Scotland is waiting for us

If you remember, some months ago I wrote an entry called “Summer adventure?”. Well, now this is finally planned! After looking at flights, hotels, prices, comparing it all and considering my economy, I decided to go to Scotland only. England and Italy will have to wait for the moment.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it, because I won't only go to Glasgow, but I'll also visit other places where I haven't been to yet.

First of all, I couldn't go by myself, alone...Well, I could if I was only going to Glasgow because I know people there, but if I wanted to go visit other places as well, I didn't think it was a good idea to go alone. So I told my friend Álvaro about making this trip and he found it interesting.
Then, we started planning it all. Since I had already left the idea of going to Italy first -and or England-, we only focused on Scotland. Obviously Glasgow was a must because I wanted to see my friend, and although the city isn't anything special, I like it. But since I have already seen the most important places there and I thought spending the full holiday in Glasgow would be a bit...well, not boring, but perhaps rudimentary, I told Álvaro we should go somewhere else.
The first time I went to Glasgow, I visited Edinburgh but only for a day and I couldn't see much of it, but from what I could see, it looked a beautiful city, so I thought this would be a good option. And also, I was interested in the well-known Loch Ness, not only because of the monster story, but because I think it's one of the most important tourist points in Scotland. I already wanted to visit it in my first trip to Scotland, but it's not too near from Glasgow -3 hours and a half by train and more or less the same by road-, and so I decided to leave it for another time. But now it was a good time to visit these places with more calm...
And after having studied several options, looking for the cheapest ones, looking for cheap bed and breakfasts but near the city centre in Edinburgh, good train and/or bus connections to Inverness (the closest big town to Loch Ness), and also bed and breakfasts there...after lots of e-mails sent, lots of replies read, and lots of silly and fun comments made, we had our travel planning done! And here you have it...

First, we'll go to Edinburgh, so we'll take a plane from Alacant to Edinburgh on a Monday, the 16th August. Since the flight's departure time is at 11:15, and even catching the earliest train from Vila-real I wouldn't arrive there on time, the day before I'll go to Ontinyent, the town where Álvaro lives and which is much closer to Alacant than Vila-real, I'll spend the night there and his parents will bring us to the Alacant airport. We'll arrive in Edinburgh at 13:30-Scottish time! It's one hour less there. And so, we'll stay two nights in Edinburgh. We found a nice place near the city centre, near the main tourist attractions like the Castle, Princess Gardens, etc. It wasn't a small bed and breakfast but a quite big hotel, but the price was much cheaper than most of the bed and breakfasts we found. In addition, it includes a full cooked breakfast...you know, eggs, beans, bacon, etc. I don't know how tasty will it be, but at least it sounds good. In Edinburgh I'd like to visit the Castle, some museums, perhaps the zoo...and well, we'll see what else. We'll have Monday afternoon and evening, the whole day in Tuesday, and Wednesday morning to visit all these places. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, we'll take a train or a bus -most probably a bus...I looked for both's tickets prices and bus were extremely cheap!- to Inverness. I suppose we'll arrive there at dinner time more or less -it's a three hours journey-, so that day we won't be able to do much except have a walk around this town. We'll sleep in a cute and cheap bed and breakfast I found, run by a family, so it will be quite different from the hotel in Edinburgh. The following day, we'll take a bus to Loch Ness. Maybe we'll take an organised trip, because I found a company that organises them, including the transport to Loch Ness, the tour in the Loch with a boat, and a guided visit to some ruins near it at a good value. After that, we'll take a bus back to Inverness, we'll take our luggage and will take a bus to Glasgow. We'll arrive there at night.
Finally, we'll stay there six nights, if I'm not wrong. My friend Eddie and his extremely nice and welcoming family said I could stay at their's again, even If I'm coming with a friend who they don't know at all. Well, it will be at my friend's grandfather's, since there wouldn't be place enough for two guests at my friend's house. That's even nicer. But I hope Eddie's grandfather won't make me drink whiskey this time!! I don't know what we'll do in Glasgow yet. I suppose we'll visit some museums -transport museum, please!-, the city centre, and maybe the Science Centre -according to what I've seen, it's more or less similar to “La Ciutat de les Arts I les Ciències” in Valencia. Maybe we'll also go to Stirling Castle some day for Álvaro to see it -I have already gone, but it's no problem to come back-, as it's not too far away from Glasgow. And obviously, I want to go to a Celtic match! I also went to one in my first time in Scotland, but it was away...I hope it's at Celtic Park this time!
Ah, I forgot...you'll laugh at this, but I want to eat Indian food! In Glasgow there are lots of Hindu people, and lots of them have restaurants or take-away places. Their food is spicy and usually has many sauces but I found it very tasty...Unfortunately here we haven't got any hindu people, so I can only eat this food when I go to Scotland!
Finally, on Wednesday 25th August, we'll take a plane back to Alacant from Glasgow Prestwick airport. I can't wait for this travel! I think -and hope- I'll have a very good time.
But please, the only thing I ask for is Mr. Eyjafjallajökul -yes, the Icelandic volcano- to shut up and go to sleep. I don't want the cloud to be there this summer, or I won't be able to fly!! So please...no more eruptions!