Scotland, Also Fully Booked…. WTF?!

Recovering from our traumatic evening, over on the ferry to Scotland, we were refreshed and renewed when we left the ferry and boarded the bus to the train to Glasgow…. wait what? Well you see they upgraded the Ferry terminal but some dickhead didn’t think that the trains would no longer connect if you moved it elsewhere and so we found ourselves on a bus. Ok whatever, we’re fine, we can do this. It wasn’t far right? So we loaded our stuff onto the bus and headed for the train. We drove and we drove and we drove… MY goodness this is a long 12 kilometres… yeah that’s because its more like 50! And so we all slept on the bus.. for an hour. The deep open mouth, snoring and drippling kind of sleep that comes from complete exhaustion.photo (4) (1)

 

Once we arrived at the station, we bought our tickets and boarded straight away. The trip to Glasgow was another hour. By this time is was 3pm. It was fine, the countryside was different though, not like Ireland at all. No rock walls, just fences and stock, we could have been anywhere. Glasgow was announced and we alighted, ready for Scotland to show us her wares. Out the door turn right…. Hotel, boom, awesome! Our night of no sleep followed by a day of cars, ferries, buses and trains was over… we were ready for discovering.

When the King came out of the hotel our faces dropped, no way, fully booked? Are you kidding me? But we had it on good authority that the hotel across the street always had room. We trudged with our luggage across the street. In the too narrow door, with all the bags… The lady had news, the bad kind.

FULLY FUCKING BOOKED!

How can this be? And then she showed us the entire accom list for Glasgow. Every room gone. Full, Occupado!

Well you know what we did? We said fuck you Glasgow, and went back across the street to the train station and got on the first train to Edinburgh. While we travelled, the King and I both got on the wifi and phones and searched for rooms. We were not going to be without beds tonight. It was a frenzy, we were hedging bets and booking rooms and making deals, it was beautiful to watch, unless you were the kids, knowing it meant sleeping in the streets…The prices were terrible, so very expensive but we found a place out of the City centre, with the last 2 rooms available. We took em and then began to research why the hell everything was booked? It was the Edinburgh festival, complete with the Royal Scotland Miltiary Tattoo….

We were exhausted, we were road worn and we decided to stay 2 nights. The first time we’d stayed in the same place twice for the trip so far. And we were so glad we did. We had the best time in Edinburgh, saw so much, even got laundry done!

After that we booked ourselves at least one night ahead so we never went without sleeping in a bed again. Note to future travellers, Europe is FULLY BOOKED in August so make sure you secure your accommodation before you go…. Will we? Probably not but at least we know what to expect next time.

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  1. Whoa, thanks for the heads’ up! I am planning a trip to Ireland/Scotland for next year, and I’ve been sorely tempted to just fly by the seat of my pants and not make any accommodation reservations.. I thought it might be more exciting and adventurous that way. It may work for the smaller, less touristy places, but if I include Glasgow in the itinerary I will be SURE to book a room!

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      For the most part we were fine. Galway had an event, Belfast had a major rock concert and Glasgow, well we can skip it in future….. Flying by the seat of your pants is more fun but sometimes as you can see you come unstuck. Please bear in mind we were trying to accommodate 5 people each night which usually meant 2 rooms.

  2. We do HAVE a tourist season over here, yo!

    And there are tons of sheep in Scotland, just hidden away in farms and on highlands :p

    (and up the mountains with the Haggis, and their weird mating habits)

    Glad you had fun in the end 😀

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      1. Ach, the Heilan’ Coos are something special alright.

        And Haggis is great as long as it’s harvested fresh from the mountainside and eaten with neeps, tatties and a wee dram (ah cannae believe ye’d gae tae Scotland and nae ha’ a wee dram!)

        Did any good, self-respecting Scot tell you (through the accent) about the Haggises and the way they have one leg longer than the other, but on *opposite sides for boys and girls* so the boys run round the mountain clockwise, the girls run round anticlockwise, and it’s only when they happen to bump into each other that you end up with wee babby Haggises…? I hope you got told all the important stuff 😉

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          We sure did ha’ a wee dram, we bought two bottles of 25 yo Tomatin Scotch direct from the distillery.. AND yes we had it with tatties and neeps 🙂 LOVED IT ALL…
          And naturally we went to see Nessie, unfortunately she was a little shy but we trespassed the hell out of Urquart Castle and dipped our toes in the Loch.

          1. Sounds like once you got the accommodation sorted, you did it all xackly right 🙂 What an awesome set of memories 🙂

            Sorry you missed Nessie – she’s a pain like that.

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  3. OMG – I have to appologize that I laughed all the way through this post. I\’m still laughing. I can only imagine telling my kids that it was all booked and the looks they would give me when I followed it with \”So we\’re getting back on the train…\” Thanks a million for shareing – Glad it all worked out, but so nice to hear the REAL story in ones blissful vacation abroad. Makes me feel like we\’re sisters 🙂
    -Buffi

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  4. I’m very glad to see you managed to find rooms in Edinburgh in August – surprised too. As you discovered it is festival time and the streets are buzzing. Glad you enjoyed Edinburgh; it is a beautiful city and has been my home for over a decade now.

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