King Arthur, Whiskey and Nessie – Autumn backpacking trip to Scotland

Together with one of my best friends from Germany, I took a six-day backpacking trip to Scotland at the beginning of October 2015. We started our trip in Edinburgh, which was not only amazing because of the weather, but also because of the sights and buildings. As a walkable city, Edinburgh offers some amazing spots that can be covered in just one or two days, depending on your interests. My friend and I loved the old town with its cute, old houses, traditional pubs and Scottish whiskey distilleries. On our first day in Edinburgh, we also climbed King Arthur´s Seat, from which you have a view over the entire city. We were extremely lucky with the weather and enjoyed that day to the fullest. We spent the night in a hostel, which is located above one of the biggest and most traditional pubs in the city – Malone´s Irish Bar. That was quite an experience – awesome food, expensive drinks and live music until 3am. On the next day we had breakfast in a little kitchen/community room in the hostel and spontaneously rounded breakfast off with a little jam session as there was a guitar in the room and my friend happens to be the singer of my band, so that was a pretty cool coincidence. Afterwards we visited Edinburgh Castle, which was interesting, but not a mind-blower. However, the Camera Obscura – World Of Illusions was an unexpected mind-blower – seriously, I´ve rarely seen a museum like this.

In the afternoon, we took a bus to Inverness, which is a city in the north of Scotland. From there we wanted to go to Loch Ness the next day. The bus ride was long and tiring as we got stuck in traffic for a good two hours, so the whole ride took us about 7hrs. Inverness is a somehow cute and charming little town, not too expensive and has pretty much everything you need. The hostel was rather basic, but absolutely fine for just two nights. From Inverness we took a bus to Drumnadrochit, the village, in which you can find the Nessie-exhibition center as well as Nessieland, a Nessie-themend-funpark for kids. We hiked down to Urquhart Castle, which is located directly at the Loch Ness and is famous for its history and being one of the main spots from where Nessie was sighted.

After two nights in Inverness, we left for Glasgow the next day. The bus ride wasn´t too long, so we still had the entire afternoon in Glasgow before getting ready to see Walk Off The Earth´s show at the ABC. I was a little disappointed as the city seems to be pretty Americanized. Obviously, Glasgow is Scotland´s cultural center with a lot of concerts, festivals, all kinds of events, museums, galleries and lots of shopping opportunities. I wouldn´t say that I didn´t like Glasgow at all, I was just expecting a very different kind of city. We visited the Gallery of Modern Art as well as the Lighthouse, did some window-shopping and just enjoyed the lively atmosphere in Glasgow downtown. The concert in the evening was fantastic, though I´d already expected it to be awesome…it was my third Walk Off The Earth concert.

The bus back to Newcastle left pretty early the next day, so we took the bus ride to catch up on some sleep while it was raining cats and dogs outside. When we arrived Geordie-Town, I showed my friend all the main sights, but it was still raining, so we just kept on strolling through the city for a little bit before going back to Sunderland and rounding off the trip with a lovely homemade meal.