a very long day

On the day we traveled from London to Scotland, our day began very early.  We got up around 2 and we had a taxi coming to pick us up at the hotel at 3.  Having gone to bed between 11:30 and 12 we got less than 3 hours sleep.  Awesome. 

We went downstairs and checked out and met with our cab driver.  He took us to the bus station where we would get a bus to the airport.  Well, he dropped us off close to the bus station, we still had to walk around a bit to find it.  And then all of the obvious entrances were closed because it was 3am.  But we did finally find the bus we wanted and the driver told us where to go buy a ticket although we did go through the wrong door once before we got it right.  Then it was an hour or a little more on the bus before arriving at the Gatwick airport. 

We got checked in and got through security and it hardly took us any time at all.  So we were super early getting to our gate.  Except we did have to wait a minute before getting to the part of the airport where our gate was because they take a picture of you when you go through security and put a barcode on your boarding pass and then when you get to the gate they’re supposed to scan the barcode and you picture should pop up.  But ours weren’t scanning so we had to stand around a bit while the ladies working there figured that out.  But they were very friendly and said fun things with their british accents so it was ok.  And then we just had to wait.

We did finally board the plane though and the flight was fine.  We even got some breakfast though it was a little weird.  I did eat some sausage and egg and drink some orange juice.  So that was nice.  When we got in to the Edinburgh airport we collected our bags and found the airlink bus that would take us to the train station where we would get a train to stirling.  Everything went very smoothly actually.  We got to the station and got our tickets without a problem.  And when we got to stirling we just had to wait a short time for Emily’s sister’s friend that we would be staying with to come and take us back to their flat.  So we waited in the little coffee shop at the train station and got a drink and a snack.  And then Rachel arrived and we all took a taxi to the flat.

It had been a very long day though and we were really tired.  So we didn’t really do much that night.  We just kind of hung out and relaxed which was absolutely fine.  When Rachel’s flatmate got back she made this wonderful stu for dinner and it was nice be having a nice meal at “home” again.  I got really accustomed to always being able to count on at least one meal at home in spain so it’s definitely been a change just picking up some fast food or grabbing a cheap sandwich somewhere.

After dinner we lazed around some more and watched some tv.  It doesn’t sound like much, but we got some much needed relaxation time.  It was actually really nice.