes more like chicken) and Megan had the meatballs. I can’t do the food justice, it was just so good. We went pretty safe because a lot of the food is like old East Prussian recipes and includes livers and stomachs, but what we had was quality.
From there, I played free tourist for a couple of days. To make sure we went out early, we set an alarm and headed for Tiergarten which is massive. From there my plan of action was to walk through it, see the Brandenburg Gate and Soviet Memorial and then get the train to Alexanderplatz for a tour. I forgot how big Tiergarten is and we had to wait until the next tour. In the meantime, we got to see the aforementioned sights, as well as the Bundestag and Reichstag. And Checkpoint Charlie. From there we somehow managed to still be rushing to Alexanderplatz for the Alternative Walking Tour, which we just caught. Again, I have been lucky enough to have seen this tour already, but different people tell different stories.
Personally, I enjoyed the first time better. Not because I had seen it before, but the first guy, Jake, was more of a storyteller. Jonathan, the guy this time, was still great, but I feel like some things could have been told better. What I did enjoy was his brief chalk drawing of Berlin when the wall went up, describing the necessary political background for the tour. Again, the tour ends in Kreuzberg – an area on the west/east border that has long been impoverished. However, the food is brilliant. We decided to go for falafel wraps, as they aren’t as common in the UK (and more importantly Scotland). One of the girls on the tour was from America and went to the same place as us and said it was the best one she ever had – and there is plenty of it in the US!
After a while, we end up in Yaam again. Probably my favourite place in Berlin. One little downer – half of it was shut because it was the winter, but the people are still so nice there. We ended up sitting with an Australian girl and an English couple for the majority of the next few hours and got chatting and had a few drinks. Those eagle-eyed people will remember the same thing happening to me the last time I went to Yaam. Simply put, the Alternative Walking Tour, regardless of quality on the day, is a great way of meeting people, as is Yaam. It’s just such a nice place to be and people feel social there. We actually made plans to go out with some people later, but the plans fell through. We went to a couple of bars in Kreuzberg that night and did so the next too.
Over the two trips, I only had one altercation with a local and that was a drunk guy on a train who told me to go home. Still don’t know if it was intended as anti-tourist or anti-immigrant, but everyone was as quiet as me on there. I don’t know what the deal was, but I was a little surprised no one said anything.
Our final full day was a bit of a haze. I can remember heading to the old Tempelhof Airport, which is now used as a park. Again, it’s fucking massive. I heavily regret walking all the way around it to be honest, but I made it out alive. We from there, moved onto Treptower Park and walked along the water, to finally see Spreepark, an abandoned theme park in the east side. It’s a very creepy place to be. You can almost hear the sound of the people who once came here. Enter at your own risk – there are guards who patrol the area. I tried to find a little gap just to take a photo, but my search was unsuccessful. From there, we found a little shortcut back towards somewhere to eat for food. We went back to the bars in Kreuzberg. Oberbaumeck was my favourite. It was hard rock – and by that, I mean metal. This blend of metal and punk characters littered the bar and the staff were very nice – and the drinks were reasonable for a place in a city. The beer at least. Megan’s poison is a vodka orange. Not so cheap here compared to back home. Always date a girl who drinks beer.
The other place was a bar that I had been before on my last trip that I had somehow managed to find called Tante Emma. It’s a little pricier than the place across the road, but it’s got a nice ambience with sweet furniture to chill on. Even an outdoor area.
Tante Emma
I forgot to mention elsewhere on the food, Megan really likes Currywurst. She was so happy with it.
I’ve likely missed out a few points, but what can I say about Berlin second time around? I still haven’t scratched the surface, but I found my feet. I was smart with money, but at the same time, happy to spend. I was able to find my way around as if I had been here a hundred times before. I knew some of the more popular things to see as well as some of the intricate details elsewhere which are not known by many. How was the second time in Berlin? Probably not better than the first off the basis of seeing it again. But, instead I had great company and a larger budget to spend this time. Seeing things like Tempelhof Airport and Spreepark were pretty cool and getting to explore some parts that I didn’t have time to was fun. Would I recommend it in the summer or winter? It’s fun either time of the year, but the summer is just so much better for a city that is best explored aimlessly and a place where you will spend a lot of time walking around. It is almost too cold to walk around during the winter. Plus, the day is shorter so its easier to lie in until nearly midday. Always get up early.
Highway to the Eurozone 