London - Scotland trip

It was really a surprise trip to me. I thought that 2007 would be a year without so many traveling activities. I managed to go to Provence-Cote d'Azur-Monaco last May. But after that (even during summer!) I felt that my traveling activities were buried somewhere beneath my working activities. I have admitted myself already that my other big trip this year would only be my going home trip for the year end holiday. But it turned out that I had a chance to go to UK (again!).

I went to London because of a three-day conference last week and I was really happy to be able to stay in West End area where the conference took place. I think I like London more after this trip :-P. The hotel where I stayed was in the Strand area, close to Covent Garden (Covent Garden market was totally cool), Charing Cross, Leicester Square (well I mentioned the three closest Underground stations from my hotel :-P) and Trafalgar Square.




When I knew that I was going to stay in West End area which is surrounded by theaters, I could not resist the temptation to watch one of the performance there and I was so excited when I found that I would be able to see Phantom of the Opera. I booked a seat for Phantom of the Opera in Her Majesty's theater in Haymarket when I was still in Dusseldorf :-P POTO was kind of an obsession for me. I really like its songs for quite a long time. There was some melancholic reason behind it (a ha :-P), my ex-boyfriend gave me Think of Me lyrics when we decided to separate (the lyrics is sooo touching). And actually it was my first introduction with POTO's songs. I like that song so much and I wanted to know more songs from the performance and I ended up liking most of them. So watching POTO is the highlight of my London tour this time. It was just amazing. I love their performance (the songs) and the stage decoration. It left me speechless :-P I just really really like it. No wonder the show is still running after 21 years!! I just wondering how it was when Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford played it for the first time.

After four days and three nights in London (gosh I think I miss walking through the Trafalgar Square from my hotel to the conference venue every day in those three days....it just felt so cool :-P), I flew to Edinburgh for my Scotland trip. I arrived almost midnight because of the flight delay. I was lucky that I booked a hostel close to the airport bus stop, so I do not have to put a lot of effort after quite a long day. I was so impressed with the night view of Edinburgh even when I was on the way from the airport to its city center. Indeed Edinburgh is so beautiful with its old buildings and its castle. I joined a free walking tour for three hours at 11 pm in the next day and it was worth it. Now I know more about it's unique culture and history.





Later in the evening, I met Vivi and we stayed in a very nice B&B that night. Early in the morning (around 7:30am...) we left the B&B already to join a Highland tour. We went to Trossachs National Park, visiting Loch Lomond and other Lochs (I do not remember their names :-P) , Inveraray (a nice small town, famous with its jail, later a friend of mine told me that Inveraray actually is pretty close to Oban, the ferry port for several interesting islands in Scotland), Killin (a scenic village). We also dropped by to Kilchurn castle (to take a pic) , Doune castle ( I managed to buy nice postcards and souvenir there), and Hamish (a cute highland cow :-P). It was an interesting trip, especially because I experienced my first snow this winter during the trip on the highland (and yes it's freezing). Greg, our guide tour is a good entertainer, he talked a lot about Scotland (about how they hate English people hehe....it's funny to hear it from them), about the clans conflicts (now I know that MacDougall does not get along with Campbell), about Scotland's dark history (I heard it before from my walking tour in Edinburgh). I think Scotland is beautiful and Scots have a unique culture and character (and also accent hehe, it's bit difficult to understand their English sometimes).




After the tour, we went to Dundee where Vivi lives now. I took a train to return back to London the next morning. It took around 6 hrs from Dundee to London, but it's nice to be able to catch a glimpse of UK from almost its North to South.
All in all....I am happy finally I made it to Scotland (yeeeee!), also to be able to visit London again for the second time. I was completely exhausted this week and now I have to prepare for my going home trip but it was a nice feeling to be able 'on the road' again.



Singapore, Indonesia, my next destinations...I am coming :-P