Quests of The Traveler

I recently looked through my pictures of my trip to Ireland, Scotland, and England, and in doing so, hindsight kicked in. I started thinking of several pieces of information that, had I started my trip with, would have made it go smoother. So this blog is to relate some of those informative tips.

Roads and Driving

First, the roads are small. As the above picture we took in Ireland can attest, as it is a two way road. Not all roads are as narrow as the above, but especially in the country sides of Ireland and Scotland, there were countless times that we had to pull over to the side, often in thick brush or grass, just to allow other cars, or herds of cattle to pass.

Sometimes I had to even drive backwards for several yards, not having found a turn around point. And let me tell you, when you are not used to driving a stick on the right side of a car, it is not a simple walk in the park.

That leads me to the next piece of knowledge, virtually all of the vehicles that you will rent are manual transmission diesel cars. So if you do not know how to drive stick, then you will run into an issue. I have driven stick for over a decade, and it was still a very different experience driving on the right side of the car.

As for the cars being diesel, that proved to be an unexpected plus, as we circle the entire island of Ireland, northern and southern, and only filled up twice! Which was nice, because unlike the U.S., there was not a gas station in every town, and you would have to drive for miles, in both Ireland and Scotland before you would come across one.

As for city driving, I would rate London and Dublin, the most difficult and frustrating cities. Edinburgh was not very bad, compared to other cities I have driven through. In London, it was the layout of the streets, and the names of the streets that made driving difficult. In Dublin, it was the pedestrians who seemed oblivious to the cross walks and street lights. In Edinburgh, we ran in to a couple of construction patches, but driving went smoother.

And finally, Google maps let us down bad on driving time frames in all three countries. If it says 30 minutes, it was actually 1 hour and 30 minutes. It was a safe bet to add at least an hour to every estimated driving time.

Lodging

Lodging was were we ran into the most unexpected difficulties. In Ireland, with the exception for Dublin and Belfast, most of your lodging options are going to be Bed and Breakfast's. This actually made for a more enjoyable experience, as virtually all B&B's provide a grand breakfast in the morning, and a Irish country feeling to the stay. Also, B&B's are virtually everywhere in Ireland, which makes it easy to spend more of your time site seeing opposed to searching for a place to go.

The problem we ran into, was that every B&B that we stayed at, only accepted cash, and not card. Normally wouldn't be an issue, as you can pull money from an ATM, however, we did not know that ATM's in Ireland, Scotland, and England, all pull from savings, not checking. So when we tried to withdraw funds, we kept getting insufficient funds alerts and being denied, this was because we had transferred most of our money over to checking! Checking is fine for using your cards for card transactions, just not ATM withdrawals. We had to contact our banks back in the U.S. via email, and await a response, which made for a few days of very careful budgeting on our part.

In Scotland, we had planned on it being similar to Ireland, but lodging was much more difficult to come by upon leaving Edinburgh. As a matter of fact, we completely underestimated how wild and underpopulated northern Scotland really was. We drove for almost six hours without encountering another person or inhabited building! It was a beautiful and amazing drive, that showed off the mist filled forests and mountains of Scotland, but it also made lodging difficult to come by. So, unlike Ireland, I would recommend to pre plan and possibly book lodging in Scotland. I will say that in Edinburgh, I wish we had planned more days to visit that city, as we stayed in Stay City Hostel which was amazing, and had a tavern. Sadly we had only booked the one night.

As for England, I can only really only comment on London, as we only left London to visit Stonehenge. lodging was more expensive in London, and B&B's were not as visible, but it was also centrally located to several really interesting sites.

Language

Naturally England was the easiest location for communicating with others, and Scotland was a close second, but we were sadly unprepared for the language barrier we encountered in Ireland. We had no idea that Gaelic was still so openly spoken there. They would also mesh Gaelic and English together. And the farther south you went in Ireland, the more difficult it was to understand the people.

Despite any hiccups we may have run into, I loved our trip. I will leave you with one last piece of advice, and that is to explore off the beaten path. One of my favorite experiences was when we took a detour in Ireland and found ourselves in the back country, where we found an old abbey in the middle of an old cemetery that was so old that the inside of the ruins had been also used to bury the deceased. It had been over grown, and in one spot we even found human remains that had been exposed from time. It was a very powerful place.

After touring Ireland, I traveled to Edinburgh Scotland, and the day I arrived also happened to be my birthday. After just leaving Ireland's varied cities and green country sides, that had been broken up by countless stone walls, I was expecting that Scotland would probably be very similar. I was, however, surprised to find that Scotland held a magic that really called to me personally.
To start, Edinburgh may have been the only city I have ever visited that I would want to live. It was filled with not only a unique personality, but each building and city block whispered stories to all those that past. Edinburgh captured and presented to me everything I expected and hoped to find in a Celtic city.

That first night, I stayed in my second and final hostel in my journey. It had the best accommodations, and had it's own bar/pub that served both good food and drinks for a great prices. After settling into the room, the option to go on a haunted ghost tour presented itself and I could think of no better way to spend my birthday night then ghost hunting in Scotland. The tour went through dark alleys, courtyards, a cemetery, and the grand finally was entering the under ground vaults where they had once been the site of torture chambers for the Scotland witchcraft trials. In one of the rooms an entire family, including little children, had been tortured to death. And whether it was the stuffy humid atmosphere of the subterranean vaults or an otherworldly presence, there was definitely a feeling of unease in those dark spaces.

The next morning was a longer drive up to the highlands of Scotland. The first difference that I noticed about Scotland opposed to Ireland was that instead of rolling green fields and stones walls, Scotland was thick with dense forest and otherworldly fog. It really felt like I was traveling through a land of magic and fantasy, one where at any moment a monstrous troll would simple step out upon the road.

After the long day of driving through the winding mountain roads of north eastern Scotland, my path at last came to the shores of the famed Loch Ness. And upon inspection, it was easy to see how so many myths about creatures living in it's depths could come into being. The calm and clear waters would suddenly develop shadowy bodies that would shortly after appearing vanish. Or suddenly an underwater current would make its way across the Loch, only to fade away like a memory. The embracing mist only added to the mystery of Loch Ness.

Shortly after visiting Loch Ness, I arrived at Eilean Donan Castle, the historical clan seat of my Scottish ancestors, the Mackenzie clan. Unlike many of the castles that we had passed, Eilean Donan had been rebuilt and served as a popular tourist attraction. Throughout the castle and the castle grounds I encountered many seals, badges, and crests telling of my ancestors time there. The castle itself was on the lake itself, and could only be accessed by either boat or the one stone bridge that led to its gates. Visiting Eilean Donan was one of the highlights of my journey through Scotland.

The next part of my Scottish quest was a pilgrimage straight out of a fairy tail. I journeyed the Isle of Skye to find the legendary Fairy Pools of Scotland. They were well hidden, and most roads that led to the region were narrow on placed precariously on cliff edges. Then once I went as far as my car could go. I parked and continued on foot.
Hiking towards the pools, fools you into thinking that they are not even their, as the lay out of the country shows you only a larger stream that weaves in and out of the grand hills, but then, as if you stepped through a veil of glamour, you are surrounded by the Fairy Pools. This was by far the most beautiful, and awe inspiring part of Scotland, and my overall favorite location I visited. The waters were crystal clear, and as cold as ice. In several of the pools there were underwater arches, and unique stone formations. According to the legends the waters were supposed to hold magical properties that were rumored to heal people. So while I was there I could not help but dive in head first to one of the pools and retrieve a few stones. It proved to be both a chilling and empowering experience that I will never forget.